Band Aid 30 - Do They Know It's Christmas

The third remake of the 1984 charity single Do They Know It's Christmas debuted on British television last night. Via the Guardian:

The more cynical might suggest that in the age of twitchforkings and twitterstorms, when it sometimes seems that no pop cultural event can pass without someone somewhere forensically examining it in the hope of find something they can take offence at, might account for the fact that the song’s lyrics have been rewritten, not merely to accommodate the Ebola epidemic but also to remove the kind of lyrics that people might describe as problematic: “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” is gone. The generalisation that nothing ever grows in Africa has likewise vanished. Meanwhile, anyone keen to sound the clanging chimes of doom for pop music – or at the very least, looking for evidence of its waning grip on teenagers’ imaginations – might note that three of the vocalists aren’t actually musicians. They are “internet personalities” Zoe “Zoella” Sugg, her brother Joe “Thatcherjoe” Sugg and Alfie Deyes, the last justly famous as joint holder of the world record for the most number of bangles put on by two people in 30 seconds.

The original version is one of the top twenty greatest selling singles in history. The 1989 version (produced by disco kingpins Stock, Aitken & Waterman) and the 2004 version both reached #1 on the British pop chart.

Sinead O'Connor - Take Me To Church

That's a different look for her. From her coming tenth album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss. From the chorus: "Take to me church / I've done so many bad things that hurt /  Get me to church / But not the ones that hurt / Cause that ain't the truth / And that's not what it's worth." I dig this.

Quote Of The Day - Sinead O'Connor

"I’ve been repeatedly asked will I ‘do anal sex’. Let me make it very clear. Any man I contemplate has to be into anal sex. It was a family paper so they wudnt have printed it but let me now take time to make VERY clear that yes I ‘do anal’ and in fact I would be deeply unhappy if ‘doing anal’ wasn’t on the menu, amongst everything else. So if u don’t like ‘the difficult brown’. Don’t apply. I’ve had reasonable complaints from lesbians that they have been excluded. This was terribly remiss of me and I would now like to make it clear that women will also be very much considered." - Sinead O'Connor, writing on her personal site about her search for a lover.

Stand By Sinead O'Connor

JMG reader Andrew sends us the below moving clip of a man angrily recounting his abuse at the hands of an Irish priest. The clip is being publicized by a group demanding a public apology to Sinead O'Connor, who has suffered 20 years of ostracizing after denouncing the abuses of the Catholic Church.

Molestation Debate: Sinead O'Connor Vs. Catholic League's Bill Donohue

Last night Larry King hosted Sinead O'Connor and the Catholic League's Bill Dohohue to discuss the Vatican's lack of action on the global pedophilia scandal. Openly gay former CNN anchor Thomas Roberts also appeared to talk about his own molestation by a Catholic priest. Donohue: "Al Qaeda suspects are presumed innocent more than the Pope." In the third of the below clips, Donohue says he would "like to knock the teeth down the throat" of one of the accused priests. "I am not going to sit here and see the Pope's good name maligned." Sinead goes rogue during the interview, occasionally blowing off King's pleas to stop talking and reading quotes from the Bible.

Sinead O'Connor: Burn Down The Vatican

"A true Christian is someone who, in any given situation, is supposed to ask themselves what would Jesus do, then try to do that. How an organisation which has acted, decade after decade, only to protect its business interests above the interests of children can feel it has the right to dictate to us what Christians should do is beyond belief.

"From the Pope on down, through the Vatican and therefore through the lower echelons, the whole organisation, in my belief, is utterly anti-Christian and evil, as proven by centuries of torture, bloodshed, burnings, terrorism, and coverings-up of 'the worst crime' known to man.

"And if Jesus Christ is to be seen in the vulnerable of this world, then all the church has done is crucify the man over and over and over again. If Christ was here, he would be burning down the Vatican. And I for one would be helping him." - Sinead O'Connor, responding to a request from Ireland's Catholic Church for local parishioners to recompense the church for the massive settlements paid to the victims of pedophile priests.