A small piece of shameless self-promotion: if you haven’t already, do take a look at A long succession of thin evenings, the latest addition to my ever-expanding publishing empire. It’s a place for reviews of live music, theatre and comedy in London, and it’s an experiment in collaborative blogging. If you’d like to submit a review for publication there, let me know.
Advent song for December 17
I love, love, love this gorgeous video. There are many great things about it, but the best is that all four members of Boney M dance their way through the song, and even though the women’s capes are so voluminous that all you can really see is a bit of bobbing, you can tell they’re giving it their all, under those swathes of fur. Good on you, women members of Boney M!
Advent song for December 16
No comment required.
Advent song for December 15
One of the headlines in Radio 4’s 8am news today was that an academic at Durham University has “discovered” that While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks was once sung to the tune of On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At. They could have saved themselves the bother of doing the research by talking to me, any of my family members or most of the people I know, all of whom have been singing it to that tune for as long as I can remember. And to prove we’re not a relic of a bygone age, here is a choir called the DWS Chorale doing exactly the same thing, with variations.
(I know I only said yesterday that this was a pop advent calendar, but I like to be topical, and if there really are only thirty people in Britain who know you can sing While Shepherds Watched to the tune of On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At then I’d like to spread the news, because it’s much more fun than singing it to the usual tune.)
Advent song for December 14
The folksy edge in Bert Jansch’s voice turns this song into something completely different from other, more traditional, versions of it. Which is not to say I don’t like the traditional versions just as much, but this is a pop advent calendar, approximately, so it suits our purposes better. And I do like a bit of guitar on a bluey-grey Monday.
Advent song for December 13
Time for some rock’n’roll Christmas angst. This is a great song, with the added bonus for me that it conjures up memories of Bernard and the Genie, a superb Christmas film which, unfathomably, remains unavailable on DVD, but which you can watch if you come to my house. Shall we say Christmas Eve, around 7pm? I’ll make mince pies. Bring gin.
Advent song for December 12
I love the Beach Boys and, for a sunshine and surfing band, they have quite a lot of Christmas songs. However, there are good reasons why you don’t know most of them. This one, though, is properly great. I especially love the solemn refrain of “Christmas comes this time each year” – which is perfectly true, whichever way you look at it.
Advent song for December 11
I’m late! WordPress is clever enough to let me post in advance and specify a later publication time, but not the reverse. I blame working from home: my routine was all shot.
Anyway, we’re going to stick with my far-off university days (Essex, in case you were wondering) and have the Spice Girls’ rendition of Christmas Wrapping, which if memory serves correctly was the b-side of one of their Christmas singles. I would have liked to include one of the singles themselves, but they are not particularly Christmassy, and anyway this is fun, with its updated references to Tesco and cling film. Good old The Spice Girls. There doesn’t seem to be a real video, but this is the weirdest liveliest of the fan-created offerings on YouTube.
Advent song for December 10
This song came out in my first term at university in 1994, so it holds fond memories for me of my first year living away from home. I heard the single on the radio and immediately went out and bought it (I’d like to say on 7″, but although it would still have been possible to buy the vinyl version, I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a record player by then) and played it to death that Christmas.
I remember reading an interview with Tony Mortimer shortly afterwards in which he admitted that the bells at the end were added in a cynical – and successful – attempt to make the record Christmas number one. I love that they backed that up with a special Christmas version of the video, and don’t they look darling in their fluffy hoods?
Advent song for December 9
I love Eartha Kitt’s voice. It’s little-girlish and gritty all at once. She reminds me a little bit of Mrs Banks from Mary Poppins, though I don’t know how flattered either of them would be at the comparison.
(I was going to add “…if either of them were still alive, that is” at the end there, but I thought I’d check and though Eartha did indeed leave us last Christmas Day, Glynis Johns is still going strong at 86. So a happy Christmas to her, too, and any other surviving members of the Banks family.)
Glad All Over 