Unseen footage from the first Band Aid single is set to be aired for the first time.
The iconic charity track ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ was recorded on November 25, 1984 and the BBC is set to celebrate the 40th anniversary since that session with a series of special programmes.
Zoe Ball will front BBC Radio 2 documentary ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?: The Song That Changed The World’ on Sunday December 1, including contributes from Sir Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Bono, Sting and more.
BBC Four and BBC iPlayer will air a new 75-minute documentary ‘The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas?’.
The film has unearthed 75 minutes of the original footage shot by director Nigel Dick at SARM Studios in Notting Hill, which has been newly-restored and digitised.
The BBC said: “In rare and previously unseen moments, stars including Bananarama, Bono, Boy George, Duran Duran, George Michael, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17, Paul Young, Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet and Sting, rehearse and record their parts and interact with each other during 24 hours which would make musical history.”
Jonathan Rothery, Head of BBC Pop Music TV, commented: “The creation of the Band Aid supergroup and release of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ was a hugely significant moment in pop music history, and BBC TV will be celebrating the 40th anniversary since its recording, and its incredible legacy which lives on today.”
Sir Bob hailed the new footage as “so guileless, so charming and yes so innocent”.
He added: “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.
“This then 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.
“I love it because it is so… English. So guileless, so charming and yes so innocent.”