Musician and philanthropist Bob Geldof has announced he is re-recording a charity single to help raise funds to stem the Ebola crisis.
It has been 30 years since Geldof recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas? with a host of celebrities to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Artists including One Direction, Bono and Chris Martin are among those lined up to appear on the fourth incarnation of the song, which became one of the world’s biggest-selling singles ever after its release in 1984.
Speaking in London, Geldof said the project would bring together three generations of musicians.
“We set about calling around to see if there was an appetite for this generation and it turned out there was. Then we called up some giants of the past and our own contemporaries and they said they would come again to the party,” he said.
“This is a particularly pernicious illness because it renders humans untouchable and that is sickening,” Geldof said of the Ebola virus.
“Mothers can’t comfort their children in their dying hours. Lovers can’t cradle each other. Wives can’t hold their husbands’ hands. People are chased down the streets because of it – and it could come our way.”
The Irish rocker-turned-activist said he had been spurred into action not out of nostalgia but by a call from the United Nations three weeks ago.
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa has claimed almost 5,000 lives, according to the World Health Organisation, almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, while the number of cases registered worldwide has soared to more than 13,000.
Artists already signed up for the single include Bastille, U2 frontman Bono, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, Ed Sheeran, Elbow, Ellie Goulding, Emeli Sande, Foals, One Direction, Paloma Faith, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Sinead O’Connor and Underworld.
The vocals will be recorded on Saturday at Sarm Studios in west London, just as on the original recording.
The single will be available for download on November 17, with physical copies three weeks later.
Geldof said there would also be French, German and US versions featuring artists from those countries.
AFP/ABC