Bob Geldof hints at 40th anniversary release of Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?'

Bob Geldof has hinted at the release of a 40th anniversary version of Band Aid’s iconic song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’

The announcement comes 40 years after The Boomtown Rats’ frontman and Ultravox’s Midge Ure collaborated for the charity song, which became the 1984’s Official Christmas Number 1 single and raised millions for the famine relief effort in Ethiopia.

This would mark the fourth re-release of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ The song was rerecorded for the first time in 1989 with a new line-up under Band Aid II, and has been celebrated every decade since its original release, under Band Aid 20 in 2004 and Band Aid 30 in 2014.

Geldof has shared his ambition to release a Band Aid 40 supercut, telling The Canadian Press that he wanted to: "maybe put Harry Styles beside a young Bono," adding that "just sonically, you mess up these generations all in one take."

He also said that he approached BRIT Award-winning producer Trevor Horn to work on a new version of the song.

"If it works, it works,” Geldof said. “If it doesn't, it doesn't. But it's fascinating unto itself, from our perspective."

All versions of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ since its original release have hit no.1 on the Official Singles Chart.