Guest blog: Andrew Manson (Other People)

Andrew Manson of Glasgow band Other People, who we featured last month, argues that the real meaning of Christmas can't be found on Amazon.co.uk...


Christmas is a funny beast. I always let out a shudder when those picket fence voices first float out of my TV singing 'holidays are coming', but by the end of the 25th I'm usually fairly in swing with at least part of the 'spirit'.

Not yo-ho-ho-ing down the local community centre or anything, but I will have at least pulled a cracker and donned a party hat or two. Handed out a few gifts, that sort of thing.

Only a few gifts mind. I never buy a lot of presents. I don't think I should waste my time and money on folk I never see or barely know. On children that don't even know or care who I am. The doughy elbowed ones will be using their chocolatey hands to squeeze as much out of mum and dad as possible without me needing to contribute, I think. Maybe I'm just tight but to me this is where the meaning of the festive season has been lost.

The fact more and more people are Xmas shopping online shows just how impersonal gift giving has become. It doesn't seem to be about giving, or receiving. It's more like trading. Hearing chat of which places are doing the best DVD offers, as DVD presents are being handed back and forth next to the Christmas tree. That's odd.

The economic slowdown could be the thing that pulls Santa out of this retail snowdrift. If no-one has the cash to buy the gifts to ease the guilt for never seeing any of their relations then perhaps they might just go and spend some time with them instead. Play Lego with their nieces and nephews. Take a bottle of whisky round the houses, get drunk, trip on the dog. Play charades with your parents. Yes dad, of course its f***ing Jaws. Remind these people why they send you a card every year.

The festive season should be about close family and friends, not crippling your credit card on people you don't really know. That would be my Christmas message. Well that, and also that my first draft of 'Gordon Brown Saves Christmas' is almost complete. Any takers?

Favourite Christmas Song: 'Stay Another Day' by East 17

Other People: Whooplash


Other People play Captain's Rest, Glasgow on 29 Dec

Guest blog: James Hamilton (Errors)

Ah, Christmas. A time to relax, to turn off our brains and forget the crass commercialism which underpins the annual midwinter shopping rush. A time for forgiving and for forgetting, as Cliff once sang.

But sometimes the uneasy brand associations need to be exposed for what they really are. Step forward James Hamilton of Glasgow electronica outfit, Errors...


“Watch out, look around, something’s coming, coming to town…”

And with the repeated refrain of “Holidays are coming”, the Coca Cola corporate truck wheels onto our screens, lighting up towns and cities and making children smile, because more so than end-of-the-year specials being advertised on television, more than the pound shops stocking up on wrapping paper and garish tat as soon as the Halloween decorations have been taken off the shelves on the first of November, and even more than the annual campaigns to get this or that version of this song or whatever to number one in the charts instead of the X Factor, nothing signifies Christmas more than the Coke truck.

An acquaintance of mine once remarked that she didn’t feel “Christmassy” until she had seen that Coke advert on the television. Now, being a staunch agnostic (if such a thing is possible) what right do I have to morally defend a Christian religious festival? If someone wants a soft-drink advert to sum up the message of peace on Earth and good will to all men, who am I, who celebrates a festival founded upon principles and mythology I have no time for, to take umbrage?

Except that I did, and with good reason. And when I was asked by another friend of mine to write a piece for this blog concerning Christmas, I did try my very best to write something jolly, something witty, something positive...

I do enjoy Christmas, and I deplore the easy cynicism with which it can be knocked, especially when your average moaning cynic (hi) will berate the commercialisation of the celebration while actively ignoring the, y’know, “true meaning” of it. Give me a playlist of songs including ‘Christmas Wrapping’ by The Waitresses, ‘Dead Christmas’ by Monster Magnet and ‘Christmas Steps’ by Mogwai (my personal holy trinity of Christmas songs), a hot cup of coffee while perusing freezing cold, busy streets before meeting friends and family who you really, really make an effort to see for once and colour me seasonal.

What won’t colour me seasonal is that truck lighting up the faces of children and models with perfect teeth, who clearly don’t drink Coca Cola on a regular basis lest they have gnashers like Shane McGowan. “All I want for Xmas is my two front teeth” indeed.

The proliferation of the myth that Coca Cola “invented” the modern Santa Claus might have much to do with the corporation's stranglehold on the season to be jolly (they didn’t invent the image of Santa as a jolly, larger-than-life red-and-white suited man; that image of Santa Claus pre-dates the drink, but the image was steamrollered into public consciousness by Coke's ad campaigns featuring the work of illustrator Haddon Sundblom in the 1940s onwards) but, like Simon Cowell’s feeling he has a God-given right to Christmas number one (until last week), it could be discounted as a minor nuisance that a massive conglomerate holds so much sway over Christmas.

The corporation's unethical-to-outright-illegal activities in South America and Africa in particular are well documented (though maybe, one ponders, not well enough... if you’re interested, why not have a look at ‘Criticism of Coca Cola’ on Wikipedia or visit www.killercoke.org).

Unethical big business! Whatever next? Yes, I know it’s hardly news. So why am I so vehemently aggrieved by Coca Cola over any other organisation? Well, I’m not. What I am, is by the attitude that Christmas to a Christian is represented truly by the image of such a corporation. Maybe it’s not the commercialisation of Christmas that bothers me; it’s the fact that it doesn’t bother those who it should, which bothers me. Yes, it bothers me, but I’m not going to let it ruin my Christmas.



Errors return with their second album early in 2010 and embark on a UK tour in February. See their MySpace for details.

Guest blog: Thomas Western

Having recently moved north to Scotland and immersed himself in the Edinburgh music scene, singer-songwriter Thomas Western looks back on his year and talks about the kind of seasonal songs that strike the right note...

It is widely accepted that the notion that different musics can be said to belong to either 'high' or 'low' culture is outdated. Yet there may be something left in this concept that emerges at this 'most wonderful time of the year'. Before I elucidate, I better explain that I am writing from a non-religious but happy to celebrate Christmas nonetheless perspective; for family togetherness and all that.

Commercial Christmas music is largely unavoidable to some degree. It has the same intrusive character as the music that emanates from those kilt shops on Nicolson Street the rest of the year: an aural interloper, an unwelcome guest.

This is why my favourite yuletide music comes in the form of carols. To reiterate, not for their religious content, but for the purity of sound, the harmony, the goodness that shines forth from them in the season that often sees us at our most debased, debauched, and of insectoid deportment. 'The Holly and the Ivy', 'In the Bleak Midwinter', and 'Coventry Carol' are beacons, exposing the crudeness of their pop counterparts, and for me, providing that inner-warmth that we associate with Christmas, but in reality can be hard to find for those of us who don't believe.

I don't ordinarily go in for such elitism, but Christmas pop is usually pretty low.

Speaking of Low, however, gives a good example of how a middle ground has been reached. The band's 1999 Christmas record is great. The covers, original songs, and their arrangement of 'Silent Night' all capture the seasonal sadness, without the sham goodwill of tin-pan tripe, or the didacticism that comes with more overtly Christian carols. Sufjan Stevens fits the bill too, and provides good proof that it is possible to write good pop songs about Christmas (see 'Sister Winter', 'Put the Lights on the Tree', and 'That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!').



Such melancholy flies nicely in the face of forced festive goodwill, which for me is one of the more irksome yuletide gestures. Our moral compasses should point toward kindness and generosity throughout the year, not just when the Coca-Cola adverts appear, and we are allowed to drink glühwein during the day.

For me personally, this Christmas feels special in the sense that it is my first in Scotland. I have hugely enjoyed my first few months in Edinburgh, and would like to thank Ruth from the Bowery and Michael from Jesus H. Foxx for welcoming me with such warmth to a fine music scene. Also thanks to Matthew, Dylan, Jason & Stevie. Ta very much.

The album will be finished in the New Year, and I look forward to more musical good times in 2010.

Thomas Western: Plough


Thomas Western: Your Front Door

Guest blog: Bart Owl (eagleowl)

Having played prominent roles in no fewer than four of the acts we've featured this year (eagleowl, The Occasional Flickers, Rob St John and The Second Hand Marching Band) it would have been rude not to ask Bart Owl for his end-of-year thoughts...

2009 has been great. With eagleowl, we didn't play that many shows. But then I think we've played too often in the past, and the ones that we did play were all winners: tour with Rob (St. John) in February, Flowers of Hell, Bowerbirds, ballboy, Withered Hand album launch, Trespassers William, Homegame.

The Playing with the Past soundtracking event - for me personally - is the best thing we've ever been involved in. It's probably the show I'm most proud of, and I think I'll look back in years to come with that same outlook. Also, putting out our first vinyl is kind of a big deal. It's just that extra step. It feels more real, somehow. It's like "We have a 7". We're a proper band now."

We have an EP ready for release in 2010, and a track on a Jonathan Richman tribute album which is due out on Fortuna Pop. So I hope those go well. I think 2010 will also be about playing fewer shows, but concentrating on writing and recording.

More generally, I hope music in Edinburgh continues to grow and thrive. There's been a lot of talk about a "scene" or things building up here over the last couple of years. I see 2009 as the year when more people have got organised and started releasing stuff.

There's been a lot of great bands emerging over the last while, putting on great shows. But this year, a lot more people have put out proper releases. I think it's an important development - to make a record of what has been achieved, and create a chance for what's happening to get recognition from outside of Edinburgh. Which is important to help stop things getting too insular and self-serving. I guess Kilter - who are putting out our single - are an example of this. They've been operating for a while putting on shows as 'Tracer Trails', but this will be their first actual release.

My alternative Christmas message?

Enjoy yourselves. Responsibly.

My favourite Christmas song?

Well, it's kind of obvious for us, I guess, but 'Just Like Christmas' by Low is hard to beat. I made an alternative christmas compilation album for my friends last year, and there was lots of good stuff on there. One was 'On Christmas Day' by Leadbelly. It's great. The whole thing is really is really bright and happy - like one big chorus. The main line is: "children get so happy on Christmas day". I like the way that it captures that childhood wonder and excitement about Christmas, without getting into any of the religious connotations. In a similar way to how the Low song does. I think that's what Christmas means to me.

eagleowl: Sleep the Winter


eagleowl play the Christmas Songwriters Club at Leith Docker’s Club, Edinburgh on 23 Dec

Image: Shannon McClean

My Christmas: Jenny Reeve (Strike the Colours)

With the day of over-eating and cheap crackers fast approaching, the singer from the Glasgow indie-folk collective Strike the Colours tells us what the festive season means to her...


I’m not that fond of Christmas. It’s not that I don’t enjoy spending time with friends and family, or look forward to the food, daytime telly, boozing, pretty lights, that kind of thing.

It’s just that in my head I imagine snow and open wood fires, romance on a ridiculous scale, a man wearing one of those chunky woollen jumpers with diamond patterns on and if I’m honest, probably candles. Every year, I daydream about these things and instead end up sitting in a confined space with my (somewhat depleted) family feeling confused and cranky for no good reason with a paper hat on my head that keeps slipping down and making my ears itch.

I am so lucky in countless ways - I love and am loved in return, I have a dog called Panda who lets me put reindeer antlers on her without complaint and who has the good grace not to scratch them off until I am out of sight, no-one makes me go to the pantomime and generally speaking, none of my family get that upset if the actual day doesn’t yield a proper Christmas dinner (last year we had pizza on Christmas day, then actual Christmas dinner on the 3rd of January because no-one could be bothered to go to the supermarket on Christmas Eve).

So yeah, perhaps it’s more that I yearn for a traditional Christmas, or wish that more of my family lived in this country (or indeed, that we lived there!) so I could celebrate with them properly and not just grin stupidly at a webcam which then gets used for a tour of my brother’s nasal passages or my Dad’s orchids. Maybe.

Or perhaps I’m just not that into Christmas? Crass commercialism aside, it seems to make people very cross indeed and not at all rosey-cheeked and tra-la-la but then, I still haven’t met that guy in the chunky-knit sweater. I bet then I won’t be able to get enough of Bing Crosby, paper hats, mince pies and stupid cracker jokes.



Strike the Colours are having their own Christmas party at The Admiral, Glasgow on 23 Dec, with RM Hubbert, Burnt Island, Olympic Swimmers and Dave Gow of Sons & Daughters

My Christmas: Grant Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit)

When we asked Frightened Rabbit drummer Grant Hutchison for his Christmas message, he replied with an original Christmas poem. An instant classic, we're sure you'll agree...


As the first snow falls on the glistening ground
The sound of drunk songs can be heard all around
The smashing of glass and the kissing of faces
And two f***ing neds drawing blades at ten paces

The lights on Buchanan Street glimmer with pride
And shoppers they come and they go like the tide
It's Christmas in Glasgow and everything's rosy
With Buckfast galore to keep one and all cosy

It's a chance for us all to just and sit in our pants
And pile on the pounds and have X Factor rants
As cards are replaced with a mass festive text
We wonder which Christmas song will Cliff bastardise next?

Exercise makes way for Trivial Pursuit
The only thing healthy is booze soaked fruit
Unwanted presents are a thing of the past
As Amazon's wish list makes shopping easy and fast

Our wages are spent before we even know
On Spongebob guitars and cans of fake snow
Jamie, Nigella or Delia Smith?
Who's turkey tastes better when burnt to a crisp?

And once it's all over it's back to real life
Where the people are sadder and normality's rife
But at the end of all that it's a sure fire thing
That at least you were drunk so won't remember a thing!


Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop


Frightened Rabbit play the ABC, Glasgow on Tuesday, although it sold out long ago.

My Christmas: James Graham

James Graham is singer and lyricist in Kilsyth band The Twilight Sad, who released their second album Forget the Night Ahead this year to wide acclaim. He's also a big fan of Christmas apparently...

What's good about Xmas?????

The answer to that is what's not good about Xmas????!!!

Over the past four years Xmas has been my favourite time of the year. When you're younger birthdays, school holidays, Easter and Xmas are your favourite times of the year for three reasons: presents, chocolate and no school!

As you get older things change, the presents get shitter, chocolate makes you fatter and you wish you were back at school so you could try harder and get better qualifications so you don't find yourself travelling round the world with five other guys in the back of a splitter van :P

Although I say that I have found a new appreciation for Xmas as it's the only time that I get to see all of my family and catch up on all of the shite TV and films that I love so much. It also lets me buy all of the music that I have illegally downloaded and like, due to the HMV vouchers that I have instructed all my family to get me instead of the Lynx Africa deodorant/shower gel combo that I always seem to get.

As a band we have a Xmas ritual, we all go to the Swann Inn which is located in my home town Banton on Xmas eve with all our friends and get absolutely out our tights. This year will be no different. You would think after spending four years solid on the road with each other we would be sick of the sight of each other and that's mostly true. But no matter what, on the eve of Xmas in 50 years time you will find four haggered old alkies talking about the time they played Sleazy's for the first time and nae c*** turned up.

My favourite Xmas song is by Chris de Burgh and is called 'A Spaceman Came Travelling'.

BAAAA HUMBUG!

James' list for Santa:

HD TV
Box of Malteasers
A tour bus
Tickets to Pavement at the Barras
Warp20 box set
Wagamama cook book
Trip to Buckfast abbey

Twilight Sad: Reflection of the Television


Twilight Sad: I Became a Prostitute

My Christmas: Peter Kelly (Beerjacket)

What's Christmas all about again? Someone's birthday or something? The 25th of December now means different things to different people. So in the run-up to Santa's arrival we'll be asking some of Scotland's music makers what their Christmas message is. First up is Peter Kelly, who has caused quite a stir this year under the guise of Beerjacket...

I must have been maybe eight or nine when I caught my Mum out on a lie for the very first time.

Christmas was but weeks away and the existence (or otherwise) of Santa Claus was a heated topic within my class at primary school. I was a fervent, card-carrying believer in him, flying in the face of the frosty cynics with (and from) whom I learned as a child.

But doubts had been planted in my mind.

Mum has always been an overly cautious driver and she was focusing fully on a tricky mini-roundabout. She was therefore caught unawares when I told her, “Some kids at school have been saying Santa Claus isn’t real.”

Fixated as she was on her manoeuvre, her parental consciousness depleted, she added her concurrence to the matter: “Yes - that’s true.”

Come on, Mum. Everyone knows Santa is for real.

Christmas has always been a source of great joy for me. It’s December and I’m a child again. I love the lights... I love the sounds... I love the irrational sniggering happiness of it all. It’s like everybody’s birthday at once. Yes, I know, it’s one particular person’s birthday.

It’s my mate Ross’s birthday. Happy Birthday when it comes, Ross.

I even love the music. And I don’t mean the cool music (Low’s beautiful Christmas EP, Frightened Rabbit’s stunning It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop, the impeccable Sufjan Stevens 5-CD Christmas compendium...) or even the ironic, you-only-like-it-because-you’re-aware-it-sucks music (Christmas Wrapping... Merry Christmas Everybody...). No, I mean, like Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Like, Do They Know It’s Christmas? Even Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. I love those songs. In fact, I’m gutted that ill health has prevented me from contributing to the Avalanche Records Christmas album because I had either a Mariah Carey cover or a similarly sappy original song planned for inclusion. Christmas is not only an opportunity not be cool, it is MANDATORY not to be cool.

So this is Christmas. And what have you done?

Well, I suppose this might have been the year when my musical project Beerjacket was sort of legitimised in the public eye. A fairly self-destructive rather than self-indulgent solo project, as it has been, I’ve been at this for five years now. It’s never been especially festive given its cheery themes of isolation, disillusion and passive aggression, therefore I’ve generally avoided the month of December for public outings when I’ve run into the likes of female rugby team Christmas nights out when I played shows, more or less into the face of the wind. This year - the year when Beerjacket was outlandishly endorsed by the ohmygoodness likes of Rolling Stone – has been no different. I hung up my cloak for now in November, at least till sometime next year, playing out my final show of 2009 for Glasgow PodcART. It was a pretty emotional night for me, putting a full stop to this very successful, if tumultuous year.

And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear.

Well, without fear, what exactly would I write about? What exactly would anyone write about? I’ve actually shelved immediately plans for a new album for now, so soon (too soon?) after Animosity as I wait to discover what, if anything, I really need to let people hear. I plan to record a few months from now (I had planned to commit an album to tape before the end of the year… but what exactly is the hurry?) and if/when I do, I feel sure it’ll make as excellent a Christmas gift for all the family in 2010 as my current album would certainly make this Christmas, which one can easily find in quality record stores such as Avalanche in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as at iTunes, Amazon MP3 and eMusic.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Beerjacket: Drum

Under the Radar podcast #6

Christmas. It might be chilly outside but it's hardly the coolest time of the year is it? We over-indulge in party snacks, strange, once-yearly liqueurs (eggnog?!) and belt-busting meals, before battening down the hatches on our little cocoons of reliable family customs, TV drowse-athons and enough lighting effects to melt Greenland. In short, the carving knife is all that's cutting edge about Yule-tide.

So it pleases us at UtR to know that the young hipsters and hipstresses of the Scottish music scene are equally predictable at this time of the year. Don't believe us?

Well, Billy caught up with a quintet of his favourite music makers for some festive banter, and was treated along the way to a poorly executed version of The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping, a shameless plug for Terry's Chocolate Orange and the earth-shatteringly weird coincidence that two separate musos both long for one of those tiny screwdriver sets in their Christmas cracker.

Panda Su, French Wives, Conquering Animal Sound, Dead Boy Robotics and Cancel the Astronauts... we're looking at you.

We also asked a few more of our favourite acts of 2009 to contribute either Christmas-themed - or just plain new - songs, and eagleowl, The Last Battle, There Will Be Fireworks and Tokyo Knife Attack duly obliged.

Again, the sound quality isn't perfect, but rest assured that top of our list for Santa this year is some professional recording gear. Hope you enjoy it anyway...

Play: Podcast #6


Running order:
00:54: There Will Be Fireworks: In Excelius Deo
07:10: Interview: Panda Su
10:32: Panda Su - Eric Is Dead
15:44: Tokyo Knife Attack - Invisible Sister
20:15: Interview: French Wives
23:30: French Wives - Me vs Me
28:04: eagleowl - Sleep the Winter
34:09: Interview: Conquering Animal Sound
37:48: Conquering Animal Sound - Where The Wild Things Are
42:22: Interview: Dead Boy Robotics
44:31: Death Ohh Eff - Me and Fift (Dead Boy Robotics remix)
48:22: The Last Battle - Once Upon A Boxing Day
54:14: Interview: Cancel The Astronauts
57:27: Cancel the Astronauts - Funny For A Girl


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Podcast: Billy Hamilton, Nick Mitchell

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