'Thank Goodness For Two Lovely Christmassy People!'

I know 2019 has not been the most 'harmonious' year but the level of MISERY and MISERABLE people I have encountered this year has definitely gone up!

I had a smashing time with my old mate, Jeff Belton doing our Christmas Special show on C.H.R. yesterday and went dressed as a Christmas Tree! (lol) Yep, you get the picture a CHRISTMAS TREE!

Jeff, Clyde The Clown and Me

Standing at the end of my street I looked a right festive twit wearing a special Christmas jumper that has tinsel and baubles already attached to it, LARGE green and black Elf 'boots', a Christmas tree hat complete with baubles, sparkly tinsel and with a star on top AND a Christmas stocking dangling down my leg that I had looped through the belt in my trousers!

Now, surely just the thought of seeing someone looking THAT daft makes you smile or laugh, doesn't it? Not most people today though! Only the bus drivers who went past me waved or smiled at me bar one lady who 'couldn't believe her eyes' everyone else either blanked me or drove past unimpressed!

Jeff and Ernie

'Sir Belton' and his good lady wife, Wendy, however LOVED my look and Jeff burst out laughing when he clapped eyes on me waving and wiggling an Elf boot (with bells on the end) at him and Wendy as they drove up the hill! "What have you got on!" He exclaimed when I got into the car!

When we got to the Conquest it was mainly 'more of the same'. Those waiting outside looked as grim as my bank account statement and while no one is likely to be 'bouncing off the walls with joy' at Christmas if they are either in hospital or visiting someone you'd think that the site of Jeff dressed up as Santa and me as a Christmas Tree walking 'casually' past might raise a titter!

But as dear old, Frankie Howerd would say 'not a titter I heard! Not a big titter nor even a little titter - I was well and truly titterless! Ooohhh Missus! (lol)

A festive looking Wogan!

The ladies upstairs in the offices near to the radio station studio though were much more responsive and that at least put us into the right mood to do our show in. You can see a few pics of us 'in action' here including 'Ernie the Elf Belton', who if you remember I got Jeff to adopt live on air last Christmas. I also brought my mate, 'Clyde The Clown' to say hello to the listeners and to give Ernie someone to talk to while me and Jeff did the show...

Three hours on the radio seem to FLY by and as soon as we started it seemed it was time to finish! I am really proud of the selection of music that Jeff and I put together and I think the mixture of well known classic Christmas songs and 'unknown gems' that we played was great! Jeff is always a big supporter of my music as well and he played three or four of the tracks from my festive collection 'A Nod To Mr.Dickens' including everyone's favourite of mine 'The Toy Museum' - twice!

Two Christmas nutters in their element!

I do miss my 'recording career' and the wonderful Mr. Harvey Summers with whom I wrote all of my songs but every time I get a chance like this and I see or hear anyone playing any of my stuff I know that every penny that I spent was well worth the money. Ironically, all of my recordings are likely to become collectible in the future as they are all extremely rare!

Maybe one day if 'my boat comes in' I will see the inside of Broadoak Studios again, who knows?

'Heart Full Of Joy'

Because of financial constraints I have not been able to continue with my 'recording career' for most of this year but was determined to at least try and come up with my annual 'Christmas Video Single' for Youtube and was prepared therefore to 'raid my piggy bank' one last time to fund a couple of sessions in the studio to try and produce something.

Having written and been pleased with the idea of 'Heart Full Of Joy' I teamed up earlier this week with 'my old sparring partner', Harvey Summers to see what we could make of the song. My plan was to just produce something fairly basic revolving around him playing an acoustic guitar and me singing but as usual things didn't work out that way!

Harvey Summers Last Single

For those of you unaware of Harvey, he is a bona-fide GENIUS and if you are lucky enough to 'dial him in' to an idea of yours and get his creative juices going then you are well on the road to creating something special! My plan therefore to record something 'stripped back' and acoustic flew out the window in the first minute or so as Harvey LOVED my idea and 'the muttering' started.

Now, when Harvey starts muttering (to himself) about the ideas flying into his brain about how to compose the music for a song the best thing you can do is sit back and let him get on with the task in hand! I NEVER cease to be amazed at how brilliant he is and am always confident with 'Harv' at the helm that the end product is going to be AWESOME.

As with all recording sessions, however there are 'challenges' that crop up along the way and so I do 'chip in' my thoughts and ideas if and when I think they might be helpful or when I feel strongly about something. I do get Harv a bit 'ratty' sometimes if he is 'in the moment' but I understand why that happens and don't take anything to heart. The great thing with Harvey and I is that we both know what the other one 'brings to the party' and also have great faith in the fact that anything critical said either way is intended only to help. I don't understand any of the computer programs that Harvey uses to build the basics of the musical arrangements and that occasionally causes a few problems but I'd rather get my old mate cross occasionally that see him sit there without an idea in his head after listening to my demo!

Anyway, after two long-ish sessions we now have about 90% of the work done and I am hopeful that I will have a Christmas Video Single to upload to Youtube again this year. The video may not end up that marvellous though due to the time factor but I am always thinking of things and on the look out for great pictures so I might yet surprise myself!

Santa LOVES the idea for 'Heart Full Of Joy'!

Sadly, we are not allowed as Bloggers to add links to videos on Youtube here anymore (boo!) so you will have to keep an eye on my Youtube channel, Maybrick44 if you want to see and hear 'Heart Full Of Joy' when its finished. I will of course post a note here to let you all know when I have uploaded it and it is available. One more session should complete the song and the current plan is to try and fit that in within the next week -fingers crossed!

'You Can't Take Christmas Away From Me'

Well folks, here it is! My Christmas video single for 2017.

It's an unusual kind of Christmas song in the respect that it is a sad one but the words in the chorus are positive and the tone of the whole thing is defiant - especially highlighted by the military drumming...

The song is dedicated to the two GREAT friends I have lost this year, Noreen Leach and Alan Gaywood and was inspired by Alan's total failure to know when he was beaten in life. Al suffered with epilepsy all of his life and was not expected to reach adulthood but in spite of everything he reached 50 and was self employed for most of his life. He was never a rich man nor was he lucky in love (because of his epilepsy) but he was ALWAYS a fighter and a very, very good friend to me. I miss him terribly and always will but no way will I let that stop me from remembering him!

This song is therefore a song about loss and how precious life truly is. There are no guarantees and things can change in a moment but what you have to do is appreciate what you have while you still have it and refuse to let sadness destroy you. In a way this song is like a 'Punk Anthem' to the universe in the respect that it is my way of sticking two fingers up to life and saying 'Screw you, I'm NOT going to let you spoil my Christmas'..

Alan and Noreen ( and all the others I have lost over the years) would want me to be happy this Christmas and I am going to be - for them if nothing else!!

The music here was composed by the VERY brilliant Mr. Harvey Summers (check out his GREAT new album 'Human' with Laura Cole) who continues to be an inspirational influence on me as well as another valued friend. Thanks mate for caring enough to make this one special.

Love to you all, be safe and HAPPY and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS xx

P.S.) I would also like to dedicate this song to my friend DALE SMITH in Michigan, U.S.A. who lost his mum this year. I'm thinking of you buddy - god bless...

'My Christmas Music - A Jolly Update!'

I am glad to be able to announce that my Youtube Christmas single for this year is now recorded and mixed! I decided this year to do a 'very different' kind of Christmas song in the shape of a pop/punk version of 'Jingle Bells'. Why would anyone in their right mind want to record such a thing? Well, it has been rather an angst riddled year this year and as such I wanted to record something with a bit of bite to it. seeing as I am also friends with one of Punk Rocks earliest pioneers, Sue Butchers, ('Siren', 'Debar', ex-wife of Max Splodge etc, etc) I thought why not do a punky duet?

Sue Butchers

I am now VERY glad that I did because, thanks to the always awesome Mr. Harvey Summers (my friend and Producer) the song has turned out splendidly!

Harvey Summers

 The next stage in the process will be to try and film/put together some kind of video for the song. That's going to be a bit of a challenge at this time of year as poor light and wet, miserable days do not make for good videos. If we were to get some SNOW, however, that would be different!!!

Anyway, I think you are going to LOVE the song - especially if you liked Dick Emery's Vicar character because I do my own Vicar impersonation on the song and he eventually gets into the spirit of the punk anthem and gets the choirboys to do a lot of 'O1i! Oi! Oi!'s in the chorus!! HA HA

On the 'Mr. Christmas' album front, I am hoping to receive the final mix and master of the album before the end of the year. The set has been long delayed due to unavoidable and extremely unfortunate circumstances concerning 'Old Harv' as I like to call him. Thankfully, all that is now in the past and he and Broadoak Studios are now powering on into the future at full speed! You won't find a better Producer or nicer guy than Harvey and I can't wait to hear the final mix of the album!

In fact, I am so thrilled with the 'Mr. Christmas' set that I am seriously considering commissioning, Artist, Sally Woodworld (Priston), to design the cover artwork for the album. Sally is an amazingly gifted Artist and I'm sure her connection to all things natural and traditional events like 'Jack In The Green' will mean that my rather wistful and traditional songs will inspire her to greatness! At this stage we are just 'talking shop' but I'd really love it if she could come up with some custom made pieces for use with the album. Here is one of Sally's most beautiful works taken from her photos on Facebook...

October/Winter Is Coming By Sally Woodworld

I'm sure you can see now why I am so excited at the prospect of having Sally produce some artwork for me! How awesome is the above!!

I will keep you posted on developments and look out for my 'Jingle Bells' video single on Youtube in late Nov or early Dec.

You can see more of Sally's wonderful works of art here...Sally Woodworld's website

'Bon Hiver' and 'Stop The Cavalry'

Now, I told you I would tell you more about Harvey Summers earlier, didn't I? Well, 'old Harv' is just about as close to a genius as you will ever meet in your lifetime. Not only is he a whizz kid with computers, a great producer and a fine musician he's a thoroughly nice chap as well! Harvey can write music to suit any situation or to reflect any mood and he's also a 'Christmas person' I am glad to report!

As Harvey will tell you though, not every Christmas song has to have sleigh bells running through it nor does it have to be full of Christmas lights, tinsel and carol singers. 'Bon Hiver' means 'good winter' I believe in French and this song of Harv's from his FABULOUS album 'Jupiter' (its not a Christmas album though!) is the perfect example of what I've been telling you. Just listen to how the music itself sounds in spots like snowflakes falling and the brass at the end really makes me squeal with delight because its so traditionally british and actually reminds me of that other festive chestnut 'Stop The Cavalry' by Jona Lewie and so, as a bit of music is what I feel the doctor has ordered right now, here is a link to that video (from 1980) as well.

Listen and ENJOY!