challenge was to write a song that could be recorded and released in time for Christmas. They realised that they would have to write one themselves and not record a cover version; otherwise, they would have to pay royalties which would have to be subtracted from the amount raised for charity. On the Monday afternoon Ure came up with the outline of what he felt sounded a Christmas-like melody on a portable keyboard, which he recorded onto a tape and sent to Geldof, who sarcastically told him that the tune sounded like the theme to Z-Cars. Geldof came to Ure's house the next day and together they worked on the tune with Geldof on his acoustic guitar. Geldof added lyrics based on a song he had originally written for the Boomtown Rats, as he later recalled: Ure recorded Geldof and his guitar and used the recording to develop Geldof's ideas later back in his home studio, adding his own melody onto the end as a chorus. He later stated that he had been unable to improve on Geldof's lyrics and left most of them as they were, with the exception of the line "And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time" – the original lyric substituted "Africa" with "Ethiopia" but Ure decided that this did not scan. Geldof asked Trevor Horn to produce the song; Horn was an in-demand producer, having produced three number-one singles that year for Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Although Horn was receptive, he said he needed at least six weeks to produce the song, which would make it impossible to release by Christmas. However, he allowed the team to use his studios, Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, free for 24 hours on 25 November. Horn would later remix and co-produce the 12" version of the single, and remix it for the 1985 re-release. In Horn's absence, Ure produced the song; he spent several days in his home studio with his engineer Rik Walton creating the backing track, programming the keyboards and drum machines. He used a sample of the drums from the title track of the 1983 Tears for Fears album The Hurting for the intro. John Taylor of Duran Duran and Paul Weller visited Ure's studio the day before the recording to add bass guitar and lead guitar; Ure and Weller later agreed that the guitar did not fit the predominantly