A seminal moment in rock history was made in 1984, when a failed Irish pop star hit upon the idea that he could raise money for charity by enlisting the services a bunch of overpaid egotistic pop stars. His brilliant idea was not that each of them would contribute a large sum from the enormous amount of money that hadn't earned with their appalling pap "music", but that they would get to do a single and a big concert in which they could show off, and at the same time get Joe Public to put his hand in his pocket instead. His genius meant that such people as Phil Collins and Sting would get an ego boosting showcase for their imagined talents, without ever having to contribute a penny from their own massive fortunes.
This year we're all going to be subjected to another remake of the Band Aid single, with the current crop of publicity hungry popsters. This includes the fat, talentless, not quite good enough to be a Butlins' red-coat, Robbie Williams who stands alongside Robson Green as a textbook example of how vast amounts of money and make-up are unable to turn an ordinary bloke into a star. It is also rumoured that queen of bland and utterly unremarkable and soulless dirge, Dido, will be gracing the single with her unique lack of charisma, charm and credibilty. The biggest fuss, however is being made about the fact that Blur and Oasis will both be appearing on the record.
These last two are supposed to have been bitter rivals in the mid-nineties. In reality, the two bands were never going to be competing for the same record buyers. Blur's fans would have been mostly composed of middle-class Art School boys, while Oasis' fanbase was drawn from people who had grown up listening to meritless, artless dirge like Howard Jones, ABC and Haircut 100 and were easily fooled into thinking Oasis were a rock-n-roll band. Nearly ten years on we can look back and laugh, because pretend Children's bands like Busted make Oasis look like a credible rock act, even though Noel has still not quite learned to play the guitar.