Healthy sales of Band Aid

CDs of the charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' on sale in London. Picture / Reuters

The new Band Aid record, Do They Know It's Christmas?, aimed at raising funds for aid to Africa, was "flying off the shelves", Mercury Records said yesterday, the day the single was released in Britain.

Bob Geldof was behind the original version, released in November 1984 in response to famine in Ethiopia.

That single sold 3.5 million copies.

Bono from U2 is the sole performer to appear on both versions, with Jamelia, Dido, Robbie Williams and Will Young replacing Status Quo, Phil Collins, Sting and Boy George.

Several British record shops opened an hour early, but music lovers began queuing well before that.