Virgin Radio UK is delighted to announce that it will broadcast a brand new two-part documentary on Band Aid at 40. 

Made with the full support of - and with a percentage of the total production budget being paid directly to - the Band Aid Trust and Gimme Sugar Productions, the documentary was given access to their archive and the multi-track recordings from the biggest moment in British pop music history.

The documentary will be an account of the story behind the recording of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ from those who were there in 1984, and will look at the legacy of the song and how it continues to save African lives four decades later. 

Reflecting on Band Aid’s cultural impact, the documentary will feature never-aired-before footage, brand new interviews and access from those who masterminded the landmark single, from the high profile singers to those behind the scenes, who were the beating heart behind the landmark track. 

The documentary will feature brand new interviews with, among others, Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Simon Le Bon, Francis Rossi, Tony Hadley, Trevor Horn, Bananarama, Paul Young, Pete Briquette from the Boomtown Rats, film director Nigel Dick, studio engineers, and radio broadcasters from the day. 

It also includes a powerful and compelling new interview with BBC News reporter Michael Buerk whose groundbreaking reporting from the Horn of Africa in 1984 was the catalyst behind this momentous moment in British music. 

Bob Geldof, for the Band Aid Trust, says: “It is extraordinary that 40 years after Midge and I knocked off, as quickly as we could, what we thought was an ok-ish little Christmas song, a whole series of events unravelled both locally and globally that initially helped ease the suffering of as many of the starving as possible and ultimately corralled the political processes of the wealthy world and forced them, at least momentarily, to focus on the poorest, most hurt people of our world. 

“Is that what we set out to do? I think so. From the primary impulse to raise as much as we could (we thought £100,000 was a stretch but plausible) to the understanding of what poverty does to people and that it is neither desirable nor practical there was, to me anyway, always a clear trajectory. People should not and need not starve to death again. But they do. Today half of the 600 million hungry people in the world live in Africa. It still sickens me and is still a haunting disgrace. 

“This small song became and remains what it always set out to be, an instrument of change. What is true beyond any shadow of a doubt is that had we had not done this 40 years ago there would be many hundreds of thousands of people, possibly more,  who would not be alive today. Because of this small pop effort. That’s mad isn’t it? Mad and awful. What a stupid way to run the world. This documentary is our story of the making of that Christmas song…”

Virgin Radio Content Director, Mike Cass, added: “There are few iconic songs that everyone owns a copy of and knows all the words, and to be able to re-live such a historic moment with all the key players is simply must-listen to radio.”

Ben Jones, of Gimme Sugar Productions, says: “I distinctly remember buying this record in December 1984, everyone did, you simply had to. I still have my seven inch vinyl single so to be producing this special programme is an honour and we are delighted to tell this incredible story that changed popular culture and directly saved so many African lives. Our thanks to the Band Aid Trust, Virgin Radio and all the artists and contributors involved for giving us their time to retell the Band Aid story.”

Band Aid at 40 will be produced for Virgin Radio by Ben Jones and Ian Callaghan for Gimme Sugar Productions, and will be supported by other News UK brands including Times Radio, Dublin’s Q102, The Times and The Sun.

***Picture credit: The Band Aid Trust

ENDS