Bob Geldof responds to Ed Sheeran’s Band Aid comments: “This little pop song has kept millions of people alive”

nme.com:

Bob Geldof has responded to Ed Sheeran’s recent comments about Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, asserting that it has “kept millions of people alive”.The former Boomtown Rats frontman conceived of the original 1984 charity single alongside Ultravox’s Midge Ure, seeking to raise money for the Ethiopian famine.

The track has been remade numerous times since, with a 40th anniversary ‘Ultimate Mix’ being overseen this month by producer Trevor Horn.Sheeran lent his vocals to the 2014 incarnation of the song, but earlier this week he revealed that despite being included in the new version, he had not been asked for his permission, and if he had been, he would have respectfully declined.“A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg,” Sheeran wrote in an Instagram Story on Tuesday (November 19). “This is just my personal stance, I’m hoping it’s a forward-looking one.

Love to all x.”Now, Geldof has had his say on Sheeran’s stance on the song, strongly defending its legacy.“This little pop song has kept millions of people alive,” he told the Sunday Times. “Why would Band Aid scrap feeding thousands of children dependent on us for a meal?

Why not keep doing that? Because of an abstract wealthy-world argument, regardless of its legitimacy?”“No abstract theory regardless of how sincerely held should impede or distract from that hideous, concrete real-world reality,” he added. “There are 600 million hungry people in the world — 300 million are in Africa.