'R Kelly Hits The Spot!'

I have been looking for some new Christmas music to introduce you to this year but haven't found much... Imagine my surprise then when I stumbled across the new '12 Days of Christmas' set by R.Kelly and was pleasantly surprised at how sensitive and festive the songs on it are! Now, to be fair, Mr.Kelly has written some corkers in the past - especially 'You are Not Alone', which I played to death when Michael Jackson died and even tried to sing at karaoke as a tribute to Michael.. 'I Believe I Can Fly' being another great song of his. Sadly, all too often, much of the man's material revolves around sex and is pretty throw away so, while I respect R.Kelly as a songwriter of enormous potential talent I rarely listen to him as a whole album of his usual stuff would bore me rigid (if you'll excuse the terminology!)...

The songs on '12 Days Of Christmas', however do seem to show that the man has a good heart though! 'I really like 'Snowman' (above) and having flicked through the rest of the album on Amazon via the mp3's think I will probably buy the album. R.Kelly's voice has always been o.k. for me - its just what he has been singing I've not liked. He's no Luther Vandross or Donny Hathaway but he does have a nice, soulful and mellow voice when its matched up to good material.

Another act who have a good Christmas single out this year is ABC. I really liked them in the 80's   (The Lexicon Of Love is a great album) but went off them after 'When Smokey Sings' came out as they went all dance-floor and the songs were less interesting. 'A Christmas We Deserve' is not available at the moment on Youtube so I can't steer you in the direction of the video but check it out via the mp3 somewhere on the net...

Finally, I see that Spandau Ballet's, Tony Hadley has released a Christmas album. The reviews are not that great though and I could not find any mp3 previews of it to have a listen to so I will wait until I get a chance to hear some of it before I get too excited! Maybe one day I will finally get my Christmas set 'in the wracks' alongside them all and give them some festive competition!

'The Lights At Westfield'

I had a lovely afternoon at the G.R.O.W. (Grass Roots Open Writers) Christmas meal. Beginning with a visit to a pub in Ninfield for a carvery Christmas lunch once the light started to go it was time to make our way to the 'Capital City of Christmas' - Westfield to see the Christmas lights this year.

I don't think there are quite as many homes in the village this year that have taken part in the annual event to raise money for St Michael's Hospice but it is a tad earlier than I usually go so maybe that is why?

This said, there are PLENTY of amazingly festive sights to see in the village and many of the 'regulars' have gone out of their way to 'up the ante' even more and produce some new displays. I'm not going to show you all of them here because I want to encourage you to go to 'make the pilgrimage' to Westfield to see the sights yourselves but I have uploaded a few of the best pics I took here in order to 'get your juices flowing'!

I shall be back in Westfield for my other writing club's Christmas Dinner (Shorelink Writers) on the 19th so it will be interesting to see if more of the houses are lit up by then or not?

The villagers do such a good job of promoting Christmas and of advertising the Christmas spirit that just walking about the village in December is an uplifting and re-assuring experience! I fear that the whole idea of Christmas is in decline these days (hence this blog!) and so I love it when I am anywhere where it is obvious that this is not the case...

One of home owners has come up with a really great Santa projection show as well! If you stand outside and watch you get to see Santa moving about seemingly inside their house! He looks as if he is delivering presents and even peers out the window to wave at you!

Especially fun for the kids, I found watching it almost transported me back in time to when my eyes would go all big and wide at the thought of seeing Santa Claus dropping off my sack of presents at the end of my bed on Christmas night...

I hope the villagers do well with their collection this year. I did not see as many collecting buckets or places to drop donations into as last year though but like I said it is still a little before the prime Christmas season. Go on! Get yourself and you family and friends out to Westfield and re-kindle your inner children!

'A Wonderful Time At 'Meet Of The Tongue'

I had a great time at last night's 'Meet of the Tongue' event in Robertsbridge! While there were not a huge amount of people there our host, Yvonne Rees, did a splendid job of facilitating a good old-fashioned evening of social interaction and began the night by asking us all to spend a few moments to think of either our best or worst ever Christmas. Accompanied by the soft acoustic guitar playing of regular attendee Derek Povey, we all sat in silence contemplating our answers for a few moments...

Christmas is a time of MANY wonderful memories for me (as this blog stands witness) and so it was hard for me to think of just one Christmas to tell everyone about when it came around to my turn to speak. I had a very happy childhood (in the main, I have always suffered with emotional problems) and Mum and Dad always went out of their way to make Christmas special. I think I have missed that 'special feeling' ever since and maybe that is why I always throw my heart and soul into Christmas in the hope that just for a few days that 'warm inner glow' will return. Most years it does, though often only for a fleeting period, but others, try as hard as I might, the conditions to re-kindle those far off days are just not right. The weather can play its part in that as if it is too warm and sunny (like this year!) then it is harder to transport myself back into that precious Christmas space.

Going to festive events really helps though and I was gutted to find the whole of Robertsbridge having a street party with stalls and fairground rides when we arrived last night. Don't get me wrong, it was amazingly lovely to see a community coming together and making something of the festive season - I was just gutted because had I known it was on I would have suggested to Alvin that we arrive early and join in the fun for a bit. Not having kids cuts deeper at Christmas than any other time of the year and seeing all of their little happy faces whizzing around on the carousel with their duffle coats and bobble hats on was just like something out of a dream for me...

Still, if that kind of made me a bit sad, Meet of the Tongue soon cheered me up. As you will know if you follow this blog ( or read my articles for 'Hastings Town' magazine) I love the intimate and supportive atmosphere that exists at 'Meet of the Tongue'. No matter who you are or where you come from there is always a BIG welcome waiting for you at the meetings and the fact that everyone gets involved by either sharing a song, a story or a poem is great. Whether listening or performing everyone contributes and we often sing songs and create loads of opportunities to laugh. Last nights event was one of the best ever and after Derek finished playing each one of us recounted stories from our lives about Christmas to the whole group. People spend so much time online these days that its actually quite difficult nowadays to find somewhere you can go to get human interaction free of mobile phones and the like.

Aside from our personal stories of Christmas Yvonne provided us all with some of her poems as did a few others. Jane Trott told us a captivating and festive story from Mongolia about God's gift to the world of story telling, Alvin read one of his typically eclectic stories full of science and sex and Sally Fadelle presented more of her powerful poems. We had even more powerful and thought provoking poems from Laurie, while Jan Povey recounted the story of her 60 year old Christmas Fairy and read 'the famous poem' The Night Before Christmas'. Derek Povey meanwhile returned in the second half to read a comical but powerful story of life in the trenches at Christmas and how a mum's Christmas pudding broke down a bastion. As for me, I told the story of my mate Alan and his slippers and sang my tribute song to him, 'You Can't Take Christmas Away From Me' live. As ever, I had to suffer NUMEROUS problems with getting my backing track CD to play properly and there were a few 'false starts' to the song but in the end I performed it well and I think people liked it.

At the end of the evening I stood up to initiate a round of applause for Yvonne, who puts in the work all year to keep 'Meet of the Tongue' going and then it was time for us all to say goodbye and head back into our lives.

If I were you, I'd make attending the next 'Meet of the Tongue' a priority for 2017. January 6th is the date, 8pm is the time and 'The Ostrich' pub in Robertsbridge is the venue. Why not re-kindle your sense of belonging at a good, old-fashioned community style event?

'Its December!'

Well, the calendar now has the word DECEMBER on it! It all starts 'kicking off' from here usually but I seem to have started earlier than ever this year... I have been to three three course dinners in the last week (though only one was an official christmas do) and have been thus living an 'a la carte' lifestyle!

I went to THE MOORINGS restaurant in Cooden Beach yesterday with the residents of R.O.A.R. for their Christmas get-together. Three courses for the special price of only £10 (usually £20) was a bargain I could not turn down and I have done various things for charity to support R.O.A.R. in the past so I did not feel guilty about accepting something from them. It did not feel much like Christmas though as the sun was shining and we had perfect blue skies as far as the eye could see! The sun was low, of course, so that did give you the idea that it wasn't summer but other than that it was more like a cool summers evening than the first day of December!

I had Garlic mushrooms for starters followed by a three cheese pasta bake and Lemon Meringue Pie and ice cream for sweet. You always get hearty helpings at The Moorings and so I was pretty stuffed by the time I got through my lot. Ironically, I sat next to an elderly lady who had just lost her husband in unexpected circumstances and we talked about how it feels and how best to cope when something like that happens. Funny isn't it? How the universe seems to throw you together with someone in the same boat when it would be therapeutic for both of you to speak with another who fully understands your loss?

One thing that always irks me about Christmas though is that whenever I pull a cracker with someone mine NEVER go 'bang!'. I pulled two at The Moorings and neither exploded yet both the other two crackers did when pulled by others on our table!

Some of the items from our Christmas Crackers at The Moorings...

My mate, Alvin, who I went with said that 'My Crackers Won't Go Bang' would make a GREAT title for a fun Christmas song and I think he is right!
I must see if I can come up with a comedy song to fit that title as well as work on another festive title given to me by another friend, Keith, 'Christmas Did Not Send Me You'. I LOVE working on Christmas material and would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE  to get my LOOONNGG delayed Christmas album finished and pressed up. Maybe 2017 will be the year It finally happens? I hope so...

I have been invited to ANOTHER festive meal on Dec 5th and am out again on the 16th and 19th for my writing club (Shorelink Writers) annual bash. Its my Christmas Quiz on the 12th as well so plenty of festive researching to do to get ready for that! Am not doing badly with my Christmas present buying but it looks as if 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' may not happen this year as I do not have the cards and am snowed under with other urgent tasks at the moment...

Off to Meet of the Tongue in Robertsbridge tonight where I will be singing my Christmas song, 'You Can't Take Christmas Away From Me' live. The fun begins at The Ostrich Pub at 8pm if you are interested...

Oh well, I hope you are getting in the festive swing of things - in spite of the horrible good weather! HA HA

'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...

'The Grinch Stole Christmas'

My Christmas feeling is starting to take hold on me now! The old '1 dose of St Clements Christmas Fair and shake well' treatment seems to have worked its usual magic!

STILL fighting to get on with Alan's CD collection but have now at last managed to start Christmas shopping for those I do still have. Knowing what to get people is always hard but in some ways it is part of the fun. As long as you get it right in the end that is! Nothing worse than spending a fortune on something nice for someone only to later find out that they did not want it. No, Christmas is a lot more about planning and calm thought than it is just outright love and affection - I reckon Santa must be the best organised businessman in the whole world - even putting Sir Alan Sugar to shame (don't like him!)...

Anyway, tired after the exerts of yet another CD sorting session, I relaxed the other afternoon by listening to the CD soundtrack of one of the best Christmas movies of all time, 'The Grinch Stole Christmas'. Jim Carrey is most certainly a man with NUMEROUS screws loose but boy is he a GREAT actor to hire whenever you need a 'kookie character'. I liked him in 'The Mask' and 'The Grinch' is almost a Christmas caricature of that same role.  The Soundtrack Cd is surprisingly awesome as well and great value with over 20 tracks. I don't care for the opening rap tune with Busta Rhymes (seemingly obligatory to have a rap tune on everything these days) but after that you get a great selection of festive originals followed by the original film score interspersed with some snippets of dialogue from the film. It all works very well and is almost like an alternative way of watching the film itself!

I LOVE the song, 'Christmas, Why Can't I Find You?' by the then 'ickle' Taylor Momsen. Now, I might be a big old BAD old Adulty type person but the sound of a little kid singing a sweet Christmas song melts my heart. No wonder the Grinch fell into a pile of soggy mush over it! Relationships and I have never gotten to know each other (sadly) and so my chances of ever having a family of my own have been nil. I often wonder what kind of Dad I would have been as I LOVE dishing out BIG hugs but somehow the emotional engagement in trying to partner someone else has just never seemed to be 'me'. I have always been a 'bit of a one man band' and I'm not sure I could ever be a 24/7 person for anyone. I do LOVE kids though and enjoy spending time in 'their world' - especially now as I know how HORRID the real one is! Got a bit emotional listening to the soundtrack CD but it is never a bad thing to feel something - far better that than to go through life without feeling anything! Don't you think?

'Christmas In My Heart!'

Some of the prizes I won...

It is beginning to start to feel more like Christmas is on the way again to me now following my much loved visit to St Clement's Church Christmas Fair in Hastings Old Town today. I LOVE this fair and HATE it when I miss it but it is always notoriously poorly advertised as far as the Internet and local press is concerned and so I have often missed it in previous years simply because I could not find out when it was on! Thankfully, a friend of mine on Facebook put me straight as to when it was this year and so I made the 'festive pilgrimage' to the church today from my home in Hollington.

Its a fair old walk from where I am in Hollington to the Old Town and few would take on the climb up all of the West Hill steps from the bottom of Queens Rd to make the short cut across the hill to drop back down into High Street that I did! Half way up the steps I was blowing really hard and had to stop for a bit. "Im getting old" I thought to myself. At the very top of the second flight of the steps I had slowed to a feeble walk... "If I carry on doing this I won't get much older," I thought to myself!

I tell you what though all of the huffing and puffing was worth it! My favourite thing over virtually the whole of Christmas is having numerous goes at the '£1 a go - win a prize every time' stall at this fair. I ALWAYS go mad and have about £15 worth each time because every year the organisers make a great effort to do all of the gifts you win up nicely and thus create some wonderfully festive little presents that you can use to display under the Christmas tree or marvel at ( trying to guess whats inside, of course!) between now and the big day. Getting older, I have very few people left these days to give me presents and a lot of those who do give me something like money or something they know I want because we have arranged it that way.

The total haul this year!

 The childish joy I used to get of 'wondering what Santa is going to give me' has therefore gone and I miss it. So, to create a bit of magic for myself and to put some of the money I save up in my Simon charity lighthouse ( a money box) to good use I love to 'let rip' at this fair and buy myself plenty of presents to look forward to opening on Christmas Day.

I usually get quite a lot of other things as well after browsing the bric-a-brac and festive stalls but unusually this year I failed to find much bar 4 Fairport Convention CD's, which I got for £5 along with a double CD of Barclay James Harvest and a Les Baxter CD. As much as I would love to try my luck at the Tombola or go in for the Christmas raffle I rarely do because the £1 a go - win every time stall seems a better bet!

They usually have a drinks raffle as well but I am very wary of those having seen people 'add tickets' into the barrel in the past (not at this venue though). That to me is wrong and fraudulent and definitely NOT in the spirit of Christmas!

I know the organisers have to make enough money from the stall to cover the cost of the drinks but to offer prizes that no-one actually has a fair chance of winning is mean and nasty in my opinion. I would rather lose money on an honest raffle than resort to such tactics but most people don't seem to see it that way...

Anyway, after a long walk and the thrill of being recognised as 'the guy who always buys loads of presents' by the stall holders I spent a good hour or so in the church looking and re-looking at everything and enjoying the atmosphere. I met an old school friend, Paul Bryant at the fair again ( he is often there when I am) and we spent a good while chatting over a cup of tea and a mince pie ( well, I had a peanut cookie instead). I gave Paul's little baby girl one of the prizes I won one year when the event was held at the All Saints Church Hall in All Saints St and was amazed to see that 'Evie' is now 11! Wow! I could not believe it was that long ago! Mind you, it was lovely to be reminded that my gesture then was obviously appreciated as Paul told me that they still have the cuddly toy I gave her indoors...

We talked about the kind of year that we have both had and I was glad that his has been a lot happier than mine. Paul went self employed this year ( he's a painter and decorator - look him up!) and I am glad to say is doing very well. He is a lovely, caring and thoroughly honest chap so if you are reading this and thinking, 'Ooh, I could do with a painter and decorator I can trust!' then you should hire Paul!
All in all I feel much more Christmassy than before now and hope to start getting my usual 'Christmas buzz' coursing through my veins as we go forward!