It was thirty years ago today

On 25 November 1984, Bob Geldof assembled the very best pop stars the UK and Ireland had to offer, and had them record a song that he and Ultravox frontman Midge Ure had written. The song, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' came in response to Michael Buerk's harrowing reporting – broadcast on 23 October 1984 – of a massive famine in Ethiopia. The original track spent five weeks at number one in the UK charts, sold 3.7 million copies and raised some £8 million. At the time, it was the biggest-selling UK single ever, and held this record for almost 13 years. Such was the impact of the initiative, the song was re-released the following Christmas and still got to number two.

It's fair to say that Band Aid became the blueprint for all the charity ensemble records that followed; where individual singers would sing a single line each (or with one or two others), leading to a tutti chorus. Two re-recordings of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' followed in 1989 and 2004. The new, fourth version, by Band Aid 30, has now reached number one in over 60 countries and is raising millions to fight the Ebola virus.

Many people, myself included, have raised concerns over a song about famine being invoked to raise money for an entirely different cause. The rewritten lyrics were supposed to deal with this issue, though singer Emeli Sandé subsequently very eloquently expressed her own misgivings. I would also argue that the marketing of the single has also been confusing. Downloading a single for 99p means you are paying less for it than anyone did in 1984. Who knows just how many people are therefore following Bob Geldof's mantra of "download, delete, download, again, download more copies for your mates"? It will also be interesting to see how many people buy the physical CD single (which will include the previous incarnations of the song) when it's released on 8 December. Does anyone actually buy CD singles anymore? Would a release in even more formats – say, a 30th anniversary Band Aid 7" or 12" picture disc – encourage more people to buy the song multiple times?

So while this campaign has achieved its aim of raising millions, for me, it is a nostalgic exercise. In 1984, two current pop stars were sufficiently moved to do something entirely of their own volition. No call from the UN was required. This time, the same protagonists were called on again. From a purely musical perspective, I also don't think any reissue of the song can possibly have the same impact or convey the same sense of urgency as the original version did – or as an entirely new song would. Were today's stars not considered capable of writing something in the voice of their own generation in the same way that Bob and Midge did all those years ago?