New version of Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas' to help Ebola's victims Another change is the new central verse: "No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa/The only hope they'll have is being alive/Where to comfort is to fear/Where to touch is to be scared/How can they know it's Christmas time at all." This replaces the original's imagery of famine and starvation: "And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time/The greatest gift they'll get this year is life/Where nothing ever grows/No rain or rivers flow/Do they know it's Christmas time at all?" Significantly Geldof has also dropped the soul searing line - sung by Bono - "Well tonight thank God it's them/Instead of you," which punctuated the original song as an apparent rebuke to western audiences. This has been replaced by the words: "Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you." The song retains the now famous line from the original chorus, "Feed the world/LET them know it's Christmas time," but also introduces the twist "Heal the world, let them know it's Christmas time again." Artists taking part in Saturday's recording, which was set to culminate on Sunday with the finished single and accompanying video being shown on The X Factor at 8pm, where Elbow, Seal, Sinead O'Connor, Angelique Kidjo, Foals and Rita Ora. They were stepping into the fundraising shows of acts such as Wham, Boy George, Duran Duran, Sting and Status Quo, whose original song spent three weeks at number one and sold over three million copies in the UK and raising more than £8 million ($24m) worldwide. The record's success inspired similar fundraising efforts in Canada, France, Spain and the United States and led to the Live Aid and USA for Africa concerts, which were broadcast in over 165 countries, raising about £95 million ($150m) for famine relief in Ethiopia. Today's stars arrived for their recording session with similar ambitions in mind. Niall Horan, of One Direction, said: "Hopefully it gets to number one and raises a lot of money for a really worthy cause." Ellie Goulding said she was "quite excited, a little bit nervous - it's quite a big thing," while Guy Garvey, the singer with Elbow, said it was "a real privilege" to have been invited. Even before it was completed the Band Aid 30 single was boosted by the announcement by George Osborne, the Chancellor, that he would not levy VAT on its sales. Geldof said on arriving at the Notting Hill studios: "I've just spoken to the Chancellor George Osborne and he's said we can have all the VAT back on the record. So 100% of any income from this record, no tax whatsoever. If the government is prepared to do that, then come Monday at 08:00 when every station plays this track across the nation, buy this thing. Don't go looking for it free. Buy it. Bono, who sang on the original recording, criticised rich countries for failing to honour aid pledges as he arrived. He said: "We've been trying to make this kind of event a thing of the past - we want to make Band Aid history - for quite some time. If every country had the values of Great Britain and kept the promises they make at these big G8 meetings and the like we wouldn't have to be standing here.