New Band Aid single goes on sale

The new Band Aid single went on sale today and was expected to storm into the charts at number one.

HMV was opening its flagship London store on Oxford Street an hour early at 8am so that people could grab a copy of Do They Know It’s Christmas on the way to work.

Record stores have predicted massive sales for the track, which is to raise money for the Darfur region of Sudan, but fans were not exactly queuing up in the early hours of this morning.

The 2004 remake is already tipped to be the Christmas number one and has been dubbed the biggest release since Elton John’s Candle In The Wind in 1997, made in memory of Princess Diana.

The charity single is being sold almost 20 years to the day since Band Aid first recorded the song in November 1984.

The original was the brainchild of Bob Geldof, who had the idea after watching a heart-rending BBC report about famine in Ethiopia.

It went on to sell three and a half million copies – a massive 750,000 in the first week – and raised £8m (€11.4m) for charities.

It is hoped the 2004 version will do the same and once again Geldof has gathered the stars of the day to perform on the track.

Replacing the likes of Status Quo, Phil Collins, Sting and Boy George are Jamelia, Dido, Robbie Williams and Will Young.

Bono is the only member of the original cast to sing on the new version.