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 presume Human League didn't do it because Heaven 17 had already agreed?

I think there would (nowadays) be a safeguarding issue with babies being there due to drug use etc. Obviously safeguarding wasn't really on anyone's radar in 1984.

Salt N Pepa and Mel and Kim were famous years later and Strawberry Switchblade only had one very minor hit in 1985 - so none would have been in consideration. Surprised Annie Lennox wasn't on it though.

Trevor Horn's wife, Jill Sinclair had a horrible fate. At first I thought the babies were Geldofs but they weren't born until later.

Annabel Giles soon to be married to Midge and died a few years back in her early 60s.

I think there are more but 5 is enough really.

I enjoyed it. I do agree about the lack of females - I mean Annie Lennox would have absolutely smashed any line given to her.
And the cars they got out of - it would be huge stretch affairs now or blacked out Range Rovers.
Some proper stars but to me George Michael was just next level. The complete pop star.
It was lovely to see Paula Yates who I think was also a big deal. I adored her. I think that’s Fifi with her. So sad what happened to her daughter, Peaches, too.
Bono, George and Boy George were wonderful singers.
And that comes from a Paul Weller fanatic!
I can remember the original news report and sitting watching it sobbing. It was absolutely haunting.
I did notice in the ‘new’ version they left out the version full of the SAW stars like Kylie and Jason? It was bloody awful.

Alison Moyet had/has a fabulous voice and was so popular at the time. Her voice was also quite low she would have been amazing!

Yes, absolutely.

What's the issue there?

ah loved it, so many memories.

wonder why Elton John wasn’t there

Yeah it was awful. I think Bob handed over the production to SAW on that one so he probably has no rights to re record it. He's lucky that his name wasn't attached to that one!

Very poignant to see Paula Yates and her daughter. Her and Bob seemed the perfect couple at the time. I think the other baby is Sting's, with his wife Trudie Styler.

Musically, yes George Michael clearly had such an instinct for melody, when he suggested that note change. He seemed quite nervous and unaware of what a mega Christmas hit he was about to unleash on the world.

Sting was not officially with Trudi at that point so I doubt it!

I think a couple are perhaps Trevor Horn's.

I couldn't place another blond singer, beponytailed, always in the back row. Maybe just another Quo guy?

And who was it on the piano?

Sting and Trudie's first child was born in Jan 1984 (according to Wikipedia!) so definitely together in Dec 84. At the end of the doc you can see the 3 of them leaving together.

Oh really?

He was actually still married in 84. These pop stars , hey??

I still remember all that creepy stuff about tantric sex and horses.

@Funkyslippers

Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh (Heaven 17) were originally in the Human League; they fell out with Phil Oakey in about 1980. They made the first two HL albums with him before Dare. Having said that, I only spotted Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17 on the film.

Wow, I never knew that but then I thought Dare was their first album

Watching it now - I love Bob Geldof’s goofy grin. He was so handsome.

@Funkyslippers

Reproduction and Travelogue were the first HL albums - there are some bangers on them but also they're tricky to listen to in parts. They 'split up' in 1980, then Phil Oakey recruited The Girls (and some musicians) for a tour and Dare.

Empire State Human and Being Boiled are great songs if you don't know any pre-Dare stuff.

<Disclaimer: I was born in 1981 but am a total music geek>

Wow, George Michael’s talent shines out of the screen. He seemed to know instinctively what sounded good. His changes really made the song.

Finding it a sad watch knowing what lay in store for lots of those taking part.

Poor George died on Christmas Day. So poignant to see him discussing his Christmas song and hoping for a Christmas Number One.

Really was like herding cats on the day!

Obviously the lyrics are problematic today but very few people considered that at the time. It was such a new thing to do, and we’d all watched the tv footage of the horrific famines, so that it just seemed amazing. Certainly for teenagers.

There were no internet forums to chat and debate those ideas so certainly us younger people took it at face value. The amounts raised were huge for the time, so we just thought it was good.

British pop music was so male dominated at that time. I remember at the Brits every year the same 4 or 5 women got nominated for best female, whether they’d released anything or not it seemed. By the late 80s it opened up a bit. And again, no emails or anything. It was who they could get hold of by phone within a couple of days.

Who is the man in the flat cap?

Given the speed it was pulled together it was an amazing feat but obviously as thing change it now causes a few issues.

On a complete side note I saw Bono in Manchester last week, I was struck by how small he is and he had a beautiful scarf. He was busing filming something on his phone with 2 other guys. My mum grabbed one of the guys arms to stop him stepping backwards onto her mobility scooter. I told her who he was but didnt bother him and she just went who?

I loved the fact that they just turned up looking scuffy and jet lagged. Unpolished compared to today's standards and without all the huge entourages. No turkey teef or botox to be seen.

And as someone said Bananarama getting out of the teeny tiny car I found hilarious.