The second day of Christmas: Why I love Christmas music

Hi Cherryaders!

Ok, so, once again I don’t get around to posting till after midnight, but who needs to sleep in December anyway, it’s just too magical! Anyway, finished off decorating the tree today while watching Christmas TV, god I love Christmas TV, I’ll watch any old rubbish as long as it mentions the c word (no, not that one!). In my advent calendar there was a chocolate angel and, somewhat perplexingly, a picture of a winking Hello Kitty (hmm…) anyway, got lots of work done today as we’re away at All Tomorrow’s Parties this weekend and I don’t want to fall behind!

As promised, here is a bit about my favourite Christmas music and why I love it so much. I'm going to start by posting the full version of an article I wrote for the December edition of the wonderful Pull Yourself Together zine, an edited version of which can be found in the current issue along with an advert for A Very Cherry Christmas 5 (which you can still buy direct from:
www.cherryademusic.co.uk/buyavcc5.html
on special offer with the first 4 volumes and on its own from all good record shops and Itunes, distributed by Cargo, did I mention that?)

Tomorrow I will post about some of my favourite Christmas albums, singles and individual seasonal tracks. Hope you enjoy the article, lots of Cherry Christmas love, Rach Cherryade xx

When we started running Cherryade Records, one of my dreams for the label was to release a great Christmas album, I love Christmas and Christmas music and they play such a significant part in my life that it seemed like something we just had to do. So, in December 2005 we released our second ever record, entitled A Very Cherry Christmas featuring 13 tracks from artists including Das Wanderlust and Misty’s Big Adventure. I’d considered it as something of a vanity project, something which I would enjoy but that not many others were likely to care about. However, I was wrong. I’d always been told that being so obsessed with Christmas music was a bit odd but after releasing A Very Cherry Christmas I realised my passion for festive music wasn’t as unusual as I’d imagined. We sold lots of copies of the Christmas album to Christmas music officianados all over the world and I was contacted by dozens of fellow enthusiasts offering to swap obscure and often forgotten Christmas gems with me. I’ve kept in contact with many of them and we continue to exchange Christmas tunes that we’ve unearthed throughout the year because, Christmas songs aren’t just for Christmas!

Another thing that happened after the first Very Cherry Christmas compilation was released was that we were contacted by a number of bands asking if they could be on volume 2. We hadn’t really considered a volume 2, I’d released a Christmas album and that was that, but then how could I resist the offer of more new Christmas songs? Many bands told us that they’d been recording Christmas songs (or wanted to) for a while but that they just couldn’t figure out what to do with them. I think there’s a view of Christmas songs as having a very short shelf life and that if they’re not listened to by December 25th then they’ve lost all relevance. This seems unique to Christmas songs though, because there are lots of summer and spring inspired songs but people don’t seem to have much compunction about listening to those at other times of year.

I think there is also the idea that many Christmas records are ‘novelty’ records, which becomes a synonym for silly or effemeral. Of course some Christmas songs are silly, but others can be beautiful, heart-breaking, gloomy, joyful or uplifting, just like other subjects that can inspire amazing records Christmas can inspire a range of emotions and artistic expressions.

So, now we’re up to volume 5 of A Very Cherry Christmas, I can’t quite believe we’ve got this far. I hope that the truly amazing artists who’ve contributed to our compilations since 2005 and the quality and diversity of tracks has gone some way to proving that Christmas records are not necessarily disposable or cynically cashing in. We’ve sometimes been asked if A Very Cherry Christmas is meant to be ironic, which is a little frustrating as it implies that it’s only ok to like Christmas in an ironic way, there’s nothing ironic about my love for Christmas or indeed about the love a lot of the bands we’ve featured have for Christmas! However, we don’t limit appearances on the compilations to those who feel like I do about the season, I also love songs that deal with the dark side of the season because that is one of the elements which make it such an inspirational time of year, and I hope that A Very Cherry Christmas celebrates the fact that not all Christmas songs have to be bright and joyful.

I’ve talked a lot about our own Christmas albums but I’d like to recommend the following Xmas classics to any fellow fans who might not have heard them, these are absolutely essential listening:
Get Thee Behind Me Santa (Zombina and the Skeletones, Jeffrey Lewis, Herman Dune, etc.)
A Christmas Gift From Fortuna Pop! Volumes 1 and 2 (Bearsuit, Aislers Set, The Loves, etc.)
Gold, Frankincense and Purr (Motormark, Bucky, Velodrome 2000, Seven Inches, etc.)

There are so many more albums, singles, eps and individual songs which I just don’t have room to list here, but if anybody would like some more recommendations or would like to recommend something to me or offer a song for A Very Cherry Christmas vol. 6 then please do e-mail:
Cherryade.records@gmail.com

Have a Very Cherry Christmas!

www.cherryademusic.co.uk
www.dandelionradio.com

The first day of Christmas

I meant to post this before midnight, it's now officially the second day of December but since I haven't gone to bed yet I'm still classing it as the first!

Anyway, it's December, in case you hadn't noticed, which means it's Christmas! I know some people might disagree with me and say Christmas doesn't start till Christmas Eve and that December is just the build-up to Christmas, but, hey, the build-up starts here at Cherryade Towers some time In July and we have two little Christmas trees up all year round!

So, I've got the big tree (artificial of course, you can't get pink real trees, and besides, the needles drop everywhere and plastic is always superior to real trees and flowers, much cleaner and tidier and shinier!) and a Hello Kitty angel for the top plus I have just bought some brand new decorations, a set of Disney Princess baubles, a gingerbread man stood on a Christmas cake, a bucket containing candy cane and sweeties (not real!), a plastic sparkly cupcake, some pink tinsel, some battery operated pink fairy lights and chocolate decorations from Aldi, it'll be the prettiest tree ever! Hoping to put it up on Thursday before we go to ATP.

I was kindly asked to write two articles on why Christmas music is so special recently. One is in the latest edition of the Pull Yourself Together fanzine, which is brilliant and can be picked up from most good record shops all over the UK. Thanks to Dan and Hannah for asking me to contribute and for putting such a lovely advert for A Very Cherry Christmas vol. 5 in there!

The lovely Natalie Bradbury of fabulous local band The Shrieking Violets has also very kindly asked me some questions about the Very Cherry Christmas compilations, why I love Christmas music and Cherryade in general. You can read the great article she wrote about it, plus a fab review of A Very Cherry Christmas 5 here:
www.theshriekingviolet.blogspot.com
where you can read more of Natalie's really beautiful writings about life in this wonderful city amongst other fascinating topics!

You can still buy A Very Cherry Christmas vol. 5 here:
www.cherryademusic.co.uk/buyavcc5.html
as well as from all good record shops (distributed by Cargo) and on Itunes but the Cherryade Website is the only place where you can grab an amazing bargain by buying all 5 volumes of our utterly amazing Christmas compilation series for only £18 + £2 p and p, in fact it's the only place to buy volumes 1-4!

The December Dandelion schedule is now streaming here:
www.dandelionradio.com
where you can hear our very special Christmas show as well as all the other amazing shows!

Tomorrow I will post a list of some of my other favourite Christmas albums and songs as well as a guide to what's coming up in this magical month!

There was a chocolate bell in my Hello Kitty advent calendar today!

Lots of Cherry Christmas love,
Rach Cherryade xxx
www.cherryademusic.co.uk
www.dandelionradio.com

Out and about in Manchester (long post alert!)

Hi there!

I've been neglecting this blog as I've had lots of work on but I'm going to make up for it with this epic blog! So, highlights of the last couple of weeks (only just got round to writing them up) plus some great events that are coming up:

Monday (26th October)
Los Campesinos! Live at the Deaf Institute in Manchester
Ah, Los Campesinos!, a band to restore your faith in the record buying public (kind of!) They played Manchester Academy 2 last time we saw them so I was a little surprised to hear they were playing the smaller(though definitely much nicer) Deaf Institute this time around.The Deaf Institute is fast becoming the new Night and Day, it’s much nicer, like an old theatre, drinks aren’t quite as expensive and the toilets less disgusting, plus, unlike Night and Day, the room is just a much better shape for watching bands in.

So, we got there at 9pm, thinking that would give us loads of time since LC were headlining but when we arrived the roo was already full to bursting (we knew it had sold out some time ago and were glad we bought tickets early) but were still surprised that it has filled up so fast. It soon became obvious why as when we walked in the band were already setting up on stage! I’d like to thank the lovely doorman who found us some seats upstairs, we’d both have liked to be down the front dancing but there was no way of getting down there and mot much of chance of dancing with everyone crammed in! So, we had to watch the show in comfort from seats with a great view of the stage where we didn’t get to be pushed about and try to avoid crowd surfing, guitar playing band members! It’s a hard life, we did get to wave to our friends from our balcony seats!

Anyway, enough about the venue, how were Los Campesinos!? I hear you ask, well, they were, of course, utterly amazing. I’m not a music reviewer so I won’t go through a song by song account of the gig, suffices to say thatLos Campesinos! Are as magical live as on record, watching them is a very intense experience, one of those bands that sonically recreate the simultaneously magical and stomach-churning feeling of falling in love for the first time. The xylophone sparkles, the violin shimmers, Gareth’s vocals send shivers down your spine, just beautiful, really beautiful. The new songs are fabulous and I can’t wait for the third album to appear! Their new vocalist is fabulous too! They really are an extraordinary band, capable of invoking joy and melancholy, hope and despair all in the space of one song and with a warming sense of humour too! If you haven’t seen them please remedy it asap!

Long live Los Campesinos!

Afterwards we indulged in one of our new favourite hobbies, standing outside venues talking to people before the door staff shoo us away! Anyway, due to the fact that our friends officially have the most awesome music taste ever ever, loads of them were of course at the gig, more might have been there but as I said tickets sold fast! So we saw lovely Ros and Rose (Hug Party, Manchester’s premier hip pop duo and absolutely fantastic people!) and waved at Beck and Gaz from a distance before making a hasty exit, as I wanted to get home for Apprentice USA (yeah, I know…) but when we were leaving we saw the fabulous Kirsty Under Achievers doing some flyering outside (she and Dave really do work hard!) and of course we wanted to stop and chat, then Hannah and Dan from Pull Yourself Together appeared and we all chatted for ages, eventually the cold made us disperse. I missed the first episode of Apprentice USA, but it was worth it!

Tuesday 27th October
In the early evening I presented a short paper about my PHD, thanks to everyone that came along and asked some really insightful answers, one on inclusion and exclusion in DIY music, in particular, has really got me thinking (and writing!)

Tuesday is, of course, Fuel quiz night. Team Cherryade was a bit different as Grant was busy rehearsing for what was likely to be one of the musical events of the year (more about that later) but we were joined by our Norwich friends James and Christa and half of Lancaster legends Cogna, in the form of Alan! This week we were up to w and x in the alphabetical questions series, the x round was very science based, less said about our performance the better!

Wednesday 28th October
A lovely relaxing evening spent at Pull Yourself Together at Common. Hannah and Dan organise a really lovely night where you can sit and listen to great records (they have impeccable taste!) in a really nice venue, chat to friends and flick through the latest edition of the truly excellent PYT zine. James and Christa came along and we had fun chatting about Norwich and stuff. Hannah and Dan have asked If I’d like to write an article about Christmas music for the December PYT zine, which I’m really excited about!

Thursday 29th October
Stayed at home and got some work done.

Friday 30th October
Ah Kissing Just For Practise, the monthly Belle and Sebastian disco at the Star and Garter, always a joy, an indiepop fan’s wet dream really. Maybe give it a miss if you don’t like Belle and Sebastian (and, frankly, shame on you!) but thankfully I love them, so a night of B and S treats interspersed with heavenly indiepop beauties from the likes of Bearsuit (swoon), Hefner, Los Campesinos!, Magnetic Fields, Bis, Kenickie and so much more, flawless really! No wonder everyone we know seems to go! So glad it’s monthly now, it went through a stage of being every three or even six months, grrr!

Saturday 31st October
Whooo! I actually enjoy Halloween more as a (theoretical) adult than I did as a kid, better parties are probably the main reason! This Halloween was a corker. We’d released our first ever Halloween record this year, a very limited edition super-spooky Twin Peaks themed single by one of the greatest bands of all time (I’m not exaggerating, visit www.myspace.com/thelovelyeggs if you don’t believe me!) by Lancaster heroes The Lovely Eggs entitled ‘Haunt Me Out’. The cd was printed with one of Agent Dale Cooper’s fave donuts and came with a Laura Palmer half heart necklace and the whole package was beautiful as those of you who bought it will know, for those of you haven’t got a copy, I’m afraid it’s totally sold out though you can get the three tracks on Itunes.

Anyway, The Eggs were on a mini UK tour promoting the single and our lovely friends at Manchester’s officially friendliest and most fun night out Under Achievers Please Try Harder, were able to put the Eggs on at their super Halloween party. For those of you who’ve never been, Under Achievers is held over two floors at Café Saki in Rusholme with djs upstairs and bands (and later djs) downstairs. Anyway, this was an even more special night than usual since it was of course fancy dress, I must say that so many people had made such an amazing effort, I felt a bit bad that my only real concession to the spookiness of the evening was to forego wearing pink for the evening! Well, I kind of cobbled together a costume out of a Victorian style black frilly skirt, a black top with spiderweb sleeves, a spider necklace, black pointy shoes, black fingerless lace gloves and a black feather and net fascinator which I thought looked kind of funerial… Christmas is more my fancy dress season, time to dust off the fairy outfit I think! Anyway, others who’d made an amazing effort included Rebecca in a fabulous pumpkin outfit with pumpkin top hat, Catriona dressed as a giant bee, Vic, Beck, Jenny and others as a brace of Freddy Mercurys in that video where he wears a dress (I’m not a Queen fan so don’t ask me which song it was!) but needless to say some impressive moustaches were in evidence, Dave Under Achiever as Meatloaf (after the diet) and Natlie Shrieking Violet as a gargoyle.

Anyway, enough about costumes and on to the bands. One of the most eagerly awaited events of the night was the return to life of Michael Jackson to play at Under Achievers for one night only, well, ok not really MJ, but something even better! Our friend Grant, star of radio and of many tribute bands as well as a great singer/songwriter in his own right and general all-round renaissance man was due to unveil his performance of Michael Jackson’s thriller. Expectations were high and Grant and Kirsty (who proved her versatility by being both the scared girl in the video at the beginning and later a zombie) and James, who also made a fabulous zombie had had to put in a lot of rehearsal for this special occasion. It was worth it, everyone loved it, those that arrived too late missed a treat! The choreography was fantastic! MJ lives!

Anyway, The Lovely Eggs also had something very special planned (though every Eggs gig is a special occasion) as they took to the stage in Twin Peaks costume with David dressed as Laura Palmer and Holly (terrifyingly convincingly) as Bob, did I mention how amazing they are? Well they are and they played a remarkable set as usual, kicking off with Twin Peaks Halloween single Haunt Me Out and blasting through a totally spell-binding set that left the audience panting for more. There were also lots of TP fans in the audience who seemed to appreciate all the Twin Peaks banter! It was great to see so many people singing along to Digital Accordion at the end too!

Under Achievers is a truly special night where we always feel safe and welcome and that always seems to be full of friends, ah! Can’t wait for Dec 12th when Dave and Kirsty are kindly letting Soph and I take over the downstairs for A Very Cherry Christmas Cherryade party! More about that very soon!

Holly and David Lovely Eggs were staying over with us after Under Achievers so we stayed up and chatted for a bit even though Adam had to be up at 7.30am for work!

Sunday 8th November
Went to the Manchester Art Gallery to check out the two new exhibitions The Angels Of Anarchy female surrealists exhibition including work by celebrated artists such as Frida Kahlo and Dorothea Tanning and lesser known work by equally exciting artists, a fascinating repost to the male-dominated surrealist movement of the early 20th century. Other exhibition was of three sets of Goya’s prints, strangely both dated and timeless, and very powerful. I think it is the universality of the allegories used in the prints which make them so powerful.

What’s coming up over the next week or two:
Can’t wait to have The Lovely Eggs back in Manchester for the brilliant Asparagus Next Left at the Star and Garter on November 20th. Also, the next Under Achievers is on this Saturday (14th November) at Café Saki as usual, get there by 9pm to catch Grant doing a short set! Also this weekend, an absolutely essential gig for any indiepop fan is the Nottingham indiepop all-dayer featuring performances from Tender Trap, The School, Of Mice and Mental Arithmetic, Allo Darlin’ and many more!

Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s nearly Christmas, hooray, I’m so so excited (I love Christmas, just thought I’d better mention that in case nobody had noticed!), only 42 days to go! The German Christmas markets will be open soon, Manchester is very beautiful at this time of year! Oh, and we are going to the Nightmare Before Christmas All Tomorrow’s Parties at Minehead, some great bands playing, I’m usually put off ATP by the beard-stroking seriousness of a lot of the bands that play, but this one has got some great bands like Pastels, Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Buzzcocks playing, should be amazing, hope there’s a tv in the chalet though!

Phew, that was a long post,
A post will be up about the much anticipated Very Cherry Christmas vol. 5 soon!

Rach xxx
www.cherryademusic.co.uk
www.dandelionradio.com