SIR Bob Geldof recalls the day a plethora of pop stars came together to record the hit single Do They Know It’s Christmas? as an afternoon of “having fun and making history”.
The Irish rock legend was the driving force behind the charity song, which was released 40 years ago this month.
The Dubliner, born in Dún Laoghaire, was lead singer with The Boomtown Rats when he set about creating the charity supergroup Band Aid, which was made up of British and Irish pop artists.
Sir Bob Geldof and the Band Aid stars pictured at their 1984 recording session (Pic: BBC/Brian Aris)It was founded in 1984 after Geldof watched a BBC report on the Ethiopian famine and the human tragedy that was unfolding there.
He was spurred into action and assembled the band to record the ground-breaking charity single, Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Produced by Midge Ure, co-written by Geldof and Ure, and released on December 10, 1984 the single was a number one hit in the UK and in 13 other countries.
It sold more than 11million copies by the end of the 1980s and raised a staggering £8m for the cause in Ethiopia.
Bob Geldof has taken part in the BBC’s coverage of the 40th anniversary of the release of Do They Know it’s Christmas?“That Sunday morning when a bunch of young spotty English pop stars who were (more or less) just out of school and had taken over the pop culture of the world, ambled up a Ladbroke Grove street in London to make a song their friends had written for the starving people of Ethiopia, they could never have understood the enormous consequences of that day,” Geldof said this week.
“It was, if not exactly the ‘shot that rang around the world’, it certainly became, however unwittingly, ‘the shout that rang around the world’, culminating 20 years later in all its unlikely majesty in ultimately forcing the global political process to bend to its focused will at the Gleneagles G8 summit of 2005 and after the Live8 concerts,” he added.
This month BBC Four and BBC Radio 2 will be marking the 40th anniversary since the recording of the single, which took place on Sunday, November 25, 1984.
Footage from that day, which has never previously been broadcast, will feature in the BBC4 documentary The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas?.
Geldof, who is among those who feature in the show, praised the programme this week.
“This is the ‘fly on the wall’ story of that day from found footage that no-one had thought to look for before but is now an integral part of British pop history,” he said.
“I love it because it is so… English. So guileless, so charming and yes so innocent.”
He added: “These rock stars piling into the control room, babies under arm – it was a Sunday, family day, chipping in, laughing, shouting suggestions, taking the p*ss, funny, having fun making history, on top of the world.
“And boy can they sing. Compare and contrast with the American follow up and it’s hyper-sophisticated, hyper super-talent, hyper-organised and professional and our lot, basically a bunch of bouffanted oiks giving it large and being quite brilliant.
“What wonderful people they were. And largely still are. Great film. The Maysles Bros would be proud.”
A separate programme due to air on BBC Radio 2, is Zoe Ball presents Do They Know It’s Christmas?: The Song That Changed The World.
Thea one-hour documentary, which also features Geldof, Ure and a number of other stars who have taken part in recording the song, will air on Monday, November 25, the 40th anniversary of the original recording.
Later that day Jeremy Vine will also focus on the Band Aid single in his afternoon radio show.
“Do They Know It’s Christmas? is a true Christmas classic, loved by our audience,” Helen Thomas, Head of BBC Radio 2, said.
“On Radio 2 and BBC Sounds, The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show and Jeremy Vine will both look at the enduring appeal of the song across four decades since Band Aid released the original in 1984, alongside a special documentary also presented by Zoe Ball.”