Band Aid Liverpool to help the homeless this Christmas

Dozens of Liverpool musicians have banded together to recreate the famous Band Aid Christmas hit for charity.

Band Aid Liverpool hopes to raise much-needed funds for Shelter to help homeless people in the city.

Do They Know It’s Christmas is released now.

The recording, which has been given the backing of Midge Ure and Sir Bob Geldof, comes after an idea by Mersey Beatles’ keyboard player Tony Cook.

He and the band’s drummer Brian Ambrose enlisted more than 70 Merseyside musicians to perform as part of the new track which has some of the original lyrics tweaked to give it an extra Liverpool meaning.

Those on the record include Billy Kinsley, Gary Murphy, Paul Kappa, Phil Jones, Asa Murphy, Steve Charles, Jay Murray, Rosalie Galvin, Dani Graham and The Hummingbirds.

Each performer recorded their vocals and/or instrumental section separately at home and the individual contributions where edited together by Ambrose, along with a special music video.

Tony Cook said: “It’s been a long but utterly brilliant road for me and Brian to get to this point and we couldn't be happier that the single is being released.

Above: Tony Cook and Brian Ambrose

“Like many musicians we’ve not played a gig since February due to the pandemic. At the end of August, I had this mad dream about being on stage with loads of musicians from Liverpool and it got me thinking ‘what if that could come true?’ “I developed the idea and, although there was no way we could all physically play together on stage due to lockdown, we’ve done the next best thing and come together virtually to re-create a classic song with a timeless message.”

He added: “Shelter’s amazing work with the homeless and those struggling with poor housing inspired me. They say everyone’s only two pay cheques away from being homeless and that’s especially true in my own industry – we’ve been devastated.”

Band Aid Liverpool’s Do They Know It’s Christmas is available on all platforms. The video is going out on social media and YouTube.