Day 12 - Christmas Boogie - Canned Heat

Four minutes plus of unmitigated Christmas cheer.

Day 11 - Cardboard Christmas Boxes - Alan Hull

On a bad day for me personally, here's one of the North-East's finest in the shape of Lindisfarne's Alan Hull with a song to remind you that - though it may not always seem like it - there are those worse off.

Day 10 - Christmas Time Is Here Again - The Beatles

And just to show I don't just chuck this thing together, here's the real band with a track that was originally to be found on a 1967 fan club flexi disc (ask your Grandparents), before being released again as the B side (ask your Grandparents again) of the 'Free As A Bird' single in 1995. There is a six minute version available but, as it's little more than a throwaway, it does outstay its welcome a bit.

Update: This disappears with alarming regularity so it's worth a YouTube / Google search if this isn't below

Day 9 - Good King Wenceslas - The Fab Four

It's been a few years since we heard from the Fabs and I think it's time they made another appearance. Latecomers to the Calendar might not be aware of their oeuvre but The Fabs are, in fact, a Californian based Beatles tribute band whose 'Hark!' album features twenty Christmas songs that sound exactly like existing Beatles tracks. 'Wenceslas' here is done in the style of 'Tell Me What You See' from Help! and is just masterful in its execution.   

Try singing the original track over this or, better still, play the Help! track and see how soon you're singing the Carol instead. Just wonderful!

   

Day 8 - London Lights - Tom Chaplin

Keane frontman Chaplin with a twinkling pop gem so romantic that it will have you running down to the new Adult Superstore on the A12 for a pack of Christmas Pudding flavour condoms.

Day 7 - Christmas Done Got Funky - Jimmy Jules & the Nuclear Soul System

The first Friday party night of Advent and how can you not do the Watusi to this seasonal soul stormer? 

Tonight in 2018, I'm going to a reunion of work colleagues - now friends - that I worked with at a well-known fruit importing company based in London's Mayfair back when men were men, women were grateful and a computer was a Big Blue monolith filling the whole downstairs floor of a building. The venue for the reunion is the same Mayfair pub where we used to hold the famous Christmas parties that I was responsible for organising. It was to one of these parties that I invited Gail - then nominally one of my 'suppliers of IT consumables' and that night...well, THAT night.

I'm pretty sure I did the Watusi then too....

So This Is Christmas...

I've amused myself in grief today.

Gail was the interior designer - had she been well enough she could have done it professionally - and every Christmas the house was a coordinated colour of light, shimmer, white fur and glamour. I was responsible for the outside; something which every year Lady B disapproved off, insisting it looked as if a 'ten year old had thrown them out' and declared to be 'gopping' (Geordie for awful) - and that was on a good day!

Frankly, I didn't much feel liking putting up lights this year but I was on the horns of a dilemma. If I didn't do it then I could hear Gail say "Oh, so you wait till I've gone and then you decide not to be those bloody awful things up!". So, this morning, watched only by four cats I put up the outside lights. Now, they're done and I can stand back and hear her say "Fook me, they still look terrible!"

Next, to recreate her genius inside. Wish me luck on this one...

Day 6 - What Will Santa Claus Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin') - Louis Prima

Or rather what would Louis Prima say if he knew what the title of his song would mean in the 21st Century? All the way from 1939 comes this jazz gem from the U.S. trumpeter and bandleader. If nothing else the label from the 78 should fill you with seasonal joy.

Day 5 - Cryin' Christmas Tears - Eric Clapton

' Nuff Said

Day 4 - Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley & Martina McBride

Grief is an odd thing.

Morrisons, a train to Liverpool Street, a Mini showroom, an Italian restaurant in Brighton over an excellent bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese; all have been places where I have inexplicably burst into tears since July's event, despite holding it together at what might otherwise be considered to be the normal time and place for a good cry.

To be honest, Blue Christmas is one of those faux-sentimental Christmas songs that had pretty much passed me by over the years yet, last week, in the fast lane of the M42, I suddenly went into floods when it came onto the generic fruit-based device. Unable to move over to the inside lane because of weight of traffic and unable to stop, I drove for the best part of 20 miles gulping air and wiping tears from my cheeks.

Repeated plays haven't elicited the same response and I wouldn't have felt duty-bound to add it the calendar until I came across this live version with Elvis and Ms McBride, the duet is superb and it's worth it just to see Presley looking so effortlessly cool.

Day 3 - Thanks For Christmas - The Three Wise Men

It won't be a surprise once you've clicked on the link but The Three Wise Men are none other than Andy Partridge and his friends in XTC bringing us gifts of a merry ditty under a seasonal non-de-plume.

Day 2 - Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Johnny Cash

I think we've all been coming here long enough to know the drill by now; pointless self-imposed rules to make my life harder. In this case the fact that Sunday's on the calendar need to be a Carol.

And here's Johnny! Intriguingly changing key throughout, with a harmonising choir to make the whole thing a fascinating exercise in Carol singing.

Day 1 - This Time Of Year (When Christmas Is Near) - Etta James

All the way from 1959 when Christmas was a very different beast, comes Etta with a smoky jazz ode to the season. Catch Red Holloway on that tenor sax! 

If you have someone to hold, then hold them tight now. 

Lady Blagg

On July 29th this year, my world came crashing down when I lost my beautiful, talented,  unique, vibrant, funny, love of my life. 

Gail. or Lady Blagg as she has been know on my blogs since I first came onto the WWW in 1998, was a woman who could light up a room; someone who stopped conversation when she walked in. A brilliant force of nature who seemed to have been given every one of those gifts that we all aspire too - popularity, wit, intelligence, elegance and mesmerism - Gail was sadly inhibited by a cruel twist of fate that dictated that, if she was to have all these good things, then she would have to deal with poor health too.

Gail's cross came in the form of SLE, or Lupus as it is better known, a cruel and vicious disease that blighted her life. There was barely a day she wasn't in pain, hardly a month where some new flare-up didn't raise its head, but she bore this with stoicism - to the outside world anyway -  although at home she suffered from the type of crisis of confidence that often affects those who spend too much time with the Doctor or at the hospital. Lady B refused to ever let her illness get the better of her though. She always dressed immaculately and always looked at her best. Naturally, to add to her gifts she could wear virtually anything and make it look good.

Christmas was our time. I first told her I loved her underneath the clock at High Wycombe station  - take that Noel Coward! - on Christmas Eve and the season seemed to define us. Romantic and exciting, we always made sure that, whatever happened, we always celebrated the weeks leading up to the day itself in the best way we could. Quite how I am going to negotiate Christmas 2018 is, frankly, beyond me.

And so to the Calendar...

It would be only too easy here to say 'She'd have wanted me to carry on' but that would be a bon mot with little basis in reality. In fact, Gail regarded my predilection for seeking out obscure Christmas songs in much the same way as I would watch my cat Buzz chase his tail while inside a box; amused but with a slightly superior grin that said "Well, he seems to get some pleasure from it and it it keeps him out of harms way". 

Both Gail and I were/are complex and not as people often see us - it was one of the reasons we found an affinity even though, to the casual observer, we were entirely different. She may have posted the odd song on her own social media occasionally and, underneath it, I believe she quite liked the fact I had something to do that interested me but, had I, for some bizarre reason, managed to ask her if it was OK to carry on after she'd left her reply would probably be something like "I'm not likely to give  a fuck what you do, am I?"

The fact is though, this isn't about what Gail would have wanted or what people expect or want me to do. It's about what I can do. And, as it stands, I don't know if I've got the will to see this through... but I will have a try. If you return here some years hence and find this calendar stops suddenly and there's no more after it then you know what happened. 

Christmas 2018 then. Despite what I wrote when I set this blog up last December, there probably is a 'need to be afraid'.

Christmas 2018

25 days, 25 Christmas Songs; Perhaps not those you've heard before. If you want a taste of what to expect follow the links to previous years.

Photo: B.Blagg