3 December: Do They Know It's Christmas?

On this date in 1984, the group assembled by Bob Geldof, Band-Aid, released the single Do They Know It's Christmas.

1. Bob Geldof got the idea for a Christmas charity single in October 1984 when watching a BBC report about the famine in Ethiopia at the time, including a nurse who had to decide which children to give the inadequate supplies of food and medicine to, and which were too sick to try and save. He got in touch with Midge Ure and ran the idea by him. Ure agreed to work on an arrangement while Geldof recruited the artists.

2. Had they recorded a cover version of an existing Christmas song, they would have had to pay royalties, which would reduce the amount of Money they could send to charity, so they knew they would have to write a completely new song. As it happened, Geldof had some lyrics for a song he'd written for the Boomtown Rats, called It's My World, which he figured he could tweak a bit. Ure wrote a melody and they put the two together. Geldof at first complained that the tune sounded like the theme from Z-Cars. Ure changed one thing in the lyric – to substitute "Africa" for "Ethiopia" because the latter didn't scan.

3. Geldof's plan was to get on board all the biggest names in pop music in Britain and Ireland at the time. He recruited them by calling the stars direct rather than going through their agents or managers. Only three of the people Geldof called refused to take part. Geldof never revealed who they were. There were a few who couldn't participate because of prior engagements, but who contributed in other ways. David Bowie and Paul McCartney recorded spoken word verses for the B-side single, Feed the World, and The Thompson Twins donated part of the proceeds of their then current single Lay Your Hands on Me to the Action for Ethiopia charity.

4. It wasn't just the artists who contributed for free. Geldof managed to negotiate the use of a recording studio for 24 hours and free advertising space. He even managed to persuade the BBC to start all their programmes 5 minutes early one evening, so that Top of the Pops could feature the promo, even though the song hadn't charted yet. He didn't, however, manage to persuade the UK government to waive VAT on the single. Geldof made headlines by publicly standing up to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the issue. In the end the government relented and donated an amount to the charity equal to the amount of tax they collected on the single.

5. Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, the two frontmen of rock band Status Quo were invited to take part in order to appeal to an older audience. However, the line Geldof had in mind for them to sing turned out to be too high for their voices. According to one journalist, however, Status Quo contributed something to the after recording party – a bag of cocaine.

6. On the whole the recording session went smoothly with the biggest glitch being that Boy George didn't show up. Geldof tracked him down and discovered he was asleep in a hotel room in New York, having forgotten all about it. He gave Boy George an earful and demanded he get straight onto Concorde. George allegedly went back to sleep and later caught the last Concorde of the day, arriving at the studio at 6pm and being the last of the artists to perform their bit. Members of the US group Kool and the Gang appeared just happened to be at the studio when Geldof arrived to pitch the idea, and got on board. There were a couple of uninvited guests on the recording day as well. One was Marilyn, whose career was flagging at the time and he thought he could revive interest by appearing on Do They Know It's Christmas? Geldof and Ure took the view that any publicity was good publicity and the more stars they could get to appear on the record, the better. They drew the line, however, with actor Nigel Planer, who showed up to play to the cameras as his character Neil from The Young Ones, and was told to go away.

7. While the promotional video shows all the artists singing together in the studio, it wasn't recorded like that. They all recorded their parts individually and staged the singing together part.

8. Even Jim Diamond, who probably would have had the Christmas number one that year with I Should Have Known Better, urged people to buy Do They Know It's Christmas? instead. The single went straight to number one and remained there for five weeks, going on to sell 3.8 million copies in the UK and 12 million worldwide. In all, more than $28 million was raised.

9. Do They Know It's Christmas? has been re-recorded three times: in 1989, 2004 and 2014. All were for charity. The 2014 version was a little different in that the cause which benefited was people affected by the ebola virus rather than famine relief. The first line is sung by Paul Young on the 1984 version, Kylie Minogue on the 1989 version, Chris Martin of Coldplay on the 2004 version, and One Direction on the 2014 version.

10. The song has influenced media other than music, too. In 2017, director James Ward Byrkit was reportedly considering producing a movie called Do They Know It’s Murder? in which one of the artists is murdered and Bob Geldof has to turn detective to work out whodunnit; and there is a time travel novel by James Crookes called Do They Know It's Christmas Yet? in which a bunch of people travel back to the 80s and accidentally caused Bob Geldof to miss the news report which inspired the song. They must travel back again and put things right.

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Themes 

Christmas; superheroes; reunions; parties; life choices; shocking surprises; mistaken identity; kidnap and rescue.

Reasons not to read it

• It's a bit short. You could probably read it in one sitting.
• Most of the action takes place at a Christmas party. In a palace.
• It's all about Christmas but there doesn't seem to be a schmaltzy moral message.
• There are a couple of babies and some small children in it - and one nearly gets eaten.
• Santa appears in it, but he isn't really Santa.
• Superheroes. Again.
• Not to mention a whole bunch of super-villains. Again all new ones and not the ones we know from Marvel or DC.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle