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Band Aid
Lured by the volcanic enthusiasm of Bob Geldof, George Michael dutifully turned up at Trevor Horn's Sarm West Studios in London to take his place alongside Bono, Sting, Simon Le Bon, Bananarama, Paul Young, Paul Weller and the cream of British pop music. They were each pitching in with a vocal contribution to Band Aid's monumental 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'. Immediately, the standard complaint about British pop music being trivial, juvenile and even on occasion moronic was irrevocably flattened.
The Band Aid single would sell more
than 7 million copies worldwide, providing nearly £7 million for
the Ethiopian appeal as well as alerting previously unaware
western eyes to the magnitude of the famine problem. Indeed, Band
Aid would unleash a mighty wave of famine-relief activity at the
top end of the too-many appeals, apathy would once again settle
over the western world. Nevertheless, the fantastic achievements
of Band Aid cannot be overstated and the British government
should feel ashamed by its refusal to waive the 15 per cent VAT
levy on the single. This was an astonishing display of greed that
temporarily overshadowed the difficult legal situation
surrounding Wham!'s 'Last Christmas'.
By the time it became clear that Band Aid
was a runaway success rather than a mere gesture, George Michael
had already decided to donate his royalties from the million
selling 'Last Christmas' to the same appeal fund. The magnanimous
edge into the farcial a couple of months later when Dick James
Music instigated proceeding against him. They alleged that George
had used a large slice of Barry Manilow's 'Can't Smile Without
You' in writing 'Last Christmas'. This effectively froze the
Ethiopia-bound donation. Thankfully, common sense eventually
prevailed and because of the 'exceptional circumstances', Dick
James dropped the action.
From 'Bare':
"I
felt very uncomfortable int he studio when we did the Band Aid
thing. I was very aware of the prejudice against 'Wham!' in
there. Everybody in there had said things about everyone else in
the press and, to a lot of people, 'Wham!' were laughing stock of
the year. Some of it was jealousy and some of it was a genuine
lack of respect. But the only person who actually came up and had
a go at me was Paul Weller because of something I had said about
Arthur Scargill, the leader of the miners. I just said what I
believed - I think the man's a wanker. Wham! did that benefit for
the families of the miners, not for Scargill.
