It’s been 30 years now since the original song was written and I came across the recent remake which I have no opinion on, but I ended up on YouTube where I watched a 30 minute documentary of the original song and the making of it in the studio back in 1984.
At one point, Bob Geldof says he called Sting, Bono and every other UK pop star he could think of and asked them to participate in creating this song for charity. He said that every person he asked was very supportive and enthusiastic, canceling tour dates and rearranged appointments so they could be there in person to help sing on this song.
Some of the pop artists could not make it, but sent large donations for the cause or contributed on other ways. Like, for example they said The Edge was supposed to play guitar, but fell sick with a kidney infection and couldn’t be there.
The part I found interesting was Geldof said out of every artist he asked, two never got back to him, never returned calls and basically ignored him. Of course, he never mentioned who it was.
I was wracking my brain thinking, who was popular in 1984 in the pop-rock genre in the UK who were not a part of this song?
I kept seeing snippets of Paula Yates in the film and thought of Michael Hutchence and INX, but they were Aussies, correct? Was it only UK artists who participated?
So, just wondering who would’ve most likely been the famous pop-rock artist(s) who had their peak in the 80’s, most likely to snub this attempt at raising money to ease hunger?