A retired journalist claims he pitched the concept of Band Aid Live to Bob Geldof in the 1980s - but the concert co-ordinator thought it would be "problematic."
Bill McFarlan, 67, spent five decades in journalism.
From working with Radio Clyde and STV to presenting World's Strongest Man and BBC Breakfast News, the Whitecraigs man has interviewed Wimbledon champions, golf stars, and even made documentaries about high-profile cases like police detective Shirley McKie, who was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene.
But Bill's biggest highlight could be asking Geldoff that key question, and perhaps more humorously, seeing Geldoff shut it down.
Bill said: "I have a recording of my original interview with Bob Geldof about Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?
“The bizarre thing is that, in the middle of the interview, I said to him, ‘What would you think of getting the artists back sometime later to do a concert?’ And he said, ‘No, that'd be too problematic.’
“So, my joke is that I suggested Band Aid to Bob and he said it was a bad idea."
He added: “In truth, I had no memory of asking that question, but it's funny when you dig these things up."
Bill will be telling the joke on stage when he brings his show, Where Were You When? to the Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock.
The show, which will take place on October 30, will see Bill go over his best bits in journalism, as well as his experience setting up his own media training company.
The company, Pink Elephant Communications, was heavily involved in helping Glasgow bid to host the Commonwealth Games for the city and hosted media training with the athletes.
The company was also involved in the aftermath of Lockerbie.
Bill explained: "The justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, took the decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. I worked with MacAskill on the days leading up to his announcement. I asked him the awkward questions I thought the media would ask because I was advising him on how to make the announcement."
The idea for the show came to Bill when he and his wife were clearing out their home, where they've lived for 30 years.
He said: "We cleaned out one of the rooms, and I came across all sorts of videotapes from my career.
“When I started to go through them all, I found diaries that I kept for expense purposes and started to chronicle all the things I'd covered in the 50 years since I started in journalism in 1975. I realised that I have an interesting timeline of news and sports events that goes from when I qualified as a journalist all the way up to the present."
Bill will be showing the video clips while telling his stories, and will even have someone on stage with him to quiz him about various aspects of his career.
Reflecting on what he hopes people take away from the show, Bill said: "I’m excited for the show.
“I want people to go away saying, ‘well that was a fantastic trip down memory lane’ because it'll stir a lot of memories for people and will leave them reflecting on where they were when these stories were breaking or how they heard about them in the first place.”
Tickets are priced at £25 and can be purchased by visiting https://www.whatsoneastrenfrewshire.co.uk/event/154120-where-were-you-when%E2%80%A6/
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