Merry Christmas Everybody!

Thank you for all your support this year.

Hopefully, World leaders and deity of choice notwithstanding, we can make it to the 20th next year.

What an insane thought that is!

Day 25 - Christmasey - Brian Wilson

The sad loss of the genius of Brian Wilson this year, was partly overshadowed by the joy at having him with us for so long. If you'd suggested in the late 60s or 70s that the former Beach Boy would still be touring and composing halfway through the second decade of the 21st Century, you'd have been laughed at, such was his health decline in his late 20s. 

It was said that when Wilson's mental state was at its worst, he played Phil Spector's Christmas album 'A Christmas Gift For You' every day for a year, so obsessed was he with Spector's production. The terrible irony is that, despite his unparalleled mastery of song writing and production, Wilson never really emulated the man he admired the most in terms of Christmas music. 

The Beach Boy's Christmas album is one of the band's worst and even during his spectacular renaissance in the late 90s with 'Smile' and 'That Lucky Old Sun', Wilson's 'What I Really Want For Christmas' is patchy and ultimately disappointing.

Nevertheless, there is no way I could complete 2025's Calendar without something acknowledging Brian Wilson's brilliance and - with 'Little Saint Nick' - already entered on day 21 of the second Calendar, I've gone with 'Christmasey', a song he composed with Jimmy Webb.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 24 - Christmas Eve - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci / Teenage Fanclub

 'And the star you fell in love with / Comes out on Christmas Eve'

The message is Oh so sweet, yet Oh so short. So short, in fact that, under two minutes, it's worth repeating, so here's Carmarthen's Zygotic Mynci with their original recording and an equally lovely cover from Glasgow's own Teenage Fanclub.

May your own star guide you on this most magical of days.

Day 23 - For Those Who Can't Be Here - Tom Walker

 If you know...

Day 22 - Under The Mistletoe - The Silhouettes

 'Oh man I miss you / Just wanna kiss you' say Amsterdam's The Silhouettes on this jangly pop delight.

Day 21 - O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Sister Rosetta Tharp

The Godmother of Rock 'n' Roll whose unique mixture of spiritual, blues and gospel, all played on a heavily distorted electric guitar, inspired the first generation of pop musicians like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and, of course, Elvis. There's a good argument that says, whatever music you are listening to tomorrow, it wouldn't exist without Rosetta Tharp (nee Nubin).

From the 'Gospel Train' album, here is the familiar Carol like you've never heard it before. 

Day 20 - Where Are You Christmas - Pretty Reckless

It's the last shopping Saturday before Christmas, so time for a Blagg GOFGOF (Get one free, Get one free) of sorts.

This Calendar window comes courtesy of WesHam - not a typo, his name really is Wesley Ham - but better known to most of us as @CouchPotato, who suggested this excellent track from Taylor Momson's 'Pretty Reckless Christmas'. The album/EP is only seven tracks long, but every one is a little gem.

Couchy, as I like to call him, tells me that Momson played Cindy Lou Who in Jim Carrey's 'Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas' movie back in 2000, and I'll have to take him at his word as I've not seen it (Though I do have a pair of Grinch socks). 

The now 32-year-old Momson accompanies her 7-year-old self for the first part of the song, then rocks out with her Pretty Reckless band before, at least on the video, returning to a voice and piano version. If you're listening to the EP on the Spotify link though, the two versions appear as the opening and closing tracks.

Got that? I will be asking questions on Boxing Day, you know.

Day 19 - Peace On Earth - DeRobert & the Half-Truths

Last Friday party night of the season, and if this doesn't get you up on that dancefloor, doing your funky stuff then you should probably make an appointment to see your doctor (Good luck with that, mind).  

Day 18 - Warm This Winter - Gabriella Cilmi

Nothing warms the cockles of the hearts of the Blagg Acre elves more than when one of the Calendarists (as I like to think of them) gets in touch to suggest a song. 

The usual expectation here is that people don't (understandably!) bother to check the 475-odd tracks that have been on previously, and suggest one that has already appeared, but that's not the case this time. This year, two people have contacted me with excellent suggestions. 

First up is JaneLV, who recommended 'Warm This Winter', a song originally a big hit for Connie Francis in 1958, but on this version, recorded by Australian Gabriella Cilmi for a Christmas Co-op promotion in 2008. It's particularly prescient this year, as my local Co-op department store has just closed after 144 years. Where were you when we needed you, Gabby?

Song aside, also coincidentally, I met a JaneLV in the bar at a Pretenders gig last year, and despite a year having passed, and her having a penchant for men with a rucksack, and consequently failing to take me up on my offer of a Sunday lunch until a month ago, it's all circled around again this year.

I wonder if it's the same woman? After all, it does seem unseasonably warm this winter. 

Perhaps, I'll find out on Christmas Eve, who can say? 

London 2025

 

Photos: B.Blagg

Day 17 - Dominick the Donkey - Lou Monte

There was a time when each year's Calendar had to have a version of 'White Christmas' and a seasonal novelty record on it, but somewhere over the years that has been forgotten. Since it's been a while since the latter has graced this page, I think it's time to change that.  So I'm going to say 'jing-a-de-jing' and you're going to say...?

Day 16 - Santa's Knee - Lenny Kaye

Lenny Kaye is largely known for his work with the Patti Smith Group, but here in this slow Country-tinged tale of woe, Kaye is a store Santa by day, dispensing gifts and good cheer to children ('Good or bad it's not for me to say / I believe all of God's children should have their own way') but going home of a night to a lonely room at the far side of town, where he sits under 'unkissed mistletoe' and drowns his sorrows, while wishing for the real St Nick to bring him wonder and magic to brighten his life.

It's a tragic tale for our time. 

Best listened to with a Jack Daniel's and a Tesco Finest mince pie.

Day 15 - On This Christmas Day - The Moody Blues

 'On This Christmas Day' is a track from the Moody Blues sixteenth and last album 'December', written by bassist John Lodge, who sadly passed away this year. 

Few bands rode the Zeitgeist of the Sixties like the Moodies, riding it so hard and for so long, they were still carrying their anachronistic, lush, mellotron-based, wry observations on life, love, eternal peace and understanding well into the 21st Century.

Lodge contributed two tracks to 'December', the other being 'The Spirit of Christmas' which features the awful line, 'Where did the spirit of Christmas go? / Lost in the desert all covered in snow,' leaving me little option but to plump for 'Christmas Day' as the track of choice.

Still the old LCD trippery can still see me enjoying Justin Hayward's  'Don't Need A Reindeer' which appeared on Day 10 of the 2008 Calendar for any of you still brave enough to venture there.

Day 14 - I Saw Three Ships - Jon Boden & Eliza Carthy

I was going to see Jon Boden & Eliza Carthy this week, but never made it due to traffic, which was pretty annoying. Still, they've at least made it onto the Sunday Calendar this year with this offering - a carol which hasn't appeared on the Calendar before - from their 2023 'Glad Christmas Comes' album. It features a lovely silver band, which is pretty much guaranteed to get me onside any December.

Day 13 - It's Christmas Time Again (Spend, Spend, Spend) - Little Charlie & the Nightcats

It's Christmas shopping Saturday and here's Little Charlie - Charles Baty - and his Nightcats exhorting you to spend, spend, spend - like you were going to be doing anything other than that anyway.

Out of Sacramento, California, Charlie and his band were active from 1976 to 2008 with an excellent rendition of jump and electric blues. The band performed internationally at various blues and jazz festivals, before sadly, Charles died from a heart attack in 2008.

Day 12 - Hot in December - Kylie Minogue

It's the second Christmas party night of Advent, so put this on the jukebox and grab the woman in the fur coat, PVC dress and thigh boots and off you go. Sorted! Thank me later.

Day 11 - It Feels Like Christmas - Eddie & the Hot Rods

For those of a certain vintage, Eddie & the Hot Rods anthemic 'Do Anything You Wanna Do' is still a call to arms like no other. 

You could have spent those years since 1977, running your own IT company and you have a decent mortgage-free house in a north Essex village; your kids might have gone to Uni and done very well for themselves, but when you're driving your Merc down the M11 and that line 'Why don't you ask them what they expect from you / Why don't you tell them what you are gonna do' comes up, you press that button to get the window down, and shake your fist out at the passing traffic like you're a snotty teenager in skinny jeans who's lost a safety pin out of his T shirt.

...errr... or so I've heard anyway.

This isn't that version of the Hot Rods sadly, as the great Barry Masters passed away in 2019, but 'It Feels Like Christmas' has still got a anthemic punky edge and a great guitar riff. Oh, and bells and kids....yes, bells and kids.

Still, I've had my eyes lasered and I don't need no optician to tell me what I oughta see. 

Day 10 - Soul Christmas - Count Sidney & His Dukes

I can tell you absolutely nothing about Count Sidney nor his Dukes, but that doesn't matter because he want's you to go shing-a-linging and I'm a bit busy, so I'll just leave this here.