The Show
Today is our last live show of the year so we decided to do a combined "Best of 2008" show and "Christmas Special". Thanks to all our listeners for your support in 2008. Let the madness continue in 2009.
The Music
The first two tracks were in the "best of" category, firstly one of the stand-out tracks from the wonderful new Stereolab album Chemical Chords:
1.
Stereolab - Neon Beanbag (Chemical Chords, 2008)
Followed by a track from a new Daedalus album, nominated by regular listener Ronnie:
2.
Daedelus - Drummery Jam (Love to Make Music To, 2008)
Then it was time for the first of our Christmas tunes this evening:
3.
Big John Greer - I Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo (Wish You Too Best Christmas Ever, 1954/2008)
Followed by one of our favourite tracks played on the show this year:
4.
Slim Gaillard - How High the Moon (Slim Gaillard Rides Again, 1958)
2008 saw the release of the second album by our patron saint Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman. So we played what is probably our favourite track on the album:
5.
Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman - Funky Little Spacegirl (
Destination Space, 2008)
2008 was also the 50th anniversary of the formation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop:
6.
John Baker - Christmas Commercial (BBC Radiophonic Music, 1968/2008)
The Bird and the Bee have recorded a truly wonderful arrangement of a Christmas classic - and you can
download it for free from their website.
7.
The Bird and The Bee - 12 Days of Christmas (2003)
Then it was time for a couple more favourite tracks from the last 12 months on the show:
8.
Setsubun Bean Unit - Gujo Ondo (Setsubun Bean Unit)
9.
Ten Plus - 9-10-Out (
Watch With Teacher, 2008)
Our regular listener and Facebook group member Kaylie texted us to nominate a track by Pram. As it happens, Pram have recently released a
limited edition DVD collecting together various short films, music videos, animations and collaborations. So that's two great reasons for playing a track by this great Birmingham band:
10.
Pram - Scirocco (Dark Island, 2003)
We always try to play a version of Caravan in our shows so it seemed sensible to pick one of our favourites from the year and, as it happens, this one also features sleigh bells, making it one of very few Christmassy versions of this tune:
11.
Richard "Groove" Holmes - Caravan (Greatest Hits of Richard "Groove" Holmes)
The great Jonny Trunk has made that classic funk/rock/latin set Hymns A Swinging available as a
download from the Trunk Records website:
12.
The Mike Sammes Singers & The Ted Taylor Organsound - He Who Would Valient Be (Hymns A Swinging, 2008)
Listener Ronnie also suggested another track we should revisit - and this is one that MC Zirconium brought to our attention:
13.
Sonseed - Jesus Is A Friend Of Mine (First Fruit, 1983)
We discovered a new musical genre this year - "Moog ska":
14.
Colonel Elliott & The Lunatics - Plutonian Pogo Stick (Bonus Track) (Interstellar Reggae Drive)
2008 marked the centenary of the birth of Barry Gray which gave us an ideal excuse to play this wonderful tune again:
15.
Barry Gray - White As Snow (commercial version) (Captain Scarlet, 2003)
We closed the show with a wonderful version of a Christmas classic by one
Moot BooxLe. This is the same chap who provided the vocoder on the Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman track we played earlier in the show and even better you can download this track for free from Moot's website:
16.
MooT BooXLe -
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Download Of The Month, 2006)
The News
Festive lunar greetings to all our listeners for this week's all-Christmas special! On this week's show we bring you a selection of well-known Christmas favourites played in some very unusual ways. We have a version of the Twelve Days of Christmas where partridges and gold rings are entirely absent and a version of Last Christmas which may cause you to rethink the oeuvre of Wham. We also have a rather lovely original Christmas song from Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas.
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