As widely announced, this December 2014 there will be a Band
Aid song released in support of the people affected by the Ebola virus which is killing thousands of human beings in Africa. These poor people must be supported in any way we can, they
are physically dying down there and we should all be opening our wallets, buy
a copy of the song and support the cause. The artists singing the song are the
best in the planet, most of them are new generation and some are old generation
and it is a great thing they have managed to combine together and sing for
charity.
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| Band Aid 2014, photo found surfing the web, I don not own the copyrights |
Here is the full list of them:
Organisers and producers:
Bob Geldof – organiser
Midge Ure – organiser
Paul Epworth – producer
Instruments:
Milan Neil Amin-Smith (from Clean Bandit) – violin
Grace Chatto (from Clean Bandit) – cello
Roger Taylor (from Queen) – drums
Vocals:
Bastille
Bono (from U2)
Clean Bandit
Alfie Deyes
Disclosure
Paloma Faith
Guy Garvey (from Elbow)
Ellie Goulding
Nick Grimshaw
Angélique Kidjo
Chris Martin (from Coldplay)
Olly Murs
Sinéad O'Connor
One Direction
Rita Ora
Emeli Sandé
Seal
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Joe Sugg
Zoe Sugg
Underworld
Jessie Ware
Thank you guys, but.
But.
But.
But.
When I see artists doing charity work I always am a but
suspicious, many times in the past it seemed to me they were doing charity
things just to get free media exposure, raise their profiles and by
"donating" some of their spare time make us open our wallets. I have
so searched the web and checked how much these artists are worth, here is the
link I have used starting with Bono
http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/bono-net-worth/
600 million. And then you read this article, and think about
things
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/u2-frontman-bonos-tax-avoidance-depriving-poor-28509721.html
Sending money oversea is not just a musician thing, it is a
common practice used by UK millionaires in general
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161394/The-1-tax-haven-Comedian-Jimmy-Carr-3-3m-Jersey-avoidance-scheme.html
No much to laugh about, the taxes we pay support people in the UK providing services like Hospitals, Fire Services, Schools and
Security Forces, but the matter doesn't seem to bother these multimillionaires.
http://www.channel4.com/news/tax-avoidance-george-michael-melua-arctic-monkeys-liberty
But let's go straight to my point.
I do spend lots of my spare time and money out of my pocket
to fundraise for our organization called Luca Loves Life Appeal
https://en-gb.facebook.com/LucaLovesLifeAppeal
which helps funding various charities in support of
terminally ill children in UK and worldwide, I don't want anything back in
exchange for that, I do it because it is something I really believe in, Luca
was my son. I fundraise through music, on a much lower level than Band Aid,
let's say if I play a gig I may raise 80/100 pounds just to give you an idea.
Talking about the finished product, probably the best song I have ever done is
called My Queen, it was released the 11/11/2014 on what it should have been
Luca's 4th birthday. The cost of this production was less than 100 pounds, it
was 100% financed by myself and 100% of the earnings including the earnings
from the copyrights go to Luca Loves Life Appeal in help of terminally ill
children and families in UK and worldwide when we can.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1HYVsCWaTkE
This is the link for the iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/antonello-atzori/id647989176
For us "normal" people, for us that live ordinary
lives doing ordinary jobs, like I am a self-employed gardener and week end
restaurant worker while my wife is a teacher, for us it is very very hard to
raise funds, we live normal lives and don't earn mega bucks at all and our
circle of friends and family are on the same boat but there is something I
would like you to know about fundraising and it is how much businesses can help
you. Last year a family friend called Julie decided to run a half marathon in
Ealing, London, in order to raise money for our beloved charity called Acorns
which supports terminally ill children and families across the region where we
live in the West Midlands. The company she works for offered her something amazing;
they offered to match up any money she would have fundraised, how good is
that? She was sponsored by friends and family and raised an outstanding 1.500 pounds;
her company matched that amount up which translates into a real 3.000 pounds given
to Acorns in memory of Luca. To raise 3.000 pounds is a massive achievement for
a single person but it is nothing if you compare it to Bob Geldof raising 1
million pounds just by talking 5 minutes when he appeared on the XFactor 2014 couple of days ago,
3.000 pounds is what probably a Band Aid singer spends individually on a
Saturday night round of aperitifs before going out, I am saying that just to
wind them up.
But you that are reading this post, you must know that a
worldwide known singer or band is exactly the same thing as a worldwide known
business.
Now, to make me believe that this year's singers and
producers of the Band Aid song are genuinely into charity work I would like the
business/singers to do what Julie's company did, I would like to see them match
up the earnings from selling the Band Aid song by financing out of their own
pocket with declared earnings whatever money the song will make, if it produces
sales for 10 million pounds they should match that up, what do you think? I am
sure 10 million pounds is nothing to share between Bono, Bob Geldof, One
Direction, Rita Ora etc.. It works out 10 million pounds divided 23 millionaires
is less than half a million per person, what difference would it make to a
multimillionaire? Not much and it helps to spread the wealth. If this was the
case, if they had to match the earnings of the Aid Song how many artists do you
think will be singing in it? Not sure, what do you think? It may be none.
So, after a year in which we had to listen on every radio
station songs from Bono, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora etc. on a loop,
finally arrived Christmas to give us a break but ooooppppssssss.. We will have
to listen to Bono, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and so on singing all
together, what a bonus.
The really good thing about it is that at least this song
will help people who suffer and I love that. I will buy the song because it goes to a very good cause but I would like the singers and producers
of this year's Band Aid Song to spread their wealth and match up the earnings
otherwise I will be convinced to think the song is just a marketing move for
them all to look good in front of the mass, to get a bit of media exposure and
involvement into charity work, if they want to prove my point wrong they must
match up the earnings from the sales of the song with their own UK tax declared money, or what I am saying is right, they are just doing it for their careers
and profiles but they don't really care about Ebola and its victims, which is a
nasty thought and we "normal"
people will be paying to help the Ebola victims while the singers will just get
the credits. Fair isn't it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc-9wGK87k8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc-9wGK87k8
There are more considerations to highlight, first is the
fact that Bob Geldof is shaming Adele for not taking part of it and making her
sound like a heartless woman because she is not helping the Band Aid, Geldof is
totally wrong and Adele silently and without appearing to any TV show or else
has since made a donation out of her own pocket to Oxfam. She is a real, true
star which shouldn't be bullied the way she has been because she is ignoring a
man snapping his fingers.
Second consideration is that there are 20.000 people
involved in the Ebola crisis in Africa since March, from Doctors to Security
Forces, part of which we are already funding with our tax money, we will never
know the majority of these workers but they don't need a gang of pop stars to give up a
couple of hours of their spare time to sing a song and last thing is YES,
Africans do know when Christmas time comes (there are more than 500 million
Christians down there).
The Band Aid would have looked much more credible if at
least the singers sat down together, took time off work and wrote a new song
because this year 2014 is just a karaoke sang by lucky professionals, we all listened to the original version for the past 30 years every Christmas, some of
you may still remember Geldof's words "Give us your f***ing
money", it worked at that time but back then it was an original song sang by
passionate people, this 2014 edition has not passion whatsoever, just some
dressed up singers (till contract lasts) showing off. This song is like a soup which has been warmed up too many
times but changing the chefs is not going to make it taste the same again and
it doesn't seem to me the majority of people on the Gang Aid are that bothered about Ebola, what do
you think?
Talking to my wife she said to me I shouldn't feel that I must buy the song, she reminded me that we have a reasonably big monthly direct debit setup with the Red Cross and they are there to help, not only they help the Ebola sufferers but they help for many other disasters anywhere in the world, so by the time I have finished writing this post I may have changed my mind regarding buying the song; do I really want to send this bunch of multi-millionaires living in castles to the altar of saviors of humanity? No.
I so have started to think it would probably be better to make this song a flop purely to raise a point and stop the West describe Africa like a land of pain, suffering and death. Enough is enough.
I so have started to think it would probably be better to make this song a flop purely to raise a point and stop the West describe Africa like a land of pain, suffering and death. Enough is enough.
Merry Christmas dear African brothers and sisters, may God
bless you all.
Thank you for reading and please share if you care.
Antonello Atzori
The following links have been added the 03/12/2014
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