The Boy Least Likely To

"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