Britain's music business amassed at a London studio yesterday for the re-recording of legendary charity record 'Do They Know It's Christmas' - this time designed to raise funds to help tackle the famine crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
After a successful day Bob Geldof told reporters the Band Aid 20 project was "firing the starting pistol" to raise funds and awareness for Africa, adding: "It takes me back to another nice morning 20 years ago. It doesn't feel the same because I didn't know what to anticipate before with all the mayhem and chaos. It would be nice to get the same amount of chaos but now people understand clearly what they're doing and I think that's the difference."
On the day the full Band Aid 2004 line up included: Bono, Daniel Bedingfield, Natasha Bedingfield, Turin Brakes, The Thrills, Will Young, Katie Melua, Busted, Joss Stone, Lemar, Jamelia, Keane, Beverley Knight, The Darkness, Ms Dynamite, Snow Patrol, Sugababes, Travis, Rachel Stevens, Estelle, Feeder, The Divine Comedy, Moloko, Shaznay Lewis, Morcheeba, Ash and, of course, Band Aid founders Bob Geldof and Midge Ure.
In addition Robbie Williams, Dido, Thom Yorke, Dizzee Rascal and Chris Martin had all provided pre-recorded vocals to be included in the final track, Paul McCartney supplied pre-recorded bass, while Supergrass' Danny Goffey was on hand to play drums. And as if that wasn't enough, Damon Albarn showed up to serve tea.
If all goes to plan, the charity record will get its first UK radio play tomorrow, with the CD released in the stores by 29 Nov. UK retailers Woolworths and Virgin Megastores have confirmed they will hand their cut of any sales of the single over to the Band Aid trust, while British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown last week confirmed he would give the charity back all the tax raised on sales of the record.
Musically, those involved described the sound of the new version of the single as "very now".