Bob Geldof could be planning a new 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' to help fight Ebola

Reports are speculating that the Band Aid single will be released again this year

Bob Geldof is thought to be recruiting acts for a new version of his 1984 charity hit (Getty Images)

Bob Geldof is reportedly planning to wheel out another version of charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", this time to help fight the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

The Boomtown Rats singer and political activist, 63, is thought to be scouting acts to join him for a December release marking the 30th anniversary of the original hit.

"Bob started casually getting in touch with people earlier this month," a source told The Sun. "A few big names were very surprised to see he had emailed them just asking if they would be interested in being part of a project.

"He didn't make any formal requests, but he wanted to gauge an idea of who was potentially available."

Geldof's publicist told The Independent this morning that reports are mere "speculation" at this stage and there will be an announcement if anything is confirmed.

Bono, Sting, Duran Duran, Paul McCartney, George Michael and Boy George were among the artists who teamed up for the first "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984.

Geldof wrote the song and Ultravox's Midge Ure produced, with all sales money going to help those affected by famine in Ethiopia.

It became the biggest-selling single in UK chart history after shifting a million copies in its first week and raising more than £150 million.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was re-recorded by Band Aid II in 1989 and again in 2004 by Band Aid 20.

Geldof has spoken in the past about how activism has affected his career in music. "It's completely damaged my ability to do the thing I love," he told the Evening Standard in 2012.

"If it hadn't happened I think I would have been able to make the transition from The Boomtown Rats to a solo thing more like Paul Weller or Sting."

Nevertheless, he has been vocal on the fatal Ebola pandemic, recently speaking in front of 1,300 delegates at the One Young World summit in Dublin.

"It's the usual cliché of too little too late," he said. "It's now about calling up the various leaders and saying, 'Now, do it now.'"