The Boy Least Likely To

we didn't get the christmas number one in the end. oh well. i really didn't expect us to, so i'm not at all surprised or upset. i'm really happy because there were some lovely things written about the single all over the world and in lots of unusual places too, and that's the sort of thing that matters to me.

i'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the charts are a bit weird now. particularly this week. beyonce has got three songs in the top twenty, wham are at number twenty seven and the top three are all cover versions and two of them are the same song. the winner of the x factor is number one with a cover version of 'hallelujah', and jeff buckley is at number two with his version of it. apparently there was a campaign all over the radio and the internet trying to get people to buy the jeff buckley version.

i don't really understand the campaign. i don't particularly like the alexandra burke version either, but the campaign had a few weird subtexts. it seemed to be all about jeff buckley being somehow more authentic because he was a white male rock star, and so had a natural predisposition towards understanding misery and suffering, and that a female pop star couldn't possibly carry the emotional weight of the song. i don't really understand why everyone was being so precious and protective about it. i don't even like the jeff buckley version. i always thought it was a bit histrionic. there was no subtlety or humour in the song when jeff buckley did it, and i always thought the original version by leonard cohen was quite a funny song, full of self deprecation and sexual innuendo, in the same way that most of his songs are. i like the way that leonard cohen pronounces the word "you" as "ya" whenever he's rhyming it with the word "hallelujah", and how it seems to get more and more ridiculous as the song goes on, and i always thought the lines "there was a time when you let me know what's really going on below, but now you never show that to me do you" were a really funny description of the sexual desperation of a bitter middle aged man in a failing relationship. but jeff buckley always seemed to be lacking the wry smile when he sang it. and as for alexandra burke, once the x factor has finished, i don't want to know about it anymore. it's the same every year, as soon as the winner is announced i stop caring. i just liked watching the little dorks for twelve weeks while they got slowly picked off by the british public, but then at the end of it all, even though i'm momentarily happy for whoever wins and everything, i don't actually ever want to see any of them again. i don't want them to actually release records and i don't want to see them on tv unless it's on another celebrity reality tv show trying to revive their failing careers.

anyway, because the christmas top forty was so rubbish. i decided to make up my own one, like i used to when i was eight. the only difference being that when i was eight i used to write it in a little notebook that had all my lists in and that no one ever saw, and now i'm going to write it down and post it up on the internet so that the whole world can read it. this isn't a list of my all time favourite christmas songs in the order that i like them, although some of my all time favourites are in there. it’s just a list of the christmas songs i've been listening to this christmas. it's not that different to the official uk top 40. wham are still at number twenty seven. 

the boy least likely to offical christmas top 40

40. lauren laverne – in the bleak midwinter

39. comet gain – asleep on the snow

38. saint etienne – i was born on christmas day

37. david essex – a winter’s tale

36. the waitresses – christmas wrapping

35. daniel johnston – rock around the christmas tree

34. mariah carey – all i want for christmas is you

33. emmy the great – christmas in prison

32. john denver & the muppets – when the river meets the sea

31. my morning jacket – xmas time is here again

30. malcolm middleton - we’re all going to die

29. mogwai – christmas steps

28. arab strap – christmas (baby please come home)

27. wham – last christmas

26. bright eyes – silver bells

25. sufjan stevens – once in royal david’d city

24. feist – lo, how a rose e’re blooming

23. the wedding present – holly jolly hollywood

22. low – just like christmas

21. frightened rabbit – it’s christmas so we’ll stop

20. prairie cat – winter wonderland

19. the pipettes – white christmas

18. belle and sebastian – are you coming over for christmas?

17. badly drawn boy – donna and blitzen

16. the voluntary butler scheme – wombling merry christmas

15. camera obscura – little donkey

14. kermit the frog – have yourself a merry little christmas

13. the pogues and kirsty maccoll – fairytale of new york

12. amiina – hilli (at the top of the world)

11. low – santa’s coming over

10. rod thomas – on a silent night

rod premiered this christmas song last week when he played at our christmas show, and now you can enjoy it too if you just go to his website.

9. the school – kiss you in the snow

this is my favourite christmas song from last year, but i still haven't got tired of it so it's made the top ten this year too. i had to leave it off my christmas compilation that i made for our gig last week because the school were playing before us and i guessed that they might play it live because it was christmas and they did and it was wonderful.

8. au revoir simone – christmas time is here

i found this song on this compilation and it's lovely. it replaced 'fallen snow', which would usually have been in this list.

7. lucky lucky pigeons – red santa

apparently this was originally included on a compilation of christmas songs called 'a very cherry christmas 2". 

6. little my – xmas song

5. versus the lion – santa santa claus

4. deerhoof – little drummer boy

3. slow club – christmas tv

2. the bicycles – snow

1. the boy least likely to – the first snowflake

hooray!! we’re number one!!! thank you to everyone that bought our single and thank you to everyone that wrote nice things about us.

happy holidays

x

"so once again, ivor was left by himself. he was quite used to
being left by himself, but today it seemed different."
- from ivor the engine, 'the lost engine'.

oliver postgate has died. it's very sad. he created and narrated some of the most beautiful and thoughtful and magical televison programmes ever made. i don't know what else to write, all i know is that i wouldn't see the world the way i do if it hadn't been for him.

i wanted to post some clangers and some bagpuss and some pogles wood here, but i've spent the last two hours trying to choose which episodes and in the end the list got too long. so i'm just posting one. this is my favourite episode from my favourite of all the tv programmes that he and peter firmin made, ivor the engine.

"in our time we had been able to found great kingdoms of mountains, ice and snow in our cowsheds. in peter's big barn
we commanded infinities of outer space and starred it with heavenly bodies made from old christmas decorations."
– oliver postgate

i really wanted to write about some things that i've been meaning to write about for ages, but i've been too busy writing about myself to do it. things i've been listening to and that.

firstly, amanda applewood, the keyboard and recorder player for the boy least likely to, is releasing a solo single in january. you can hear one of the tracks from it at her myspace

www.myspace.com/amandaapplewood

and i think she'll be putting up some other songs in the next few weeks too. anyway, i think you should go and listen to it and make friends with her, because she'd like that.

i've also been listening to a band called versus the lion! who made friends with us on myspace and i liked their artwork so i listened to them and i haven't stopped since. my favourite song of theirs is on their myspace. it's called 'lions on the lawn' and it seems to be all about running away to canada and how there aren't any lions there. i don't know how true this is. they kind of remind me of the orchids sometimes and pavement, but it's not as simple as that. they're a bit of a mess really, and that song is one of my favourite songs of the year. they have two christmas songs up on their myspace page at the moment too. everyone's doing it. you can listen to them here

www.myspace.com/versusthelion

and you can download a whole ep of songs from their myspace page too, including 'lions on the lawn'.

i picked up a couple of new things in rough trade this month too. i got my copy of 'another version of pop song' by rose elinor dougall, which means i can worry a little less now, and i picked up a copy of little my's seventh single. i already had a copy of 'sellotape my hands' because i won a prize drawing on their website and they sent me a cdr in with it. i saw them play when we were at the swn festival. they sounded great, but i was kind of behind them so i couldn't see exactly how many of them there were or what sort of ears they were wearing and then afterwards i wanted to say thank you for the cdr and the drawing but there were too many of them and i didn't know who knew about the drawing so i didn't say anything and felt bad about it afterwards. i bought a copy of a single by one happy island called 'secret party that the other party doesn't know about' too just because the description said it included "handclaps, ukulele strings, harmonicas, bittersweetly jangley ballads, furiously unfocused kazoo solos, and unashamed lo-fi recordings", which is quite similar to the way that the little my record was described as being "gloriously lo-fi ramshackle pop with handclaps, glockenspiel, and irresistibly catchy melodies". i think they might be on the same label too. anyway, the descriptions are true and they would both make amazing christmas presents. but not for me, because i've already got them.

www.myspace.com/tinylittlemy
www.myspace.com/onehappyislandmusic

finally, the line up for the christmas show has changed slightly. unfortunately mia vigar has had to pull out but fortunately rod thomas is playing instead. lovely.

www.myspace.com/rodthomasmusic

tickets are available from www.ticketweb.co.uk

and finally, as we come back with a new single so our very own tribute act returns with us. the girl most likely to has put up her version of 'a balloon on a broken string' on her myspace page, and very very lovely it is too. it makes it sound so sad though.

www.myspace.com/thegirlmostlikelyto

then because it was going to be a single we thought we'd better make a video for it. unfortunately it wasn't snowing in wendover in november, so we had to drive all the way up to the very top of scotland in search of snow, and the video follows us in our ever hopeful quest. you can watch it here.

i think it might be quite a sad song even if it ends quite happily. i guess all my favourite christmas songs have a little bit of sadness in them, because even though christmas is a lovely time, it can also be quite a sad time too. at christmas, you always notice the things that are missing, whether it's someone that isn't around or just a feeling that you used to have that you don't have anymore.

so this is 'the first snowflake', a little pop song about feeling lost and alone at christmas. i hope it makes you happy and i hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did recording it for you.

it will be available to buy in the UK and the USA on december 15th.

merry christmas and a happy new year.

x