Podrophenia X Mass

DL at SFOB Podbean: Podrophenia brings you, a seasonal cocktail of 'X' themed songs (band, artist or tune) and the occasional Christmas tune.. 

 There's a Pod Quiz - guess the film - from it's international release title. A messy Persuaders challenge, and Spotify Wrapped roundups.. 

 Dig in and DL here or stream below

The Podrophenic Advent Calendar

The Podrophenic Advent Calendar from Piley, self and Popeapedia and is eady for unwrapping

Loaded with a selection box of pop quizzes, bad present tales, panto antics, the story of one of the rarest annuals ever (Willy the Kid 3), plus Christmas hits in 8 bits - and a fantasticus live set from Kate West.. Grab it, bag it and DL it here....

Podrophenia Advent Calendar

Stream

iTunes

Podrophenia Christmas Party

The Podrophenia Christmas special gathers together some of most talented young musicians from the Southend area: BaVard - an award winning talented trio with a combined age of 40, and the acoustic magic of Caitlin King (16). So, settle yourself by our radio fireside for a live session from both, festive puns, and some seasonal songs - including Donald Trump covering two tinsel tunes. And who are Beanie, Bobble and Slouch..

 All here and all free...

Stream

Download 

iTunes

Saturday Night Tweeter - Happy Holidays in The Sun (aka Jehoovers Witness)

Greatest Christmas window display ever - and it's in Southend #Southend #Christmas pic.twitter.com/YV7yeddibF
— Mondo (@Mr_Mondo) December 6, 2014

So, sitting in the kitchen of a Saturday evening with a few scoops, a few tunes, and thumbing through Facebook updates - I stumble across this picture of a local electrical shop (Sales Appliances, Westcliff) by Sam McDonagh, and, within a blink, share Sam's shot on the Twitter. Which, at the time - seemed to be probably the most flat-line time to repost, with bods either being out and about, or tucked up indoors for cozier doings

I couldn't have been more wrong - a few clicks of the clock later, and notification alerts were pinging in by the second.. comments , responses and retweets. By Sunday and with a run of Celtic flavored names commenting on the picture, noticed the story had been picked up by The Daily Edge in Ireland... 

Monday saw usvsth3m feature my pictures (now with added a stable and star) and an interview with the shop owners. Shortly after that - The Poke The Scotsmen were on it,  BBC local  and BBC national

By Monday evening and nearly 3,500 RTs and 300,000 views of Sam's original picture later - London paper The Metro were checking in on our festive chums. And today sees the Essex Chronicle The Huffington Post ,Charlie Brooker, Caitlan Moran  - and The Sun spotlighting the nativity scene  (with self and Mrs M reflected in the window)

I wouldn't normally endorse anything to do with the shadowy world of  Murky Murdoch - but as the picture supports a local electrical business, was originally shot by Sam from Argosy Toys and most importantly the display is in aid of HARP - Southend's Homeless Charity -  that pretty much seems to sum up the essence of Christmas to me.

As a festive epilogue, why not donate to HARP hereabouts 

New testimonials...... from the Daily Mirror (top) and Metro. - shouts on Chris Evans breakfast show, the Express and ITV News and local paper The Echo confirms Henry is viral:official

Today's #nationalanthem is about a Henry Hoover Nativity Scene in a shop window. Can you think of a song? The link: http://t.co/gYdZdVUAvH

— Steve Lamacq Show (@BBClamacqshow) December 10, 2014

Friday the 12th - Henry makes HIGNFY...

Christmas Sunday Sessions: Some blues-blasting, a Beatles convention and a sack-load of new tunes

Boys, girls, grinches and humbuggers, roll up, roll up to Southends Railway Hotel for the last Sunday Session of 2013. A three walloper that includes.....

Martin McNeill * Bottletop Blues Band in the bar, with guests Tim Huskisson on and Steve West Weston on harmonica

A grab bag of fruity newly discovered treats and tunes, with some seasonal Beatles and funky nuggets nipped in from me before during and after the band....



A Beatles convention upstairs, with a parade of Southend's finest playing their way through the Fabs songbook...

This is my last post for the year, back in 2013 - with the usual whatnot and waffling - so see you then and have yourself a jumping, jiving Christmas and new year yardbirds...

Have a Fab Christmas

Well that's me done for the year - work is finished (and I'm not back til the 2nd). The shopping's shopped, the presents are wrapped, and the holiday handbrake has been firmly applied.

Although there will be one last blast before Santa's seasonal prowl-about - The Railway's Annual Charity Bash: The 2012 Beatles Convention - An all day event double-decking (the halls) across two floors

Upstairs: Southend's finest musicians will be putting their individual spins on the Beatles songbook 

Downstairs: Martian McNeill and his Bottletop Blues Band (With special guest West Weston and mystery jazzer TBA) - will be swinging through a Sunday afternoon session from 4

I'll be parked up in the downstairs bar spinning in Beatles themed covers, bootleg remixes, inspirations, and solo stompers

Ernie Garrett - Eleanor Rigby


And perhaps a handful of seasonal blues tunes

So until next year (or the 30th when West Weston brings his Bluesonics and Mud Morganfields guitarist to the The Railway) - have yourself a swinging little christmas

Dear Diary:1980 - December. The Last Post

It seems fitting that after two years and 24 posts, as Dear Diary reaches it's last entry - so we finish on King of the Blingers, Jimmy Saville who also bowed out with a closing coda this year. Light on entries but heavy on celebrations (three birthdays,  Christmas and New Year's Eve) -  a couple of moments to note include...

My First Concert: Adam and the Ants at Chelmsford Odeon (13th) - as we've mentioned previously an absolute skull-cracker of a gig, during the brief transitional shift when Adam was slowly shedding the hardcore of mohicans and kilted fans that had dragged around behind him as the shadowy Ant People - before the pre-teen/ Televisual crowd massed on the now cavalary jacketed Adam (with newly installed songwriting team-mate Marco Pirroni). The Chelmsford audience for this date was a sweaty swell of ructious skins and punks snarling, scrumming and thumping lumps out of each other at stage front, to a point where Adam had to stop the performance midway through one number - to bark at a hot-spot of rucking punks/skins..

The Shadow of The Damned: from the earliest Dear Diaries well May 79 - the as it happens (not in  the Jimmy Saville sense) output of those first-past-the-post(s) punks have been rendered and recorded with regular entries. December 80 sees The Damned at their most dynamic - a one off Christmas curiosity single - There Ain't No Sanity Clause and the widescreen genius of double LP The Black Album. Not surprisingly my second gig and follow-on to the Ants outing was The Damned at the Lyceum 5th July 1981 for their fifth anniversary gig with a setlist supporting the Black Album (details here)..

Now and then: all singles bagged December 1980

The Quinn Martin style epilogue: If, back then, some anonymous bod, had told me  'in 2011 you'll write the sleevenotes and interviews for Marco Pirroni's latest album (The Wolfmen - Married to the Eiffel Tower), and rattle off 8 pages of overviews  and interviews for a magazine cover feature on The Damned' - it really would have scrambled my teenage brainwaves. In fact it scrambles my middle aged brainwaves now.. I mean, really, who'd a thought?

To borrow a question from Marc Bolan - whatever happened to the teenage dream? Well in this case, it came true!

So that's it chums - we're all done with Dear Diary. If you've been in from the beginning, a huge thank you is due for sticking around - if you've been a dipper-in or occasional grazer of these scribbled bits - a tip of the titfer is due to you too.

What's next - there's a new monthly motif possibly lined up for 2012. A magazine based take on vintage times - but more on that in Jan. So until then, have yourselves a hoot for hogmany, a knees-up of a New Year's Eve - and I'll catch you next year x

The singles list is fairly sprightly, but beware the album chart - a giddy mix of nutty comps, new wavers and A O R-tists

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The Damned - There Ain't No Sanity Clause

Festive Family Favourites...

Phew! this plum was never pulled from Piley's Christmas collection - during his lucky dips

A huge thank you is due to all who turned on, chipped in and sprinkled their sparkle over the last Radio Podrophenia of 2011 on Tuesday. An absolute Christmas cracker of an evening with everyone cosying up around our Podrophonia fireplace swapping tunes, tales and chat - from pulled pork and pink oboes, to rock stars as Panto acts and naffo presents.  The holiday highlight being a top turn from Hannah on the ol' Joanna giving us a recital of Root Beer Rag. If you haven't tried a scoop or two of our weekly offerings or couldn't make it Tuesday, perhaps lend a festive ear here...

Radio Podrophenia - Christmas Special



A Podrophonic salute goes out to all the radio regulars, ident-doers, jinglers-makers, contributors, special guests, downloaders and all at Chance Radio who've made 2011 such a special year for Piley and I.

That's not quite it for this year for me though - we've still got the final Dear Diary entry to come afore Hogmany falls upon us.  Another soul salute is due to all the bloggers and browsers, regular or occasional who take time out to visit this corner of cyberspace..

Whoever you're with or wherever you are this Christmas - have a sparkling one, a fab festive stretch and - l'll see you on the other side..

The Podrophonic Christmas album

If you're not busy or bustling about at a works do, school nativity, panto, carol service or some last minute, late night shopping - why not point yourself in the direction of Chance Radio from 9 tonight as Piley and I do our last Radio Podrophenia run out of the year - and our first (live) Christmas edition... 

Piley's doing a lucky dip from his Christmas box, while I'll possibly be playlisting tracks by Elvis, Clarence Carter, Ella Fitzgerald and Big Tiny Little. A huge thank you is due to all at Chance for taking a punt on us this year, our guests for joining us in the Podrophonic bunker - and of course all the board regulars, our silent listeners and podcast downloaders. Speaking of which.. 

Last week's edition featuring the legend that is Roman Jugg is grabbable here. Standby for a full hour of tunes and chat on Naz Nomad, The Phantom chords, Marc Almond and The Damned..

Radio Podrophenia - Roman Jugg Special



Or via Itunes

One you may find under the Christmas Podrophenia tonight

The Ghost of Christmas Future?

Released this coming Monday -  Jackie is it My Birthday is The Wolfmen's alternative/antidote to the usual Xmas offenders, X Factory winners and seasonally reheated hits: ASBOs in Skiwear, the drunken New York duet and that bloody Wham! song with it's dour sound of lolloping and lumpy intro notes.

Drew's already given it a cyber salute and Radio 2 have been peppering their schedules with Jackie

Keeping it in the family - literally, My brother Tronik Youth pieced together, compiled and edited a festively funky official new vid' for the single - which is now showing at both  The Wolfmen and Dandy Warhol HQ's.

Have a squint below and perhaps add Jackie is it My Birthday to your christmas playlist
The whispers are there's also a cheeky new Jackie remix due from Cornershop soon!

Dear Diary - December

Which album is Kid Christmas is holding? Scroll down for the answer

And so shipmates we come to our end-of-year sign off, the closing chapter in our 12 month part-work. But what a year, skin-shedding from disco poppet to teenage punk and junking Edwin Starr for Sid Vicious, with all manner of hi-jinks, capers and carry ons recorded forever by way of a few scribbled bits. Coincidentally I found the 1980 (mentioned on 12th) calendar last month. What do you reck' give it a go, or stick to '79?

What was traditionally a bumper month for birthdays 14th, 16th and 28th has become a case of 'last man standing'. But let's not end on morose note, and before we step into Christmas...I'll dedicate the entire run of Dear Diary posts to mum and dad who made this year, and every year, so special for me.

What can we spot in December then: a torn ankle ligament, early snow (18th), black DMs (10th) and two family traditions. The tree and deccies up around my birthday. And a London run driving to the maternal aunts and uncles handing out gifts and prezzies. I literally loved this, dad zipping around town and seeing the capital kitted out in it's Christmas shiny finery

Chart-wise the closing moments of '79 looked like this. Tune-wise I'll leave you with a couple in keeping with the punky mood of this month (Damned, Wolfmen). The Greedies (a re-up, as my single's dropped down the back of our wardrobe), a New Year's variant of the same track from the Kenny Everett show plus a best of '79 chart run-down with Tony Blackburn...sensational!. And not 79-ish in anyway but also a tune from Spector LP pictured with David 'Kid' Jensen..

Let's all meet up in the year 2011. Until then - have yourselves a merry little Christmas and a rocking New Year doings. Make the most of your loved ones, go easy on the port and plum duff, and hope Santa brings you everything you've worked and wished for..

x

London Calling should be in here too, but seems to have gone the way of The Greedies

The Greedies - A Merry Jingle.mp3



Darlene Love - It's A Marshmallow World

Guest Blogger: The Ghost of Christmas Pop...

Hold onto your Santa hats pop-pickers as Terry of the spectacular TOTP The Definitive Website , delivers a hamper of Hallmark's holiday hits. Vol 42 listed today, was my very first TOTP album - even now seeing the cover, takes me back to sitting in mum and dad's rocking chair, eating endless helpings of marmite on toast by our 3 bar electric fire, which incidentally, caught the cat's tail aflame once. But that's another tale for another time (come on, it is Panto season)...so for now it's over to Terry and his grotto of goodies...

One of the most astute marketing decisions in pop was taken by the tiny Hallmark label in 1968, when they launched their “Top of the Pops” albums – a series of LPs packed with cheaply made, but passable cover versions of current pop hits. The masterstroke was realising the BBC had failed to trademark the title – and so by purloining it, Hallmark could cash in on unwitting punters thinking they were getting the real soundtrack to the TV programme. Come Christmas, untold numbers of unsuspecting parents and grandparents must have found these LPs in the shops and picked them up at seemingly bargain prices for the kids.

It’s Christmas Day, 1971, and on this morning, the new national album charts are published. And at number 13, it’s “Top of the Pops volume 20” [one of my favourite covers - Mond]outselling current classics by Carol King, Rod Stewart and James Taylor, among others. That same Christmas morning, “Hot Hits 8” was at a lofty number 2, while “Pye Chartbusters 2” was also in the top 30 – proof that Christmas was the ideal time for budget albums like these to fly off the shelves. And so it seems appropriate at this time of year to pay tribute to the “Top of the Pops” phenomenon, by rounding up some of their finest seasonal offerings – cover versions all, but which perfectly capture the moment......

We start our review with something of a Christmas pudding from our Elton. In his prime and scoring top 10 hits for fun, it was a major eyebrow-raiser when the custom-made “Step Into Christmas” struggled to a Scrooge-like 24 on the singles charts. “Top of the Pops” captured a version for volume 35, Elton himself no stranger to the budget covers scene of course, having recorded a good number of vocals for LPs such as this before he was famous. (In fact he can be heard singing on “Top of the Pops” volume 5, but that’s another story.) This rendition doesn’t sound too much like Elton, but to be fair, sounds every bit a Christmas hit.

Step Into Christmas  - Vol 35 (1973)



One of the strangest pop phenomena of the 1970s (and that’s saying something!) was that of the Wombles. This bizarre novelty act, brainchild of Mike Batt, somehow managed to rack up four top 10 hits in 1974 alone, the best of the lot, “Wombling Merry Christmas” which was held off the top of the hit parade only by Mud’s rival offering, “Lonely This Christmas”. The Poppers plumped for the Wombles and covered them in style; in this instance, it hardly mattered that this was not the original version. Rumour has it the Wombles didn’t play on their own singles anyway… It’s easy to dismiss this track as just kids’ stuff, but use your imagination. Change the words “Wombling Merry Christmas” for “rollicking Merry Christmas” and you have a hit which could give Wizzard’s concurrent Xmas anthem a run for its money.

Wombling Merry Christmas - Vol 42 (1974)



In the years before Simon Cowell got to decide what would be Christmas number 1 sometime over the summer, the coveted top slot was much more of a lottery than today. It is a curious fact that until 1973, only one Christmas song managed it – “Mary’s Boy Child” by Harry Belafonte, way back in December 1957. All that changed in the 70s, with Christmas-themed number 1s becoming the norm on the 25th, and “Top of the Pops” couldn’t have been better timed to celebrate the fact. Come 1978, it was a return to Christmas of yore, with “Mary’s Boy Child” top of the Christmas tree once again, courtesy of a dramatically updated version by Boney M. “Top of the Pops” do their best with this awkward fusion of seasonal worship and hedonist discotheque, as heard on volume 77, but it was never going to be an easy job. For some reason they released it a year late, in December 1979. Work that one out?!

Mary's Boy Child - Vol 77 (1979)



Back in the early 1970s, when John Lennon really believed he could change the world for the better, he set about creating what he reckoned would replace “White Christmas” as the definitive seasonal song. “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” may not have quite managed that, but one wonders if Macca was just a tad jealous anyway? No sooner had Wings flown the nest than Sir Paul rushed out his first solo offering in almost a decade. “Wonderful Christmastime” is pure McCartney, bouncy, catchy, commercial and completely bereft of substance. “Top of the Pops” couldn’t resist a crack at Macca’s hit single, which can be heard on the same volume 77 with “Mary’s Boy Child”.

Wonderful Christmastime - Vol 77 (1979)



Fast forward one year, and Christmas will never be the same for Beatles fans. Lennon’s murder in early December cast a shadow over the festive season, the pop charts of Christmas 1980 commemorating his passing with a slew of his singles piling up in the top end of the listings. “Happy Xmas” was among them, appropriately entering the charts in Christmas week, but too late for the December “Top of the Pops” (and completely unsuitable for the January LP). Christmas number 1 that year was Lennon’s would-be comeback single, “(Just Like) Starting Over”, redolent of its time and place, and worthy of another listen through the Poppers’ prism. (Was it really thirty years ago?)

(Just Like) Starting Over - Vol 83 (1980)



We open our last “Top of the Pops” present, as the LP series was itself coming to a conclusion, in 1981. Number 1 on Christmas day are the distinctly uncelebratory Human League, but we have our eternal saviour at number 2, in the form of Clifford Richard. For a month, his schmaltzy “Daddy’s Home” was poised to capture top spot, but somehow never did, divine intervention apparently not forthcoming. Perfect for a festive “Top of the Pops” album, this lullaby track sees out our Yuletide survey with all the ghastly bad taste we associate with the season, and indeed with Cliff. Merry Christmas – and go easy on the cheese.

Daddy’s Home - Vol 89 (1981)

Clocking Off For Christmas...

View from our upstairs window last Friday..

Well that's almost it from me for this decade..Happy Christmas, Feliz Navidad and Mele Kaliki Maka to everyone who's chipped in with contributions, comments, recommendations or link ups. And a discreet nod to those stealthy footed silent types who read but never write..

I say almost, as I'll be back on the 31st. Having been asked to do the tunes for a New Year's shinding, I've rattled up a roll call of 'bangers', 'bankers' and rootin' tootin' tunes - running to a total four CDs worth. Tune in New Year's Eve and you can grab the full set for a limited period only...

So that'll be me blogging off, logging off and leaving you with two tunes used in the last poddy - The Ventures (soundtracked our cracker test) and Big Tiny Little (the piano madness used to close the 'cast). So until then, have yourselves a swinging little Christmas playmates and go easy on the scoops and stodge..

Big Tiny Little - Tiny's Christmas Medley



The Ventures - Jingle Bell Rock



If you haven't checked it out yet, you must get your snow-boots over to Fades In Slowly, where Adam has created a 'bloggers of the world unite' selection box in the style of Peely's festive 50 with between tune links from St John of Peel...

Podrophenia 7 - Christmas Podding

Artwork by Paul Oddsock

Following in the tradition of festive specials Piley and I bring you a bumper edition for the Christmas Podrophenia : 10 tinsel tunes, 8 celebrity messages (can you spot them all) and 2 special guests as Marmite Boy and Coops join us for a sleigh ride through cyberspace..

Brian Setzer, Sufjan Stevens, Shonen Knife and Barbara Streisand are a few of the tunes hand-picked for the playlist. While in other news there's a cracker consumer test, possibly the most miserable Christmas song ever, retromania with Burley aftershave, Ronco adverts and Avon Boosters. A Wood Watch update and find out which one of us has, ermm, 'fiddler's fingers' ~ I say!

It's perhaps rowdier than our usual poddies as assorted other halves, 2 Mini-Mondo's and 1 Tiny Piley add some background clatter to the goings on ..

Serving suggestion - play it while you're writing or delivering cards, wrapping prezzies, enjoying a glass of egg nog (what is egg nog?) or trimming the tree. Whatever you're doing fill your boots and raise a glass ~ or is it fill a glass and raise your boots? ~ for Christmas.

Podrophenia 7 - Christmas Podding



Or via iTunes (should be up later today)

Countdown To Christmas - Ho, Ho, Ho-down

The spirit of the season and a Christmas tingle finally took hold over the weekend. Fired by a medley of : the New York Dolls tinsel, glam and glitter at Friday's gig - how loud? Choco Girl popping by with homemade cards and crocheted tree trims. Piley, Coops and Marmite dropping round to record the Christmas podcast. A trip to my favourite pub decked out in festive finery and a rewatch of Scrooged starring NY Doll David Johansen as the cab-driving, stogie-chewing Ghost of Christmas past. All lit by a low-lying golden December sunlight.

All of which means it’s time to unwrap some winter warmers and set the yule blog ablaze by way of a blugrass shinding on Christmas Time's A Comin, and a ragtime tear-up on the jolliest, jauntiest version of Here Comes Santa Claus

The Grascals - Christmas Time's A Comin'



Big Tiny Little - Here Comes Santa Claus






Oh and the newly remastered It's A Wonderful Life has been bought and tucked away for a closer-to-Christmas treat..

Countdown To Christmas - That's All Four This Year....

So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...

A couple o' rooting tooting tunes from the ever-popular (according to the stats) Sound Of Brass,Torero Band

Jingle Bells



The Holly And The Ivy



A merry medley from the most swingingest of soundtrackers....

Lalo Schifrin - Joy To The World



And this delicous downtempo DJ BC Beatleg remix...which gently folds The Jacksons and John Lennon into one luvverly bundle

DJ BC - Imagine Santa

There's a vid' for it too...


So chill your boots, fill your boots and see you in the space-age sounding 2009 playmates
- x -

Funky Friday - Santastic Grab Bag

As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out?

Personally I really will pull this sort of a face, if get anywhere near another whiff of Phil Spector, 'Fairytale of New York' or East 17's 'Stay' and Frankie's 'Power Of Love' (and who in the name of Chris Chringle ever decided the last two had any sniff of Christmas spirit about them anways)..

So let me introduce to you ...a grab bag of goodies, a sackful of bootleg remixes and festive flavored funky nuggets that should get your jingle boots a'bopping and your cosy toes a'tapping. All have been masterfully mixed by the super heroes and heavy hitters of cut-and-paste-pop into fun size, mini-medleys of panto' season playfulness where ....

Shaking Stevens, Jet and Jonah Lewie get bunged in the blender.
Bad Tattoo - Are You Gonna Stop The White Christmas



The Who, James Brown, Clarence Carter and Curtis Mayfield make
merry...
Mojochronic - Xmasploitation Santa



The bestest ever refit of Last Christmas - a real winter Whammer
DJ BC - Fettdog Last Christmas Twist



And GHP whisks Blondie and Macca into a Christmas confection as full and fruity as figgy pud'...
Go Home Productions - High Tides And Blocked Peace Pipes




All tracks are taken from five full albums worth of genuine geniusness available for free ....here A Very Bootie Christmas and here Santastic Four


Oh go on then, one more - as it's Christmas..

Sam Flanagan - Frosty DMC

Funky Friday - The Ghost Of Christmas Past

This fantastico bespoke hand-made illustration was kindly created by Paul McDonald of Odd Sock Illustration

I don't know about you, but while I was sprouting up during the seventies, Christmas in our house was a typically traditional ritual that followed a similar tinsel-plated template from year to year.

The same medley of decorations were randomly scattered about the tree mixing classic seventies pieces - felt baubles in orange or pink, super-modern amber plastic hoops filled with some sort of shiny sci-fi tape loops that dangled alongside retro-deco's from the fifties - cough-candy style twisted aluminium strips (purple or red on one side, silver on the other), real glass baubles and Japanese lanterns. All finished of with Woolworths candyfloss-type-fibreglass to add some soft-focus embellishment to the lights.

The Martini (red) and the drinks cabinet would be cracked open on Nan's arrival, and when it came to lunch, stalagmite style red candles, the candlebra and 'special cutlery' from an embossed box had their annual day trip to the table. Which, was typically centred around a Christmas cake wrapped in fancy band of gold foil and frilled red paper, with, perhaps a snow scene on the icing.

If you're wondering what in the name of Jacob Marley is the point of this winterland ramble? Well, it's that, the cosy essence of Christmas was the familiar similarity of the occasion. And, in much the same that way we'd fire up this Frank album while Martini's were a'pouring - I feel it could become,perhaps a seasonal tradition, to repost my homemade winter mixture created for Christmas last year....

A Mondo Funky Mixmas



Marc Bolan - Christmas Message
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
Keith Mansfield - Snowman Stomp
Jingle Bells - Booker T and the MG's
Ramsey Lewis Trio - Here Comes Santa Claus
Oscar Peterson - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Stu Hamm - Sleigh Ride
Up With the People - Jingle Bell Beat
Anita Kerr Singers - Jingle bell rock
Soulfoul singers - Santa Claus is coming to town
Soulful Strings - Sleigh Ride
Edwin Starr - Snowflake Boogie
The Rhodes Kids - Winter Wonderland

Countdown To Christmas - Never Mind The Baubles

(Or 'Oi To The World' to borrow a Five Centres phrase)

Given punk's sloganeering and songbook of No Future, Boredom and Blank Generations there's possibly more punky seasonal sing-a-longs than you'd expect...

The Damned's 'There Ain't No Sanity Clause'
XTC's 'Thanks For Christmas'
Stiff Little Fingers 'White Christmas'
The Stranglers Christmas EP

And of course the Sex Pistols played their final UK date, before hitting then splitting in the US, at a Huddersfield charity gig on December the 25th 1977

So good to see then that the tradition of Advent, Anarchy and God Save The Queen's Speech is being kept alive by the good people at Punk Christmas with an online advent calender that pops out one Christmas-chestnut-newly-reworked-as-punky-nugget per day (all for free too) - where you can grab crackers like these...

Bonus points are available if you can spot which punk/new wave classic has been adapted as the template for each tune

Another Rock And Roll Christmas



Stop The Cavalry



Little Drummer Boy



A special Santa salute to Agent Cooper for the tip off about this treat.

And if you know someone who's any sort of a Ramones (or punk) fan - here's just the thing to drop in their bovver boots for Christmas..Jenny Lens's photo-based eBook covering The Ramones first west coast tour of '76 - loaded with over 100 exclusive hi-res photo's sent straight to your inbox for just $15!!! (or 8 of your Queen's pounds)

Get your Gabba Gabbas on it right here...


Jenny Lens is the California 'punk scene' photographer, with a role call of spiky icons and heavy-hitters in her archives - Blondie, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and The Clash were all caught on film by Jenny during the seventies punk explosion. Her last book 'Punk Pioneers' is a must have if you're a nutter for punk like me - and at literally pocket money prices for this gallery of goodies, you really can't pass up the Ramones digi-book.

Did you know? - A major influence on The Ramones non-stop power punk (and haircuts) are the glam-anthems of our very own Christmas stompers Slade!

Countdown To Christmas - Here Come Sandy Claws

By gumbo it's getting close to Christmas, and in celebration of the international spirit of this festivo cajun* - O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Feliz Navidad (seen it for years, but not a clue what it means) - it's time to fire up the yule blog with a fistful of creole flavoured critters. So, Kick off your boots, put down that alligator, light your clay pipe, give your cousin a squeeze and your squeeze box a kiss (or is it the other way around?) and shake a festive leg to this fistful of swamp dweller stompers..

Hadley Castille the 'cajun swamp fiddler' (his phrase not mine), has a name uncannily close to one of my childhood haunts, and a sight still seen daily on my shuntings to London - Hadleigh Castle

Hadley Castille - Up on a Housetop




Hadley Castille - Blue Christmas



Justin Wilson (who he?) has the loose boozy bumble of a chap that's been necking the nog like a champ - zshingle bellsh indeed!

Justin Wilson - Jingle Bells



Justin Wilson - Here Comes Santa Claus

It Caimen 'pon a midnight clear

*Yes I'm aware I'm really pushing my luck with this, but please - take it with a pinch of 'Carry On Christmas'