Anyone watch the making of Do They Know Its Christmas Doc on BBC

[I8toys]

Such a lovely slice of nostalgia. I now have major crush on Midge Ure - such a lovely creative and extremely calm man in the face of potential chaos.

Lovely to see the process and the genius of a young George Michael and Boy George bringing in the smut and humour.

I , for one, am quite relieved Bonnie Tyler wasn't in it.

Yes, that is perhaps true about The Independent but I did think when I first heard the 2024 version (before reading the article) how few women there were, and none with the big/opening lines.

I suspect that the original lineup reflected the times. It may also reflect Geldof & Ure's phone book (or their agents) after all they'd have to start by calling someone to ask if they wanted to take part.

Yes, and also global stars aren't in it (at te time Sting and perhaps Bono aside) and that gives it it's rough and ready charm. By the time Live Aid rolled around bigger global stars were involved (Queen, Jagger, Bowie)

The US charity single reflected its own far more diverse music scene but it is also packed with genuine mega stars. It is, however, naff, twee and massively over produced.

Madonna iirc opened US Live Aid and was awful.

On the whole, our bands capable of playing instruments live have become less diverse over time. The majority of the more musical bands are white, male and nowadays dominated by privately educated men, apparently.

I remember listening to an interview on R1 one evening with Bob & Midge where they were talking about wanting to raise money so they were putting together a collection of stars to record a charity record......... and it was all happening in the next couple of days to give the record time to make the charts in time for Christmas. Then it was all over the news and of course the single came out.

With regards to singers who were (or weren't) there, it was arranged so quickly that some were probably not just available and others just didn't twig how big it was going to be and made the decision not to attend (charity records were not a new thing but this was by far the biggest).

Loads of it was word of mouth so going to be mates of mates and local ish to the studio.

It was a British, London-centric event that took place on one day with very short notice, so all of those American artists you mention would not have been in the running.

I agree though that Alison Moyet, Kate Bush and Annie Lennox on it would have been good. I wonder if they were asked? It does seem v much that it was who Midge Ure and Bob Geldof knew, so that maybe limited it.

I think Kate Bush was not that big in 84? And/ or had gone stateside.

Moyet and Lennox are omissions but Lennox may have been too cool for it? Or away in the US? I remember people wondering at the time where Alison Moyet was but again her big hits were before 84 , and then some later.

Frankie were by far the biggest UK omission of the time and I think none of them wanted to do it apart from Holly Johnson.

Black artists actually boycotted Live Aid (Stevie Wonder and MJ). That was all a bit sour. The UK one was far more convivial and cheery.

I think FGTH were vetoed for being too political for Live Aid too - they could only perform the shite.

I agree. There were so many amazing female artists but there were less than men.

Here are the top selling singles in the U.K. in 1984.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_top-ten_singles_in_1984

There are 5 or 6 women. Pop music then was male dominated. I’m not saying it’s right but it was a fact at the time.

Given this was all U.K. based artists who all knew each other then it makes sense that it was mainly men. When you look at it it was mainly Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, very similar types of music and artists. At one point someone says ‘how did you hear about this?’ It was organised in a matter of days with people phoning each other up.

At that time Bananarama were the only all female group, not solo artist, in the U.K., and they were not much cop really. Music then was hugely male dominated.

Since Yesterday was released in late 1984, so exactly the same time as Band Aid. SS had a few other successful singles but that was their main one.

Salt n Pepa were active from 1985 and Mel and Kim from 1986 so only a little bit later.

Annie Lennox, Kim Wilde, Kate Bush, a few I can think of...

Oops sorry I got carried away after thinking of Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Alison Moyet!

Ive thought of a few more

Tracy Chapman
Enya
Andrea Corr from the Corrs
Dolores O'Riordan from the Cranberries

i thought the same as you - did they even get asked? If not, why not!

Andrea Corr was 10 years old!
Dolores O'Riordan was 13.
Tracy Chapman is American.

Yes, it's very interesting to see how they interacted

Yes! Some people are getting very confused with their dates! Enya had only just left Clannad to make music solo in 1984, and wasn’t remotely famous. ‘Orinoco Flow’ wasn’t till 1988, I think?

I agree it was a deeply blokey event, but probably largely explicable in terms of being a word of mouth, quickly organised thing.

What struck me watching the documentary was what a total car crash it seemed on the day, even possibly for people like Midge Ure (who came across as totally admirable) who were presumably used to recordings sounding rough at the start — I hadn’t thought in detail about the logistics of teaching a whole bunch of people a completely unfamiliar, hastily written song, whose lyrics and arrangement seemed to keep changing as the day went on.

And yes, how nervous quite a few people obviously were. Bono in his hat looks like a pimply seventeen-year-old fronting his first band.

And the dynamics of a whole bunch of insanely famous people who mostly didn’t know one another all milling around in a small recording studio, either getting on like a house on fire or giving one another dirty looks.

The person who was immediately impressive as a singer was George Michael, who just sounded authoritative and musical from the very start. He knew what would work for his line, suggested it, and made it better, plus his voice sounded great from the first note, whereas Paul Young, Bono, Tony Hadley and others took a while to warm up, and Status Quo were terrible! Boy George also sounded good.

Who was the guy who wore a flat cap throughout and was sitting next to Midge Ure in the recording booth? And who was the dark-haired man who was sort of conducting the big group when they were doing the chorus?

I loved Strawberry Switchblade, I had their single. But they had one hit of any note, were new to the scene and, crucially, lived in Glasgow at the time.

Lovely and nostalgic. A bit Richard E Grant (is he the one that did 4 weddings and live actually?) And people without fake tans, and surgery

The flat cap guy might be Jim thingy from Ultravox?

If you want to know how awful music got not long after 1984, have a look at the 1989 line up. Shockingly bad.

Not, Jim !

Billy!

Similarly Glaswegian...

Did anyone watch the Wham docco? It was gorgeous. They were SO YOUNG! And I always thought they had been sort of manufactured a bit but no, just best mates at school who started a band. The wiggly dancing in the tennis shorts! And George so shy and sweet offstage 😍

I loved Bananarama but they sang like they’d just run up a flight of stairs bless ‘em.