New documentary reveals previously unseen footage from ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ recording 40 years ago

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first supergroup charity single, Do They Know It's Christmas, a new documentary has been released.

The 75-minute documentary The Making of Do They Know It's Christmas? includes footage never previously seen from that iconic Sunday in 1984, when Bob Geldof and Midge Ure welcomed the biggest names in pop music to Sarm Studios in Notting Hill, West London, to record the charity single which went on to raise millions for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Sir Bob Geldof, Band Aid Trust, says:

"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. 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.”

Sir Bob adds: "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."

You can watch the entire documentary above.

The original footage was directed by Nigel Dick, with this documentary produced by Jill S. Sinclair.