1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia out the first airdrops from Hercules C-130s delivering food to the starving people. Other countries including Sweden, East and West Germany, Poland, Canada, United States and the Soviet Union were also involved in the international response. Buerk's news piece on the BBC was seen by Irish singer Bob Geldof, who quickly organised the charity supergroup Band Aid, primarily made up of the biggest British and Irish artists of the era. Their single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?", was released on 3 December 1984 and became Britain's best-selling single within a few weeks, eventually selling 3.69 million copies domestically. It raised
Band Aid (band) released the album "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records", as well as an EP entitled "We Are the World", jointly recorded with US band A State of Mind, both of which were intended as anti-capitalist critiques of the Band Aid/Live Aid phenomenon. They argued that the record was primarily a cosmetic spectacle, designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger. In a 1985 "Time Out" interview, Morrissey gave his views about the song: 'I'm not afraid to say that I think Band Aid was diabolical. Or to say that I think Bob Geldof is a