Sir Bob Geldof has admitted he isn’t a fan of his Band Aid Christmas song
(Picture: Getty Images)Sir Bob Geldof has admitted that he gets annoyed every time his Band Aid Christmas song gets replayed around the holiday season.
The Boomtown Rats frontman, 71, co-wrote 1984 single Do They Know It’s Christmas in effort to fight famine in Africa, and it has gone on to become one of the UK’s most successful Yuletide songs, selling over three million copies.
With Christmas just around the corner, festive playlists are due to be unleashed in stores and supermarkets in mere days, and among these will no doubt be Sir Bob’s famous charity track.
The Live Aid founder can’t seem to avoid hearing the song wherever he goes — particularly around this time of year — and has confessed it drives him “f***ing mad”, all these decades later.
“The song has a life of its own,” Sir Bob told the Radio Times.
“It raises money every time it’s played in every fucking supermarket. It’s Mistletoe and Wine at vegetables, Slade at baked beans, Wizzard for tea and coffee and Band Aid at the butcher’s counter.
“I mean… It drives me f***ing mad at Christmas. But there it is.”
The charity single has raised £200 million, put towards the famine crisis in Africa, surpassing Geldof’s original fundraising aim exponentially.
“I thought £100,000 would be raised,” Sir Bob said.
“But it didn’t stop and I thought, ‘Wow, what the hell’s going on?’’’
Along with being an advocate for human rights, Sir Bob expressed his support for environmental justices and the activists today fighting for these, like protest group Extinction Rebellion.
“The climate activists are 1,000 per cent right,” he said.
“And 1,000 per cent I support them. It’s offensive to destroy Van Gogh’s genius. That achieves nothing. But it was clever to throw it on the glass knowing it wouldn’t be destroyed. That’s just annoying. And annoying is quite good.”
Sir Bob continued: “I was driving to Hyde Park when the Extinction Rebellion people blocked it and I was f***ing furious. But I wasn’t railing against them. I was thinking, ‘If I was 18, would I be there?’ and the answer is yes.
“Annoying people into policy change may not work. Does that mean I’m against their passion? Their anger? Their bravery? No. Would I put up with it? They’re not killing anyone. Climate change will.”
