The Band Aid 30 single raised £1 million in just five minutes.
Organiser and co-writer Bob Geldof admits the pre-release demand for the reworked version of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas Time?’ – which was debuted during ‘The X Factor’ results show on Sunday (16.11.14) has been "bonkers" and he is overwhelmed by the response so far.
He told BBC Radio 4: "It’s gone manic. That’s the digital age. We promoted the single on ‘X Factor’, Simon Cowell gave us five minutes of the show last night.
"Within four or five minutes of leaving the show we had a million quid. That’s extraordinary.
"From what we’re seeing now from iTunes it’s gone bonkers. The pre-orders of the thing were ridiculous."
Within an hour of being made available for download yesterday (17.11.14), the track – which features stars including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Bono, Elbow, Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding – was number one on the iTunes chart.
A physical release will be available from December 8, costing £4. All proceeds will go towards helping the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Meanwhile, the Boomtown Rats frontman laughed off claims he had been "snubbed" by Adele, who refused to take his calls asking her to appear on the track, insisting he respected her current wish to stay out of the spotlight.
He said: "Adele is just parked off.
"She’s not writing, she’s not recording, she’s not doing interviews, she’s not doing gigs – she is somewhere else in her life.
"I didn’t ring her because I didn’t have her number. I would have if I’d had her number, but then she’d have had to explain to me and you don’t have to explain to me!
"If that’s what you want to do, it’s completely correct that you do that, and her manager – who’s a very funny guy and a very nice guy says ‘she doesn’t even pick up the phone to me, you know?’
"And that’s right – that is where she’s at and there’s lots of artists like that so, you know, absolutely fair play."
Band Aid 30 raises 1m in five minutes
