I’m still really proud of it. I don’t really seem to make music any more (maybe I lost the ability when I lost the 4 or so stone I’m carrying in this video, like a fat Samson) but Katy and I are still really close friends and whenever I think of this song, I think of two things:
1) how much this little song about hope and light in the midst of darkness and cold still means to me
2) how much the Afterword, in all its slightly Partridge weird loveliness, still means to me. You lot, and all the many departed since, were always really supportive (mostly!) and without Word, we wouldn’t have got to make this, or the two albums and and one EP that Katy and I have made together.
Wishing you all the joy of the season. It’s been a weird decade, but we’re mostly all still here. Everything’ll be alright.
I think I tell you this every year, but A Pretty Good Christmas is legitimately one of my five favourite Christmas tunes ever recorded by anyone. It captures the true spirit of the season, and it’s also a bop.
There have been many times we’ve had a guest in the house, the song has been on, and said guest has asked “Who’s this? It’s great”. To which I always reply, casually and in a manner calculated to enable me to bask in the warmth of your reflected glory “Actually, it’s a friend of mine…”
… to which my wife always, always quickly adds “an INTERNET friend”, thereby ruining everything.
Yeah but we’re actually real flesh and blood friends now, so she can stow that shit 😉
And thank you. I never really know what to say beyond that, but cheers Bingo. That means more than you know.
😘
And you’ve…sung together. I was there
What a deadly caesura.
And the penny drops who Hedgepig is… It’s a really lovely song you should be proud of it. As the usual suspects line up to fill the airwaves again it deserves to share that airtime… And 10 years, bloody hell..
Me too.
I remember the old persona fondly.
Who knew, I didn’t, who Hedge of the Pig was?
Great stuff that has more aged well
Well you used be be niscum. I used to be bob numbers, and I’ve just been offended by my own post so I’m leaving.
I’m back.
Well I beat you all because I’m Fraser Lewry.
He did used to love to deliver a beating, did Fraser.
Family show!
I’m someone who goes down the humbug route until the annual viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life, and then my emotional state shift seismically. Watching and hearing this has had a similar effect. Brilliant. Thank you!
Another vote , always loved that insistent piano running through the song. Title is clever too.
Blimey Bob, errr HP, err Hedgepig if you lost 4 stone after that there’d be nothing left of you as my Mum would say.
HedgeBob is now actually younger than he was when I first met him 10 or 12 years ago. It’s voodoo, I tell ya
Flippin’ Dickin’, so Diappointing Bob never went away. Eek, and I’ve said all those nasty things about The Fernando hitmakers, thinking I was safe! Good to see you, Bob, et, Pig.
And the posted song is still a cracker!
Oh no, I went away for ages. Ta Retro!
Bob! You’re BOB! Who knew (apart from the clique 😏)? I’ll have to look back on the Voyage thread now…I have been wondering what Bob makes of it all!
I thought everyone knew! It’s been mentioned a few times but easy enough to miss the odd post, I guess.
I didnt know – I thought he was my American mate.
The best thing about that song is how it builds from depression to euphoria, and by the end you can imagine a pub full of “happy” customers arm in arm, singing along, swaying to the beat.
Well; perhaps not this Christmas. Certainly not last Christmas. But, hopefully, next Christmas!
God bless you, one and all, Bob 🙂
It’s a really good song and you should be proud of it.
You should also be proud of actually losing weight as you get older *sighs*
I had no idea either! Very Christmassy song with a lyric that (hope you don’t mind this) makes me think of Paul Heaton.
@hedgepig brilliant tune, and yeah, slight Heatonesque vibe for me as well. Great stuff!
Ha! So the old go away and return with a new username ploy. You are no match for Clouseau of the Surete. Until the case is sol-ved…
(Walks into broom cupboard)
Ohhh…. the old walking into a cupboard ploy….
And very good it is, too.
I’d completely forgotten this song.
When I clicked Play I was expecting to hear something new to me, but clearly I played this all those years ago.
Well done that man and woman.
Does Katy hang around here with a new name too?
She renamed herself Moose something, I think.
She definitely doesn’t. Not one for the internet world, our Katy.
Smart woman – you never know what kind of weirdos you might meet on it..
Why thank you, shugah!
What a little cracker that is. You should do more, you really should, Bob.
Thanks Foxy. I often think I might be done, but I’m not one to say never. I don’t have a tremendous creative drive these days, and I never really enjoyed playing live much. But I daresay we might get it together in the country once or twice more. 😊
“I don’t have a tremendous creative drive these days”?
Hardly the case. You’ve contradicted yourself.
Just a few post further down you admit to still being a teacher. As an escapee from the profession myself I know only too well that teaching is a thing which drains one’s creativity as if it is going out of fashion; you have to be a bloody wellspring of the stuff just to get through the day. No wonder if you feel like you have little left for songs and stuff. But it’s still there really, getting used up on a daily basis.
Just keep that keyboard and that guitar to hand when you’ve unwound over the hols. You never know when the muse might come calling while it’s quiet.
@hedgepig.
Strange name for a girl by the way…
That is rather lovely. I don’t think I listened to it all those years ago, to my shame. It’s melancholy yes, but rather lovely.
@hedgepig
For the purposes of clarity, the “strange name for a girl” comment was a Blackadder reference re your previous name.
It’s a great song. I would be proud of this.
Have you gone back to teaching in any way?
I never stopped. Still a teacher.
Great to hear.
I still remember your blog when you travelled around Ireland on your own in a camper van.
It was a nice summer!
My name is Bri. I first met Gary when he still had hair…
I found out 5 months ago, after long suspecting it was either hedgepig or jaygee, who were new names to me and who both made regular, consistently strong, comments on political threads in a way that was strangely familiar. I didn’t want to ask, as a case of mistaken identity would have been embarrassing, but I suppose this place is a bit like Hotel California – you can check in under a new name any time you like, but you can never leave. Thanks for your considerate response when I did venture, HP.
I do like that song, not least for the snippet of fucked up ‘ding dong merrily’ at the beginning, and the thumping one note piano that gets merged into the melee of other instruments as the song enters the threshold of the glowing lights, but never really disappears – grounded, but certainly not forced joy, it feels like. Just my interpretation.
The AW is like a hibernating animal in reverse – it seems to come to life in the winter months, with far more posts and comments now than earlier in the year.
@Salwarpe
Honored you thought – If only for a nano fraction of a nanosecond – that I might have had the talent needed to create such a cracking song, S. Alas, I don’t.
I’d hate to rain on your parade, @Jaygee – but it was your sparkling political commentary, not your musical chops that made me wonder if you were the elusive ‘bob’.
@salwarpe
Aside the term is not followed by the words “typically falls flat”, I’ll settle for “sparkling political commentary” any day of the week, S
@salwarpe
Aside the term is not followed by the words “typically falls flat”, I’ll settle for “sparkling political commentary” any day of the week, S
I had to log in to listen to this – for no very good reason, I never did all those years ago. Dunno why. Bob/Hedgepig – it’s a lovely piece of work, thank you.
I have some good memories of meeting you both at one or two very old Word Mingles, a terrifyingly long time ago…. My god, how time zips past!
*Waves at Bob*
Wierdly, I thought about this song last week as I was compiling a Christmas playlist on Spotify with a couple of friends and, therefore of you and Katy. I did hope you were doing alright.
Finding out you are Hedgepig has cheered me up. I hope all is good with you and yours.
PS – your song made the playlist. Was described as excellent!
Cheers LB! Good to see you, bud. x