I'm not familiar with Band Aid II (1989) or Band Aid 30 (2014), so can't comment on those. Band Aid (1984 original) and Band Aid 20 (2014 remake) are exactly the same song, except the remake has a little rap section in the middle.
To my mind, the differences are:
1. Most of the artists who appeared on first one had quite long lasting fame, and seem to have been rewarded with longevity. Only two (George Michael and Rick Parfitt) fell in the great celebrity cull of 2016.
Most of those who appeared on the remake only had short lived musical careers. The only one who is still active and well known is Chris Martin out of Coldplay. Bono doesn't count; And & Dec and Cat Deeley are still going, but they are TV presenters, not musicians. What happened to the rest?
Anthony McPartlin (Ant & Dec)
Declan Donnelly (Ant & Dec)
Tim Wheeler (Ash)
Daniel Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield
Busted
Cat Deeley
Dido
Dizzee Rascal
Ms Dynamite
Skye Edwards (Morcheeba)
Estelle
Feeder
Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy)
Justin Hawkins (The Darkness)
Jamelia
Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane)
Beverley Knight
Lemar
Shaznay Lewis (All Saints)
Katie Melua
Róisín Murphy (Moloko)
Snow Patrol
Rachel Stevens
Robbie Williams
Joss Stone
Sugababes
The Thrills
Turin Brakes
Will Young
Russell Mael (Sparks)
Fran Healy (Travis)
2. Musically, the first one is just droning over-layered synthesiser sludge, but the drumming (Phil Collins) is glorious and uplifting all the way through. Musically, the remake is much crisper and well-defined: just piano, acoustic guitar and some nifty guitar solos, but the drumming is really pedestrian and there's a weird bit at the end where they are just bashing some cowbells and hitting sticks together. A pity we can't edit out the rap section (well meant, but jars) and the drumming from the remake and splice Phil Collins' drums in instead.
Friday, 21 December 2018
Band Aid (1984) vs Band Aid 20
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4 comments:
It has been said that the remakes were at the instigation of Bob Geldoff, who discovered he could retain what little fame he had from the Boomtown Rats by repeating the, mainly Midge Ure directed, original song.
SOT, when he became involved in Live Aid, he altered the running list of the Boomtown Rats and Ultravox, so that he appeared just after Prince Charles turned up, causing Ultravox to appear much earlier.
Despite the huge amounts of financial aid to African charities raised through Band Aid and Live Aid, Geldoff remains what many in show business consider to be a loathsome, self centered, egotistical creature.
PS, ta for geldof examples, confirms what we all thought anyway.
Generally sound, although I would add that some of the 1984 group split up and reformed again eg. Spandau Ballet, Bananarama, Heaven 17.
Duran Duran never completely split up, but their lineup has changed and they were written off by early 1990s but have made a comeback somewhat.
Most of the longevity of these bands stems from the long term support of 1980s teenagers who are now middle-aged and paying to see them live which keeps the bills paid for the artists. We won't see that for the TV presenters of course.
RT, yes, many of the 1984 contingent are not such big draws now, but most of them kept going for another decade or two (or are still active now). Most of the 2004 contingent had faded to nothing within four or five years.
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