UKC

The new band aid single. (I apologise for putting it in the culture bunker)

The original was ok I guess, and quite a novelty at the time. But this latest incarnation is a festering boil that needs lancing.

ok, rant over... what do you think of it?

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Rant all you want to. i feel your pain, heard abour 45 seconds of it and binned the radio station. just re-release the damned original.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Absolute self serving bunch of shits !

That about sums it up for me .

For a much better rant than mine just Google band-aid-30-love-can-kill-you and check out the Blogpost.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Geldoff and Bono are a pair of twots. Here's some more reasons to hate them

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11236278/Why-Adele-was-righ...

In reply to Tony the Blade:

I find it interesting to listen to how vocal styles have changed since the last one. Much more straightforward vocals on the originals. Now singing seems to be a bit more 'Mariah Carey'.

Also I read the telegraph article in the link, and got the impression that Sir Bob slagged Adele off for not appearing. Then I watched the video of his interview and he sounded completely fine with it and anyone who wasn't into the Band Aid thing. Amazing the different slant, given that the video was included in the article.

As for the song... no not my thing. Only nostalgia has made me accept the original. And some of the later versions were just as dire.

In reply to Oldsign:

Andy Kershaw's autobiography was quite illuminating on Geldof. When Kershaw was entertainments secretary at Leeds Poly, apparently Geldof went apeshit because Kershaw had advertised an upcoming Clash gig as the best band in the world and not the boomtown rats. Fair to say that Kershaw was not impressed by his antics....

In reply to Tony the Blade:
Geldof and Bono have fetishised poverty. Poverty is not an African thing. Africa is not a country.

They both avoid tax. Aggressive tax avoidance pushes the tax burden on to the those who cannot afford accountants to formulate creative tax avoidance schemes. With a diminished tax base, and in times of austerity when tax income is falling, the government thus has to make cuts. Cuts fall on the poorest and most vulnerable. Cuts disproportionately affect the poor.

Geldof was on R4 asking for more British doctors, nurses, NGO vounteers and soldiers to be sent to help. WE paid for these people to be educated (at least up until secondary school, if not beyond). WE pay for soldiers to be trained. When these people were sick the NHS was there for them. WE paid for the NHS.

Then there is the infrastructure we pay for in this country that creates conditions for business to thrive. Economic ecosystems are complex and require money to flow through them and nourish them; not to sit in a bank account offshore. This economic activity is vital to allow us as a nation to produce the kinds of people that chose to go off and help those in need.

Tax avoidance impacts all these things.

So in effect we ARE paying to tackle Ebola in Africa and our money is doing this in an indirect but VERY effective way. But paying tax is not a 'trophy' event. It doesn't fan the ego. It is not sexy.

Oh yeah, and the song is patronising and re-enforces negative stereotypes. It also reduces a complex issue of disease control down to a single simplistic dimension with a simple solution; 'buy this record'.

There is a song produced by African muscicians that has a similar goal and there are also various other 'Ebola' charities you can donate to directly if you want.

The song.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/29/african-musicians...

The message to Geldof and Bono, "Back off".
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/11/bob-geldof-ebola-africa-band-a...

In reply to Shani:

Very well put.

M

In reply to Shani:

Thanks for posting the Al Jazeera article - it's interesting, with a number of Africans talking about Geldof, and about Africa.

In reply to abseil:

Another excellent piece on this BandAid shitefest:

http://africasacountry.com/bob-geldof-doesnt-need-to-do-a-bandaid30-for-ebo...

In reply to Bellie:

Nowadays, each artist has to try and stand out from the 30 other sods singing along

In reply to Tony the Blade:
Cold rat piss, old cold rat piss at that...

In reply to Tony the Blade:

I'd have much preferred it if they'd made a rousing cover of McCartneys Frog Chorus. It's particularly apt with it's message of solidarity contained in the line "We all stand together!". One Direction could have taken it in turns to provide the ribbit noises. It would have been beautiful.

In reply to Shani:



Thanks for that too - another very good link.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

No, I thought the original was rotten too. It had to be rotten, or we might have bought it for the wrong reasons

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I notice #BandAid30 is no longer trending on Twitter and suspect that this is because of a technical intervention to suppress the bad publicity and negativity surrounding Bono and Geldof's narcissitic, hyprocritical, patronising and inherently damaging intervention in the tackling of Ebola.

In reply to Shani:


Hmm. Sounds like you want an argument. But to me, they're just people whom you don't like, who are doing what they can to fight a really serious problem.

Good for them. And down with negativity. I am very negative about negativity...

In reply to Tim Chappell:

You mean doing their day job without pay but with massive publicity whilst patronising west africans? Maybe you mean actually paying their taxes? Maybe you mean giving a large percentage of their vast income to chairtes that are doing something about it? Or by investing in the countires affected in order to help them help themselves?

In reply to Tony the Blade:

It could be worse

'E's a good, e's a good
Eeeesabola virus good

In reply to Shani:

Yours is a post that makes me believe that UKC can actually perform a useful function.

My thanks for your informed and well articulated thoughts.

In reply to Tim Chappell:


Tim, Not sure that is true. Most of the people involved in the 'song' could actually make direct contribution of cash, quite a lot of cash I'd have thought, to NGO's actually currently involved in this health issue.

I'm unclear about exactly where the funds from this venture go. Medecins sans Frontiers would be a good recipient I'd have thought. They've actually been out there doing things for a long time now unlike the johnny-come-latelys of the pop world. 'Give us your f*ckin' money' and we will put it where we decide is best?

And I did think the interview where Geldof was almost suggesting that this money was to prevent this 'african disease' from coming here was pretty grim.

Cheers.

In reply to andyathome:

Those who are lining up to criticise them are sounding very bitter and bilious and cynical to me. They seem pretty filled with hatred for what looks like a well-intentioned initiative.

I wonder where this hatred is coming from.

I wonder what these critics are doing *themselves* about the problems that Band Aid redux is trying to address.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I agree - it's one thing saying the song's a bit crap, or that Bono could pay his tax, but ultimately they are people in a position to raise a lot of money for a cause that needs it, and they are doing something about it. It can only help. I'm sure that they've done more to help the cause than anyone who has contributed to this thread.

The criticism of what they've done is yet another example of people searching for things to be professionally offended by.

In reply to Malcolm Tucker's Sweary Aunt:


The narrative set up by Geldof/Bono & Band Aid are extremely damaging to Africa - an opinion articulated widely through Africa and an argument aired in their own media.

Bono and Geldof have both opined that they want to abolish poverty but their acts of aggressive tax avoidance erode the tax base. Governments have to make cuts to balance the books - cuts which often fall on the most vulnerable whose lives are most sensitive to changes in income. They are creating the very conditions of poverty they seek to battle against.


....is one opinion. Another opinion is that it is a coherent argument made by Africans who are unhappy at being patronised by the West (and the damage this simplistic narrative causes), and, those who understand the damaging effect of aggressive tax evasion on society.

Play the ball, not just the man.