Christmas fairy lights

[Lencoboy]

It's almost Christmas. Everybody's pissed (except for me) and all our troubles seem so far away - because, as we know, Christmas throws a blanket of snow over all the shit along with having to be nice to people who've been @rseholes to us all year long. Also, the shops are open again, so people are busy ramping up those credit cards because there is nothing quite as joyful as opening up that statement in January, breaking into a cold sweat, and contemplating selling one of your kidneys, but what the hell - IT'S CHRIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTMAAAAAAAAAAS!

Dare I say it, cue daily Covid cases going back up again in due course, and inadvertently, hospitalisations and deaths.

And don't remind me of that poxy Slade record, which I have fantasies about fashioning into a frisbee and tossing it into hell out of my bedroom window!!

To add further insult to injury, being from the Polygram stable, most 7-inch vinyl 45 copies of that single release came with those hideous plastic centre labels where the information text for each record side was engraved into the centre of the disc in lieu of conventional paper labels and coloured with a special coating (usually silver) in order to make the (black) moulded text readable.

Horrible, horrible things!!

[MyNameIsTerry]

Dare I say it, cue daily Covid cases going back up again in due course, and inadvertently, hospitalisations and deaths.

And don't remind me of that poxy Slade record, which I have fantasies about fashioning into a frisbee and tossing it into hell out of my bedroom window!!

To add further insult to injury, being from the Polygram stable, most 7-inch vinyl 45 copies of that single release came with those hideous plastic centre labels where the information text for each record side was engraved into the centre of the disc in lieu of conventional paper labels and coloured with a special coating (usually silver) in order to make the (black) moulded text readable.

Horrible, horrible things!!

They are stalling. So now it could be bumpy. Yet we are all well over the average. How accurate is that average? Is it unrealistic because it is skewed by outliers?

[NoraB]

And don't remind me of that poxy Slade record, which I have fantasies about fashioning into a frisbee and tossing it into hell out of my bedroom window!!

Me too cocker - seeing as it was playing when my dad was dying on a Christmas Day. He was in a general ward because he'd gone in as an emergency and there wasn't a side room to put him in even though they knew death was imminent. I'll never forget the look on the bloke's face who was in the opposite bed (leg in traction) or his family when they saw my obviously dead dad. Party hats, streamers, and sausage rolls - lots of laughter - and there was my dad - eyes staring, mouth open - gone to meet his maker. My old man looked like one of those frog bins that they put in infant schools. It bordered on the hilarious, in a One Foot in the Grave way - except my dad had both feet in.

Obviously, it's not Slade's fault, but I bloody hate that song now..

To add further insult to injury, being from the Polygram stable, most 7-inch vinyl 45 copies of that single release came with those hideous plastic centre labels where the information text for each record side was engraved into the centre of the disc in lieu of conventional paper labels and coloured with a special coating (usually silver) in order to make the (black) moulded text readable.

Horrible, horrible things!!

Yeah, I used to take them out of my brother's singles to piss him off lol

[Lencoboy]

Me too cocker - seeing as it was playing when my dad was dying on a Christmas Day. He was in a general ward because he'd gone in as an emergency and there wasn't a side room to put him in even though they knew death was imminent. I'll never forget the look on the bloke's face who was in the opposite bed (leg in traction) or his family when they saw my obviously dead dad. Party hats, streamers, and sausage rolls - lots of laughter - and there was my dad - eyes staring, mouth open - gone to meet his maker. My old man looked like one of those frog bins that they put in infant schools. It bordered on the hilarious, in a One Foot in the Grave way - except my dad had both feet in.

Obviously, it's not Slade's fault, but I bloody hate that song now..



Yeah, I used to take them out of my brother's singles to piss him off lol

I think you must mean the black plastic snap-in adaptors in 45s with large centre holes, which were more the norm outside of the UK, as we generally had (and still do) smaller LP-sized holes in our 7-inch vinyl singles.

Or pressings with 4-prong perforated centres which were the norm from the EMI stable (and a couple of others) from the 50s through the early 80s.

What I can't stand about the Slade song, plus several other same old festive tunes we have to be bombarded with every flipping Christmas, is the fact that it's vastly overplayed, and nobody seems to give newer stuff a chance anymore, even the stuff that might actually be quite good.

People often moan about having to hear the same old songs every year but when they're given the opportunity to hear newer stuff, however good or bad it is, they say 'you'll never beat the old 'uns'!!

That's 'cause we never give things a chance and people increasingly seem to revel in slagging off all things new these days!!

[NoraB]

I think you must mean the black plastic snap-in adaptors in 45s with large centre holes, which were more the norm outside of the UK, as we generally had (and still do) smaller LP-sized holes in our 7-inch vinyl singles.

Those are the ones. Easy to whip out and annoy older brothers ha ha

I used to love watching those records drop down onto the turntable - very satisfying.

What I can't stand about the Slade song, plus several other same old festive tunes we have to be bombarded with every flipping Christmas, is the fact that it's vastly overplayed, and nobody seems to give newer stuff a chance anymore, even the stuff that might actually be quite good.

If my memory serves me right. Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody was recorded in the summer, so it must have been hard to get those Christmas 'feels' when the pavement was melting outside.

Bottom line is that bands who turn out timeless tunes like Merry Xmas Everybody - secure themselves a none so little earner this time of year, and every year. It's estimated that Slade receives £5000,000 P/A in royalties on this song alone, so while some of us are bored shitless with hearing it - Noddy and Co are financially sound for another year.

Fairytale of New York is probably my favourite - closely followed by I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake.

People often moan about having to hear the same old songs every year but when they're given the opportunity to hear newer stuff, however good or bad it is, they say 'you'll never beat the old 'uns'!!

In 2009 people raged against the X Factor Christmas machine and made Killing in the Name number one. Fantastic song. I love it. Played it the other day. But no amount of alcohol and mince pie over-indulgence will mist the eyes up reminiscing about Christmas past when this song is playing. I grew up listening to Slade, Wizzard, Bing Crosby et al and it's those songs where my childhood memories are - it's just that Merry Xmas Everybody happened to be playing at the moment my dad passed away and that overrides everything else.

That's 'cause we never give things a chance and people increasingly seem to revel in slagging off all things new these days!!

To be fair, I've just done my 2020 Christmas playlist and there are the obligatory old ones but also some new songs and alternative ones - like Good Charlotte and their version of Last Christmas. Or Bob Dylan's It Must Be Santa and Pearl Jam's Let Me Sleep (it's Christmas) and also George Michael's December Song which was so underrated when he was alive, it's unreal. It's an absolute GEM of a track!

There is also this one album which has the power to reduce me to a blubbering wreck every year. The album is called Christmas with Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra and it was the first Christmas album my parents ever bought. Every year they played this when they put the Christmas decs up. It's instrumental- aside some impressive high-pitched vocals - but it is distinctive because of Bert's unique style...

When my Dad died, my mum got a bloke to clear out the loft and this treasured album got caught up in the clearance by mistake. I think Mum had put it up there so she didn't have to see it, because the memories attached to it are so powerful, but she must have forgotten it was there. So we lost a precious part of our childhood, and those were the days before internet and Ebay..

Fast forward to a few years ago when I had a copy on CD but it wasn't the album of my childhood - it was a re-master and a different cover etc. Also, it didn't have the 'soul' of vinyl. One day I was talking to my friend, who owns an antique shop, and Bert came up in conversation - as did the story of how we lost this album. A few months later, I called into the shop and my friend passed something to me and she said' 'A gift for you'. I opened it and there was the album of my childhood - probably not the exact one - but you never know? But it was the album that I had grown up with. That Christmas I played it and it took me right back to my childhood - to that smell of those Christmas decorations which have been around a lot longer than us kids had been - and to a time when my parents were young and full of life. When they were alive, it meant that Christmas was on it's way. Now they're gone, it's about the memories of all those Christmases they worked so hard to make magical for me and my brothers..

[MyNameIsTerry]

"Dont let the bells end"

Cowell won either way since he had a stake in RATM's release. Know Your Enemy was always my fave.

[NoraB]

"Dont let the bells end"

Cowell won either way since he had a stake in RATM's release. Know Your Enemy was always my fave.

Cowell's got his fingers in ALL the pies. Where there is a chance of making some serious moolar - he's there.

[Lolalee1]

Those are the ones. Easy to whip out and annoy older brothers ha ha

I used to love watching those records drop down onto the turntable - very satisfying.



If my memory serves me right. Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody was recorded in the summer, so it must have been hard to get those Christmas 'feels' when the pavement was melting outside.

Bottom line is that bands who turn out timeless tunes like Merry Xmas Everybody - secure themselves a none so little earner this time of year, and every year. It's estimated that Slade receives £5000,000 P/A in royalties on this song alone, so while some of us are bored shitless with hearing it - Noddy and Co are financially sound for another year.

Fairytale of New York is probably my favourite - closely followed by I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake.



In 2009 people raged against the X Factor Christmas machine and made Killing in the Name number one. Fantastic song. I love it. Played it the other day. But no amount of alcohol and mince pie over-indulgence will mist the eyes up reminiscing about Christmas past when this song is playing. I grew up listening to Slade, Wizzard, Bing Crosby et al and it's those songs where my childhood memories are - it's just that Merry Xmas Everybody happened to be playing at the moment my dad passed away and that overrides everything else.



To be fair, I've just done my 2020 Christmas playlist and there are the obligatory old ones but also some new songs and alternative ones - like Good Charlotte and their version of Last Christmas. Or Bob Dylan's It Must Be Santa and Pearl Jam's Let Me Sleep (it's Christmas) and also George Michael's December Song which was so underrated when he was alive, it's unreal. It's an absolute GEM of a track!

There is also this one album which has the power to reduce me to a blubbering wreck every year. The album is called Christmas with Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra and it was the first Christmas album my parents ever bought. Every year they played this when they put the Christmas decs up. It's instrumental- aside some impressive high-pitched vocals - but it is distinctive because of Bert's unique style...

When my Dad died, my mum got a bloke to clear out the loft and this treasured album got caught up in the clearance by mistake. I think Mum had put it up there so she didn't have to see it, because the memories attached to it are so powerful, but she must have forgotten it was there. So we lost a precious part of our childhood, and those were the days before internet and Ebay..

Fast forward to a few years ago when I had a copy on CD but it wasn't the album of my childhood - it was a re-master and a different cover etc. Also, it didn't have the 'soul' of vinyl. One day I was talking to my friend, who owns an antique shop, and Bert came up in conversation - as did the story of how we lost this album. A few months later, I called into the shop and my friend passed something to me and she said' 'A gift for you'. I opened it and there was the album of my childhood - probably not the exact one - but you never know? But it was the album that I had grown up with. That Christmas I played it and it took me right back to my childhood - to that smell of those Christmas decorations which have been around a lot longer than us kids had been - and to a time when my parents were young and full of life. When they were alive, it meant that Christmas was on it's way. Now they're gone, it's about the memories of all those Christmases they worked so hard to make magical for me and my brothers..

Now after reading about Bert Kaempfert I am sure we are relations lol.My folks had the same album and somehow went astray when they moved house,my sister found one in a record shop on the Sunshine Coast and mum was as happy as a pig in shit.Some good childhood memories Nora.

[Lencoboy]

Those are the ones. Easy to whip out and annoy older brothers ha ha

I used to love watching those records drop down onto the turntable - very satisfying.



If my memory serves me right. Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody was recorded in the summer, so it must have been hard to get those Christmas 'feels' when the pavement was melting outside.

Bottom line is that bands who turn out timeless tunes like Merry Xmas Everybody - secure themselves a none so little earner this time of year, and every year. It's estimated that Slade receives £5000,000 P/A in royalties on this song alone, so while some of us are bored shitless with hearing it - Noddy and Co are financially sound for another year.

Fairytale of New York is probably my favourite - closely followed by I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake.



In 2009 people raged against the X Factor Christmas machine and made Killing in the Name number one. Fantastic song. I love it. Played it the other day. But no amount of alcohol and mince pie over-indulgence will mist the eyes up reminiscing about Christmas past when this song is playing. I grew up listening to Slade, Wizzard, Bing Crosby et al and it's those songs where my childhood memories are - it's just that Merry Xmas Everybody happened to be playing at the moment my dad passed away and that overrides everything else.



To be fair, I've just done my 2020 Christmas playlist and there are the obligatory old ones but also some new songs and alternative ones - like Good Charlotte and their version of Last Christmas. Or Bob Dylan's It Must Be Santa and Pearl Jam's Let Me Sleep (it's Christmas) and also George Michael's December Song which was so underrated when he was alive, it's unreal. It's an absolute GEM of a track!

There is also this one album which has the power to reduce me to a blubbering wreck every year. The album is called Christmas with Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra and it was the first Christmas album my parents ever bought. Every year they played this when they put the Christmas decs up. It's instrumental- aside some impressive high-pitched vocals - but it is distinctive because of Bert's unique style...

When my Dad died, my mum got a bloke to clear out the loft and this treasured album got caught up in the clearance by mistake. I think Mum had put it up there so she didn't have to see it, because the memories attached to it are so powerful, but she must have forgotten it was there. So we lost a precious part of our childhood, and those were the days before internet and Ebay..

Fast forward to a few years ago when I had a copy on CD but it wasn't the album of my childhood - it was a re-master and a different cover etc. Also, it didn't have the 'soul' of vinyl. One day I was talking to my friend, who owns an antique shop, and Bert came up in conversation - as did the story of how we lost this album. A few months later, I called into the shop and my friend passed something to me and she said' 'A gift for you'. I opened it and there was the album of my childhood - probably not the exact one - but you never know? But it was the album that I had grown up with. That Christmas I played it and it took me right back to my childhood - to that smell of those Christmas decorations which have been around a lot longer than us kids had been - and to a time when my parents were young and full of life. When they were alive, it meant that Christmas was on it's way. Now they're gone, it's about the memories of all those Christmases they worked so hard to make magical for me and my brothers..

Some interesting stories from your past there Nora.

I still believe with a passion that nostalgia in general has stolen the future, especially over the past 20 years or so.

One of my biggest bugbears is people posting negative reviews of music albums on Amazon and the like, and urging others to 'avoid them like the plague' and 'not to waste their hard-earned cash on them'.

Problem is, there's far too many sheep and virtue-signallers these days, and when just one or two people say something is crap, many others start believing them and they say I'm not buying the latest so and so because it's supposed to be crap, which is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

What about the concept of 'one person's trash is another person's treasure'?

[NoraB]

Some interesting stories from your past there Nora.

I still believe with a passion that nostalgia in general has stolen the future, especially over the past 20 years or so.

Years ago, it was the goal of most artists to be the Christmas Number one. It was a massive deal. The last Xmas number one I was interested in was Rage Against the Machine because I was pig sick of X Factor winners where the Xmas number one was guaranteed despite them having done very little to actually earn it. Then you get the Beeb inviting RATM in to do a censored version of a song where 'F**k you I won't do what you tell me' is repeated about 16 times - which - to be fair - the first few lines were censored, but then Zach went for it, turned the air blue, and the presenters had to apologise to the public.

One of my biggest bugbears is people posting negative reviews of music albums on Amazon and the like, and urging others to 'avoid them like the plague' and 'not to waste their hard-earned cash on them'.

Yes, I hear you. Same with books. This is another reason why I prefer going to an actual bookstore..

Problem is, there's far too many sheep

Yep. No minds of their own, cocker...

What about the concept of 'one person's trash is another person's treasure'?

Absolutely. I agree (despite me taking the piss out of Barry Manilow on another thread) but I am having a laugh there because I am a music fan - not just into one specific genre.

Thing is, we all have different tastes, and that's how it should be or the world would be a total bore-fest. I LOVE how RATM shook things up, and it was a direct result of people saying that they'd had enough of the money-making X Factor machine stealing the Christmas number one!