'New Christmas CD's'

I LOVE Christmas shopping! Even though it often 'does your head in' trying to work out what to buy people I love the 'thrill of the chase' and often end up buying stuff for myself that I 'discovered' that I didn't intend to!

The snag is, of course, that while we all know instantly what WE would like for Christmas (cue an evening of chat about music, life and Christmas with, Kim Wilde and a romantic dinner with Claudia Winkleman!) we only really find out how LITTLE we know about our friends when its time to buy them something! (lol)

I always take a good 'scroll' down the list of new Christmas albums on Amazon.com at this time of year as well to see which artist has 'done a Mariah' this year! One thing that often irks me though is that prior to an albums release date you cannot even have a listen to 'previews' of the songs via their Mp3 choice. How silly is that! I mean, if people can get a 'sneak preview' of 30 seconds of each song or even a few songs on the album they will be MORE likely to pre-order it or buy it as soon as it comes out. Denying people the chance to hear a single bar beforehand is thus surely BAD for sales and only likely to COST artists as it is easy to forget all about something at this time of year and as Christmas albums are seasonal you are hardly likely to order it when you remember in January!

One of the CD's it would have been good to have a listen to is the new 'Fizz' (Bucks Fizz) Christmas record, 'Christmas With The Fizz'. It's due for release tomorrow and includes some 'festive favourites' like, 'Winter Wonderland', 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and 'White Christmas' along with a couple of band written songs and rare covers of, 'I Believe In Father Christmas' by Greg Lake and even more oddly, 'Mull Of Kintyre' by Wings.

There is also a 'Christmas version' of the Bucks Fizz hit, 'Land Of Make Believe' as well. All in all, it sounds like a very curious mix and quite a 'brave' selection in many ways because both the Greg Lake and Wings songs sound VERY easy to 'butcher' to me if the wrong approach is taken. To add even more interest the album is produced by, Mike Stock of Stock, Aitken And Waterman fame. Retro is really the 'in thing' these days and so I hope the album turns out to be a triumph and not a disaster! (lol)

Another intriguing item is the 'A Very Monotreme Christmas' Various Artists CD.

Limited to just 200 copies it is going to end up a 'Christmas music collectors ( if there is such a thing?) holy grail' in a few years time. The cover doesn't look all that 'Christmassy' to me and I have no idea what Monotreme means nor have I heard of any of the artists?Being a HUGE MUD fan I have to admit that I'm intrigued to hear the 'soulful' version of their, 'Lonely This Christmas' hit on the album but with only 8 tracks and covers of 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' (Jack Watts) and 'Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy' (The Favourite Bench) neither of which are my favourite Crimbo songs its a bit skinny value for me. I would like to know what the cover of , Etta James, 'At Last' sounds like though being a, Harvey Summers fan...

Talking of, Kim Wilde (I had a HUGE crush on her at school!) her Christmas album from a few years back is pretty good. I will be playing a track from it on Christmas Eve on the Jeff Belton show on CHR (Conquest Hospital Radio). In line with Christmas, Kim is releasing a DELUXE edition of her, 'Here Come The Aliens' album with a second disc of remixes, live tracks and two brand new tracks. While I have not heard the, 'Here come The Aliens' album in full from what I have heard it is a pretty 'samey' sounding set and so I won't be rushing to buy the deluxe version but if you saw, Kim live at the White Rock theatre in Hastings earlier this year you might like it as a souvenir of the tour as the three live tracks were all recorded on the tour...

Finally, HORRIFICALLY there is also a new, William Shatner Christmas CD on the way this year! Oh my GOODNESS I can only imagine how terrible that is going to sound.

The album is AWASH with 'guests' though as you may well imagine (seeing as Shatner is an AWFUL vocalist!) and AMAZINGLY quite a few of them are famous people! One of those being, Elliot Easton (The Cars) who contributes to the, aptly named no doubt, 'Run Rudolph Run'. Also on the album are, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Henry Rollins and Rick Wakeman. Well, its amazing who you can get to appear on your records when you can 'boldly go where no man has been before' is all I can say! (lol)

Oh, and poor old Captain Sensible will be 'turning in his shoes' after one look at the cover because it features a CRINGE WORTHY pic of Shatner in a Santa hat. Sadly, for the good Captain at a quick glance it looks a bit like him! (LOL)

'Some Beautiful Hand Crafted Christmas Cards & More!'

I seem to be in a 'state of denial' this year regarding Christmas! Aside from sorting out the recipients of my, 'A Nod To Mr. Dickens' CD I have only bought two Christmas presents and written out one Christmas card!
In my defence, I have been pretty busy of late and time always sails past when you have a lot on, doesn't it? I've only managed to attend one Christmas Fair as well this time but thankfully that was my FAVOURITE event at St Clements Church! It was there that I picked up these really lovely hand crafted Christmas cards.

 I LOVE cards with blank insides because then I can put what I really want to say rather than have to 'work around' one of those generic type cards. A lot of those words are Christmassy and nice but they aren't very personal and I always like to make sure that people know it is THEM I am thinking of at Christmas time.

It is a shame how the act of sending physical Christmas cards seems to be dying out now in favour of 'e' cards. I did receive a BRILLIANT present the other day though in the shape of an interactive Jacqui Lawson Advent Calendar from my friends, Ro & Sally Gardner. Not only do you get to 'live' in an imaginary cartoon town for a month and access a new part of it or story cartoon each day you can design things that appear in the town as well. I am having such a lot of fun dressing Snowmen and Christmas Trees as well as reading some interesting Christmas trivia and solving puzzles. The only bad thing about this kind of present being that you can't hold on to it forever unlike real toys and gifts. Still, Ro & Sally both know what a BIG kid I am and I am HUGELY chuffed to have lots of innocent fun to tide me over this December. I might even try to video some of the animation from off my Laptop screen to remember it by and/or write some stories based on my cartoon village and the character that walk across the screen from time to time!

Finally, I also got a FAB 5 CD set of Christmas songs called 'An Old Fashioned Christmas' from a charity shop in Hastings the other day for £2.99. Its one of those 'bulky' Readers Digest sets that used to be commonplace - are Readers Digest still about? I used to subscribe for a short time in the 1990's but found that the magazines just kept piling up unread. That's the worst thing about life - there just isn't enough time to take an interest in everything, is there!

I wanted the CD mainly because it includes a few of the 1950's/60's Christmas hits that I haven't got including, 'Must Be Santa' by Tommy Steele. The first couple of CD's are GREAT and set a lovely, old fashioned Christmas mood! We haven't got a tree up yet or any decorations but I can imagine sitting in front of one with a glass of wine and relaxing listening to both CD's. So enraptured was I, in fact, I even listened to the tracks featuring choirs and tenor singers!

'It's Creeping Up On Me!'

Normally at this time of year I am beginning to get the 'festive tingle' in my bones and starting to get the urge to begin playing Christmas music. I always find it odd that I perpetually get the urge to play Christmas tunes in advance of the actual festivities beginning but I guess its because getting into the right frame of mind to enjoy all that the festive season brings is an important part of the process...

This year, however, I am hopelessly behind with everything due to the urgency of sorting and getting rid of the CD's I was left by my old mate, Alan Gaywood. I have been working like stink over the last three weeks or so to sort, sell, box and send CD's to all of the online de-cluttering websites and in many ways it has been just like being back at work at Masons Music (a wholesale company) where I worked for 10 years selling music related merchandise like band t shirts, woven patches, caps and hoodies etc...

Ironically, I heard earlier this week that Masons closed down on the 4th of November. Life can be pretty cruel sometimes and even though I left in 2009 I have remained friends with my old boss and was hoping against hope that he and the business could survive the current trend and keep going. Sadly, the recent resurgence of vinyl records and the boost to the merchandising industry that shall bring has not come soon enough nor strongly enough and with mp3's taking over and rock music taking a backseat now to rap and R&B (which is not merchandisable) the writing has been on the wall for some time...

I feel very sad about the loss of my old workplace and upset when I think of the staff who will all now be looking for work again. To come out of work at any time at the moment is bad news but to come out with Christmas on the horizon and the worst trading period of Jan-Mar to come after that is even worse. Still, most of the lads I knew were good at what the do and most had good computer skills as well so hopefully they will be alright.

I have send out now over 30 boxes of CD's since I started! Alan was a lovely bloke but boy did he like a lot of C.R.A.P. music! Nothing very Christmassy about bands like 'Marduk' and 'Dark Angel' and while I like a bit of reggae now and then some CD's are INCREDIBLY samey and drive you nuts! I am getting very panicky now that Christmas is going to creep up on me this year before I am ready. I have e mails coming out of my ear holes, articles that need writing, social engagements coming up and performances that I need to rehearse for all waiting on the back burner while I try to get the CD situation under control! My bedroom has always been bad but it is SERIOUSLY bad now with boxes of CD's even stacked along the only remaining floor spaces. I can just about get in the room and round the front of the bed and that's it!

I noticed the other day that the Christmas Fayre at The Holy Redeemer in Upper Church Rd is coming up on the 26th of Nov and that reminds me that I need to find out when my favourite Christmas Fayre at St Clements Church in the Old Town is going to take place this year. I have missed out on it at least two of the last three years and will be gutted if I do so again! So much to do and so little time. Not only that but I am acutely aware that I need to spend some time on trying to build a life for myself with someone as well because time is running out for me at home - that's if I survive, of course...

Oh well, nothing more that I can do at the moment than try to keep pressing on with the CD's and see what tomorrow will bring...