“Do They Know It’s Christmas”, ……… a VHS tape .... and that famine

Somewhere in the collection we still have “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, which I guess hasn’t been played for decades.

And while it is that time of year, I doubt normally it would get on to the turntable.

There will be a mix of reasons, not least because since 1984, there have been countless other famines, near famines and disasters which I am remain convinced were preventable.

The story of that song and its subsequent re-recordings in 1989, 2004 and 2014, is out there to be read.*

And I don’t intend to repeat what someone else has said and said better.

Instead I am intrigued by this VHS recording of the making of the song, which was acquired by my old friend David Harrop.

The copy was signed by Midge Ure and looks to be in a good state.

But it is a VHS recording which is a technology pretty much now consigned to history, although in it’s day for a full two decades it was what you used to watch films, and home TV recordings.

It saw off Betamax but was done for by the CD and now few would have a VHS machine to watch a tape like this.

And how ever much they were the bees knees in the 1970s through to the 90s, they were prone to faults and as often  happened would end up unravelling.

So, I thank David for sharing this one with me, although our machine was consigned to the dustbin long ago, and the few tapes that survived the cull have since ended up in charity shops.

Location; Manchester

Picture;  “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, VHS box, courtesy of David Harrop

*“Do They Know It’s Christmas”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_They_Know_It%27s_Christmas%3F