Bob Geldof has reunited with the other egomaniac Bono to do yet another update to Band Aid. The song remains touching, it does have a touch of sadness but then again, anyone with half a brain knows the reality of what is going on in the horn of Africa. My other peeve is the primary movers’ involvement, namely Bono. Sure, the West deserves to be ashamed of being a major player in the civil wars around there in the Eighties. Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea were another place the West fought the Soviet Union via proxy wars. On the other hand, Bono and his fellow bandmates in U2 are hypocritical, full-of-shit assholes who hide their vast fortunes in tax shelters when they could pony up more to help the poor.
However, I want to turn the clock back 30 years ago. Band Aid was a nice idea initially. Then it morphed into USA for Africa (filled with America’s version of Bonos), Hearing Aid (the comical Metal one), Canadian Lights (in French and English) and culminating with the Live Aid concerts. The latter did give us the return of Queen and a pseudo Led Zeppelin reunion. The more devastating news was when Spin revealed how the African warlords stole all the supplies Live Aid bought. Geldof and Bono should’ve been more realistic and truthful by telling all the donators, “Hey, before we can help the starving, we need to purchase an army to protect the goods from these people’s own governments and insurgencies.” Sam Kinnison proposed a better solution. “Don’t send these people food. Send them U-Hauls and have them move to where the f***in’ food is.”
Band Aid remains a positive memory for the UK lineup (U2 aren’t Irish, they’re Orangemen) was a who’s who of early Eighties Pop/New Wave stars with Americans Jody Watley and Kool & the Gang being present. Contrary to the Classic Rock fanatics, a good chunk of these artists are still active: Duran Duran, Banarama (minus one member), Boy George, Midge Ure (formerly of Ultravox), Bob Geldof (formerly of the Boomtown Rats), Kool & the Gang (minus some) and some you may have heard of…David Bowie, Phil Collins, Sting and Paul McCartney. No matter, the Classic Rock jags rolled their eyes the same way I’m doing over the BA30 lineup: Sam Smith? One Direction? Chris Martin of Coldplay? OK, I see Underworld, Seal and Ellie Goulding so it’s not a complete wash other than stupid lyrical changes. I preferred Band Aid 20 more because it had Joss Stone, Keane, Snow Patrol and Travis.
Band Aid was also a weird, pleasant aberration at the time. Remember, America just re-elected St. Reagan and the UK gave Battleaxe Thatcher another majority after the Malvinas Distraction a year earlier. The English-speaking world really didn’t give a damn about other people’s suffering. Their collective leadership was too busy exaggerating the Soviet threat while promoting Ayn Randian/Jack Welchian values at home, on top of the lies about how the economies were improving.