Advent Anthems: 10

Yesterday we followed a star out to a little town in a province far, far away. Birmingham. We went hoping to find a baby lying in a manger but unfortunately despite being due Thursday the little guy was late. We stayed as long as we could hoping for a dramatic rush to the hospital with towels, hot water etc. but were bitterly disappointed. In any case our marvellous hosts, Luke and Zoe, supplied plenty of cheer including reindeer sausages and Christmas music. Being a lecturer in the liberal arts (and possibly the dark arts), however, it was "arty" Christmas music and so we had the delights of Low's Christmas album. For those who don't know Low's music, it's somewhat bare and slow-moving at the best of times. The very fact that they have a Christmas album is almost hilarious, but this their version of "Little Drummer Boy" is exactly what you'd play if you wanted to parody them. Luke informed us that they are the only band to have ever set off Radio 1's trigger alarm on John Peel's show, for having too long pauses.



Here by contrast is also Bing and Bowie's 'marvellous... really fine' version. If you take out the little chat beforehand it's less than half as long. Love Bing. Am sure we'll be seeing some more of him later...