Do they Know it's Christmas ~ Band Aid 1984 - Do they Know it's Christmas ~ Band Aid 1984

What this video is

Conceived and executed in a single day on 25 November 1984 at SARM West Studios in Notting Hill, London, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in direct response to BBC journalist Michael Buerk's harrowing reports on the 1983–1985 Ethiopian famine. The recording united the most prominent British and Irish pop and rock artists of the era under the collective name Band Aid. Released…

Why it matters

This video is a foundational document in music video history: it established that documentary verité footage of a recording session could function as a legitimate and emotionally powerful promotional video, bypassing the era's dominant glossy, set-dressed aesthetic. It demonstrated that context…

The director

Nigel Dick (born 21 March 1953, Catterick, North Yorkshire) is a British-American music video director and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He trained in architecture at the University of Bath before working at Stiff Records and PolyGram. He co-founded…