Ed Sheeran joined One Direction and other stars on Band Aid 2014.Band Aid

Bob Geldof has defended his Band Aid charity single against criticism, including Ed Sheeran’s complaint last week that he would not have added his vocals to a new mix had he been asked.

This Monday sees the 40th anniversary of the day a roll-call of the UK’s biggest pop stars (and a few overseas guests) came together to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? In response to a BBC news report about the famine in Ethiopia. The record went on to raise £8million ($10million) and its founder Geldof went on to create the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which has raised more than £140million ($175million) to date.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary, a re-mix of the single will be released tomorrow, incorporating different voices from later versions, including that of Sheeran who sang on the 2014 release, alongside other stars including One Direction and Rita Ora. However, this week he complained that he hadn’t been asked and if he had, he would have refused, reposting a statement by rapper Fuse ODG, arguing that the track perpetuates misleading tropes about African poverty and is “not the truth.”

This weekend, in an interview with The Times of London, Geldof rails against “abstract wealthy-world argument” while his Trust’s funds are proving food for those still starving. He said:

“This little pop song has kept millions of people alive. Why would Band Aid scrap feeding thousands of children dependent on us for a meal? Why not keep doing that? Because of an abstract wealthy-world argument, regardless of its legitimacy? No abstract theory regardless of how sincerely held should impede or distract from that hideous, concrete real-world reality. There are 600 million hungry people in the world — 300 million are in Africa. We wish it were other but it is not. We can help some of them. That’s what we will continue to do.”