Love them or loathe them, it won’t be long until we start hearing Christmas songs being played on a loop literally everywhere.
But despite co-writing one of the UK’s biggest selling Yuletide songs, Sir Bob Geldof has admitted that being unable to escape hearing Do They Know It’s Christmas drives him “fucking mad”.
In an interview with Radio Times, the Boomtown Rats frontman and Mr. Live Aid said he is resigned to hearing the song, which has sold more than three million copies in the UK alone, everywhere he goes.
“The song has a life of its own,” he told the publication. “It raises money every time it’s played in every fucking supermarket. It’s Mistletoe and Wine at vegetables, Slade at baked beans, Wizzard for tea and coffee and Band Aid at the butcher’s counter. I mean… It drives me fucking mad at Christmas. But there it is.”
The charity single, which was released in 1984, has so far raised £200 million to help fight famine in Africa.
“I thought £100,000 would be raised. But it didn’t stop and I thought, ‘Wow, what the hell’s going on?’’’ Bob added.
The musician also voiced his support for today’s activists, admitting if he was younger he would participate in protests organised by Extinction Rebellion.
“The climate activists are 1,000 per cent right,” he said.
“And 1,000 per cent I support them. It’s offensive to destroy Van Gogh’s genius. That achieves nothing. But it was clever to throw it on the glass knowing it wouldn’t be destroyed. That’s just annoying. And annoying is quite good.”
He continued: “I was driving to Hyde Park when the Extinction Rebellion people blocked it and I was fucking furious. But I wasn’t railing against them. I was thinking, ‘If I was 18, would I be there?’ and the answer is yes. Annoying people into policy change may not work. Does that mean I’m against their passion? Their anger? Their bravery? No. Would I put up with it? They’re not killing anyone. Climate change will.”
Read the full interview in Radio Times, out now.