There’s been a lot of furore around recently over the new version of Do They Know It’s Christmas, featuring a megamix of all the previous artists combined together. It seemed an odd idea, and it’s not really gone over very well, and barely made an impact on the music charts. So why not go back to the original and best version of the song and revisit how it all came together?

Thankfully, there’s a new documentary released for just that purpose: The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas. I watched this on the BBC iPlayer, but it looks to be available on YouTube as well.

A few things really jumped out at me whilst watching it:

• Midge Ure seems to do all the work. Bob floats around talking about ‘more emotions’ all the time.
• Paul Young and George Michael both rewrote on the fly - it didn’t sound wrong the first time, until they changed it and then it sounded so right.
• Paula Yates was overcome by a serenade from George Michael, talking about whether Last Christmas will get to number. Oh lovely George.
• The bods, the sound guys, the production. Unsung heroes.
• Bono is SO nervous. How did he get the big line when he was nowhere near the peak of his fame?
• Boy George sings it through half a time and says “Stop, I know what to do. I’ve found the plot.” Love this.
• Sting feeding Phil Collins a biscuit. More of this please.
• Jill Sinclair, Trevor Horn’s wife, crushed her interview with Paula Yates, and suggested the gang should come together every year to do a charity single… they can afford it.
• Bono finishes off by saying “It’s more than cash, it’s music.” Not sure what this means but it sounds good.