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I, Daniel Blake: Review

Hayley Squires and Dave Johns

Kevin McGrath reviews I, Daniel Blake, directed by Ken Loach and praised for its engaging story and timely politics. 

The title character of Ken Loach’s “comeback” film is a gentle widower, probably aged somewhere in his late fifties, recuperating slowly from a massive heart attack and all the while itching to get back to plying his trade as a carpenter. On the surface, one ordinary Joe’s fate at the hands of an unscrupulous Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) doesn’t seem particularly fertile ground for box-office success in 2016, especially when up against blockbusters like Dr Strange and Bridget Jones’s Baby in the battle to put bums on multiplex seats. Loach, however, the great social-realist director of our age, has spent half a century giving a voice to people otherwise ignored by mainstream cinema and television drama departments and it’s the very fact that the tragedy of Daniel Blake, a casualty of war in the life and death struggle between Britain’s rich and Britain’s poor, could just as easily befall any one of us that will ensure this Palme d’Or-winning film finds a receptive audience.

Loach’s career as a radical filmmaker began after he enrolled in a director’s course at the BBC in 1963. An apolitical figure at the time (he suspected his late father may have voted Tory), he quickly absorbed the left-wing politics of producer Tony Garnett and story-editor Roger Smith when they collaborated together on the groundbreaking BBC series “The Wednesday Play”. Loach was deeply influenced, too, by the social realism of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and the plays of John Osborne and the other Angry Young Men being staged at the Royal Court Theatre. The sixties Cultural Revolution was gathering pace and Loach suddenly found himself with an opportunity to make films about the death penalty (Three Clear Sunday’s) and the post-war generation’s new-found sexual freedoms (Up the Junction) all for a ready-made audience, Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association not-withstanding!

The astonishing success of “The Wednesday Play” culminated with Loach’s tour de force, Cathy Come Home (1966). Written by Jeremy Sandford, who based the script on his own radio documentary Homeless Families, the play told the story of a young couple Cathy and Reg (Carol White and Ray Brooks), and their harrowing descent into homelessness. The coruscating final scene, in which the couple’s small children are forcibly taken into council care, caused a wave of genuine anger to sweep across the land.

In fact, such was the docudrama’s impact on its twelve million viewers (a quarter of the nation’s population at the time), that it was repeated just a fortnight later with a follow-up discussion taking place on ITV as well as the BBC straight after transmission. Following its broadcast many councils abandoned their policy of separating men from their wives and children and the homeless charity Shelter was founded just 15 days afterward, in recognition that something had to be done in a country where 4,000 children a year were being placed in care because their parents had become homeless. Loach had wanted to ‘draw blood’ and the unprecedented response to the play earned Cathy Come Home its place in the history books.

Fifty years later, Loach has drawn blood again with I, Daniel Blake, a film that cries out in undisguised anguish against the Tory government’s routine punishment of the poor, the sick and the disabled. The film begins with Daniel (under)played to perfection by stand up comedian Dave Johns (continuing Loach’s career long preference for using club comedians in dramatic roles on the basis that ‘they weren’t acting- they were being’) finding out that he has been deemed fit for work by ATOS, a private company contracted by the DWP to carry out ‘work capability assessments’. (Between 2010 and 2011, 10,600 people died in this country while going through the assessment process in which administrators acting as ‘healthcare professionals’ use a point scoring system to override the expert opinions of GPs and Surgeons as to whether a ‘client’ is fit for work).

While attending a DWP meeting, Daniel witnesses single mother Katie (in a beautifully judged performance that should launch a stellar career for Hayley Squires) being ‘sanctioned’ for arriving late for an appointment with her benefit officer. The loss of her income leaves her and her two small children dependent on charity to survive and is the cue for a scene that unfolds in a food bank that’s as agonising to watch as the famous scene that concludes Cathy Come Home. The film plays out by following the fortunes of Dan and Katie, contrasting the kindness and humanity that they show each other, with the institutional barbarity of the DWP as it drives some of the most vulnerable people in society to death’s door.

As wonderful as I, Daniel Blake is, it’s not without its flaws. Loach sensibly lets the straight forward story speak for itself, resolving not to get himself sidetracked in the tangled web of factional socialist politics (a temptation not altogether easy to resist, no doubt, for a former member of the Workers’ Revolutionary Party), so there are no stump speeches, soapbox lectures or crash courses on Marxism for beginners, and aside from one minor character’s semi-coherent rant against Iain Duncan-Smith and the Tories, the subject of politics doesn’t really come up at all in this, the most “political” of films.

While this “show not tell” approach may be pitched correctly in storytelling terms, there might have been a little more political context to illuminate the darkness of Dan and Katie’s lives; a character to mouth off against austerity, the bankers or our rabidly right-wing government (all of which surely drove Loach to come out of unofficial retirement to make the film), while supping a pint in their local, or waiting for their food parcel to be cobbled together. In twenty years’ time it will be possible for a new generation to watch this film without any real sense of which party was in power and quite why they persisted, in the face of opposition from all manner of charities and pressure groups, with the unspeakable cruelty of the Bedroom Tax and cuts to the Independent Living Fund. All the more surprising, perhaps, given that Loach himself has been critical of Cathy Come Home for not being political enough, for not ‘tackling the ownership of the land, the building industry and the financing behind it. Otherwise you’re not really challenging anything.’

When the great socialist playwright J.B Priestly broadcast, during the darkest days of Britain’s fight against fascism, (his Postscript programme was being listened to by a third of Britain’s adult population at its peak), that the ‘common folk of this island rose to meet the challenge and not only saved what we had that is good but began to dream of something better’, declaring the Second World War ‘a people’s war’ to ‘bring into existence an order of society in which nobody will have far too many rooms in a house and nobody will have far too few’, Churchill forced the BBC to take him off the air despite knowing the effect it would have on the morale of a people standing alone against the might of Hitler.

Ken Loach continues to argue for that socialist society and that is the story that lies just beneath the surface of I, Daniel Blake. The great social reforms of Attlee’s post-war government, from The Welfare State to The National Health Service, are being undone at the behest of the Murdoch Press and the foul gang of neo-liberal economists that infected the centre/right political parties of Britain during the reign of Margaret Thatcher and which were then enshrined in Tony Blair’s vision of New Labour. It’s a scandalous ambition, made easier by the complicity of the mainstream media in general and state broadcasters in particular (hang your heads in shame all those commissioning editors at the BBC and Channel 4 who fed the nation a constant diet of ‘poverty porn’ in place of programmes honestly examining welfare provision in time of economic collapse). Ken Loach is still fighting Priestley’s good fight and I, Daniel Blake is a masterful clarion call for us to come to the rescue of an endangered Welfare State, and in so doing, to restore to each and every one of us a sense of common decency.

Any chance to watch the footie "match" from Ken Loach's Kes, I'm going to take it. One of the funniest scenes in the history of film.

This review first appeared in Wales Arts Review in November 2016.

#Youtube

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A Matter of Life and Death

David Niven and Kim Stanley.

Kevin McGrath pays tribute to a classic of British cinema – Kim Hunter and David Niven’s A Matter of Life and Death.

If you happen to believe in love at first sight, then Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s romantic fantasy A Matter of Life and Death is a film that you should move heaven and earth to try and see. In fact, the star-crossed protagonists of this wonderfully innovative movie actually fall in love before they’ve even clapped eyes on each other. The film opens with a terrific ‘meet cute’ (a term which dates back to the classic Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930’s, and which describes an imaginative plot device for bringing a screen couple together for the first time with the intention of sparking an unlikely romance), when Peter Carter (David Niven), flying his burnt-out Bomber back from an air raid over Germany, has his May-Day call answered by June (Kim Hunter), a young American radio operator stationed at a nearby aerodrome. Carter, accepting of the fact that he is facing certain death, is less concerned with relaying his co-ordinates to June than he is in sharing his last moment on earth with a kindred spirit.  That’s a meet-cute without too much of a future. Or so it seems.

As the blazing Lancaster tumbles from the sky, Pressburger has a minute or two to reveal to the audience everything it needs to know about the doomed airman, from his family relationships to his life’s ambitions and, of course, whether or not he has the character and courage to face up to imminent death. What follows is a screenwriting tour de force, as Carter clues us into his past: “Age 27, religion Church Of England, politics Conservative by instinct, Labour by experience”. Powell cuts to a shot of a dead crewman and back to Carter, who, a promising young poet himself in peacetime, is cheerfully reciting the works of Andrew Marvell and invoking the spirit of Plato, Aristotle and Jesus, before poignantly signing off with “I’ve known dozens of girls, I’ve been in love with some of them, but an American girl whom I’ve never seen and never shall see will hear my last words”.

This being a Powell and Pressburger film, however, means that death may not necessarily spell the end of Peter Carter’s life. In fact, it may just be the real beginning of it, and the audience had better be ready to suspend disbelief as Squadron Leader Carter cheats death, surviving his crash-landing into the sea with barely a scratch upon his person. Carter’s explanation, relayed to a mystified June (not to mention the audience), is a rather incredible one; he has been visited by Conductor 71, an eccentric French nobleman eternally tasked with collecting the deceased and ferrying them back to heaven who, in a frank and rather ill-tempered admission, has confessed to losing track of the dead airman in an “absurd English Fog”.

All’s well that ends well you might be forgiven for thinking, except for the fact that the Conductor, having been dispatched from heaven with a flea in his ear, has now returned to reclaim Carter and convey him to his rightful place in the afterlife. Carter refuses to accompany him, insisting that falling in love with June in the time granted him by heaven’s bureaucratic oversight means that they should now be allowed to live out their days together, requesting that he be allowed to battle for his right to live in a celestial court. The missing airman, meanwhile, is the cause of chaos up above, as heaven minus one deceased Englishman, cannot balance its books. If this flight of fancy sounds a little too rich for the blood, you can rest assured that there is a conventional explanation for Carter’s miraculous story, one which is firmly rooted in science and the reality of war.

Towards the end of the Second World War, The Archers, Powell and Pressburger’s production company, had been commissioned by The Ministry of Information to make a film that would improve relations between Britain and America. Instead, however, of turning in a standard propaganda movie, with a conventional plot showing both sides standing shoulder to shoulder in a heroic battle against marauding Nazi’s, the idiosyncratic pairing authored this Anglo-American love story with a supernatural twist which threatened to endanger the countries’ “special relationship” before it had even begun.

Screenwriter Pressburger had previously scripted a two-world’s fantasy for 1931 short I’d Rather Have Cod-Liver Oil, directed by Max Ophuls, and he returned to that ostentatious device for A Matter of Life and Death. In fact, it wasn’t a particularly original idea; Fritz Lang had made Der Müde Tod (1921) and Liliom  (1934) and there had been three very recent examples of the genre with the box office smashes Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait, (1943) and A Guy Named Joe (1944), later remade by Stephen Spielberg as Always in 1989. And 1946, of course, was also the year that Frank Capra was shooting It’s a Wonderful Life, perhaps the best-known and best-loved celestial fantasy in cinema history. Interestingly, both films are prefaced with an explanatory, otherworldly voiceover that attempts to set out man’s place in the universe in the wake of an unimaginably horrific world war.

For the role of Poet/Pilot Peter Carter, The Archers cast David Niven, a star who had made a name for himself in Hollywood before war broke out in a series of studio swashbucklers such as The Charge Of The Light Brigade, (1936) and The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937), before embarking on a search of the USA to find an all-American girl to play opposite the erudite hero. Luckily, their compatriot Alfred Hitchcock had just the girl in mind – Kim Hunter was Ingrid Bergman’s stand-in for Spellbound (1945), which Hitchcock was just wrapping up for David O. Selznick. For the crucial role of Carter’s heavenly advocate, Dr. Frank Reeves, Powell cast Archers stalwart Roger Livesey, fresh from starring alongside Wendy Hiller in another magnificently quirky Powell and Pressburger production, I Know Where I’m Going (1945).  Livesey’s gregarious performance is one of the film’s great joys, while there is a sublime turn from Marius Goring, who’d already worked for The Archers on their 1939 thriller The Spy in Black. Goring had, at first, held out for the part of Carter, before edging out Peter Ustinov for the flamboyant role of the Conductor. The excellent supporting actor Kathleen Byron also came on board as a heavenly Civil Servant with a kind heart.

As well as being brilliantly acted and sharply scripted (the scene where a crew of American flyers check in to heaven and immediately go in search of the nearest vending machine would have inspired a wry grin on either side of the Atlantic), A Matter of Life and Death looks magisterial too. Pressburger confounded Powell’s expectations by deciding to shoot earth in colour and heaven in black and white, thereby reversing the template of The Wizard of Oz. Future Oscar winning Cinematographer Jack Cardiff  made his main feature debut here, largely on the grounds that he was one of a select few fully trained in the use of Technicolor film, while the sets, especially the celestial amphitheatre and the giant 106 step escalator (the film is still known in the states as Stairway to Heaven ), supremely designed by master craftsman Alfred Junge, brought Pressburger’s vision of the hereafter to life. Powell, too, was having fun with his box of tricks, using extended freeze frames and point of view shots from behind a giant eyelid to add to the film’s experimental atmosphere.

Chosen as the first Royal Command Film Performance after the Second World War had ended, the picture met with a mixed critical reception. It was variously dismissed as “trivial” or “hokum” and one leading critic sourly labelled it a “barren fantasy”, although the British Film Institute’s Monthly Film Bulletin called it a “bold and imaginative tour de force”. It was not until the mid-sixties, and the rise of the auteur theory of filmmaking, that Powell and Pressburger properly received the critical praise that was their due.

Between 1943 and 1948, Powell and Pressburger made a half-dozen films that clearly rank among the best movies of all time –  The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944),  I Know Where I’m Going (1945), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and, of course, the magnificent  A Matter of Life And Death. All are unique works, but A Matter of Life and Death is, perhaps, the most enthralling film in the P&P oeuvre – fusing a uniquely imaginative and moving love story with an intellectual examination of complex Anglo-American relations going back to the American War of Independence. It’s a bravura piece of film-making, completely breathtaking in its ambition and execution.

This review first appeared in Wales Arts Review in December 2017.

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AS THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT, THE AMOUNT RAISED BY HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY INDIE CHRISTMAS III STANDS AT £2,573. THE OVERALL TOTAL RAISED FOR ALL THREE VOLUMES IS NOW £8,373. THANK'S TO EVERYONE INVOLVED. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

So, it's 2024. My three-volume collection of original "Indie" Christmas songs Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas has raised an overall figure of £8,373 for Crisis at Christmas. After originally reaching an agreement with Crisis for two-years, I can announce that the agreement is now open-ended. This means the albums will remain on sale exclusively at Bandcamp and any money raised each Christmas going forward will go straight to Crisis homelessness charity - Together we will end homelessness . So while there will be no more volumes, just one or two tweets form the likes of Ed Sheeran, Chris Martin and Ellie Goulding (all are Crisis celebrity ambassadors/supporters) can draw the albums' attention to thier 50m followers. The potential for these albums to raise tens of thousands of pounds is there for all to see. At this stage, only 0.00000001 % of music followers know that these albums exist, so I will be thinking of ways to attract the interest of the movers and shakers named above (Crisis' strict rules do not allow me to enlist their support through Crisis, as HYAMIC is not an official Crisis project). I'm hoping that a review of that rule in the future will enable the albums to reach a much wider audience.

Aside from raising the maximum funds possible for Crisis, my other aim, as a music fanatic and journalist, for curating Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas was to compile an album that could be pronounced the best ever Indie Christmas compilation of all time. I was determined about that from the start and that is what drove me to listen to thousands of Christmas songs (more than 50% from artists that I had never heard of) throughout 2022/23. In doing so, I soon realised that while there were hundreds of exhilarating Xmas songs scattered about the UK, Europe, America, Australia etc, (and thanks to Christmas Underground – We are the War on Christmas Music) I was now very much on their trail, there was hardly a decent Indie Xmas comp to be found anywhere (A Very Cherry Christmas being a long-running exemption that proves the rule).

The most common Xmas album was a label compilation. Someone at a major label would be tasked with cobbling together Christmas songs that bands had recorded down the years. Not much quality control went into those, with honourable exceptions, so strong and weak songs tended to be meshed together under the festive banner. A similar thing was happening with charitable compilations. I've lost count of the number of well-meaning comps I listened to that barely yielded one or two quality tracks. Again, there was the odd exception to be found here and there. I was determined to only target songs that I fell in love with, there were many, many good songs that didn't make the cut for HYAMIC.

Christmas Underground's view that 'Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volumes 1-3 are a guidebook to an alternative universe of Christmas music that few know exists', together with the verdict of Wales Arts Review that HYAMIC was 'the ultimate alternative Xmas album' suggests that I achieved my ambition to curate a work that would be part of peoples' Christmases for years to come. The sensational reviews the albums received are laid out in full here - A REMINDER OF THE INCREDIBLE REVIEWS FOR HAVE... (tumblr.com)

The albums can be downloaded here - Music | Various Artists (bandcamp.com)

Thanks to all the contributing artists, the labels that generously participated (not everyone was keen - one manager of a group complained 'You do realise that we're trying to make money', proving the spirit of Col. Tom Parker was alive, well and stalking indie land), the writers, bloggers, radio presenters etc who championed the albums from start to finish. Happy New Year to you all.

#christmas music #indie music

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HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY INDIE CHRISTMAS VOLUME III EARNS RAVE REVIEWS

It would have been almost impossible for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol III to top the reviews that the earlier volumes had garnered (https://redsoapbox.tumblr.com/post/703978515931054080/a-reminder-of-the-incredible-reviews-for-have), but I am thrilled that the third and final album in the series has maintained the reputation that the first 108 tracks had clearly established.

Among the most interesting critical responses were those from Wales Arts Review, who declared the project 'the ultimate alternative Christmas music album', while Christmas Underground announced the three-volume collection 'a guidebook to an alternate universe of Christmas music that few know exists'. Once again the album has been supported by the likes of John Harris, Pete Paphides, Ken Kessler, Adrian Goldberg, Gareth Jones and many more. The quality of the music is important in its own right, of course, but the real significance of those five-star reviews is that it simply makes it easier to raise money for Crisis at Christmas.

As I write this, four days before Christmas, the total raised for Volume III is just above £2,200, which lifts the overall amount going to Crisis to over £8,000 as it stands. It goes without saying that 100% of the credit goes to the artists who created incredible Christmas songs and generously donated them to the cause of helping people out of homelessness. The albums can be downloaded here -

Music | Various Artists (bandcamp.com)

The full total raised will be posted here on New Years Day.

#christmas music #indie music

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The Third and Final Volume of Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas is Released Tomorrow

So, I've reached the end of a rather wonderful journey. When I had the idea of curating a Christmas album, almost two years ago now, I didn't really have a specific project in mind at all. However, the best decision I took early on was to ban cover versions (I adore all the great Christmas classics, from Bing and Nat to Noddy and Elton) but anybody can round up a crappy cover version of an all-time classic. I wanted to see if there were undiscovered Christmas songs floating around in the ether that had simply never had a fair hearing, songs good enough to be future classics, at least within the genre of Indie music.

That meant a lot of back breaking and heart breaking (there are still moments when I full-on curse a record company for not consenting to the release of a track!) work along the way. I must have listened to every Indie Xmas compilation ever recorded - day after day spent trawling through Bandcamp, Discogs, label catalogues, you tube, Xmas podcasts and blogs.

On the subject of the latter, it was chancing upon the phenomenal Christmas Underground – We are the War on Christmas (Music) that allowed the fanciful vision I had of compiling the 'Best Indie Xmas Album Ever' to crystalize into a realistic proposition. I was discovering song after song there that I was falling in love with. These songs were from bands (mostly unknown to me) from all parts of America and all over Europe (Scandinavian Indie Xmas songs is a really flourishing sub-genre), it was incredibly exciting and lead to dozens of punch the air moments as, one by one, bands agreed to participate.

In addition to discovering new songs, I also set about tracking down bands that I admired and who I knew had an Xmas song in their back catalogue. I was lucky enough to get hold of songs from Dodgy, Girl Ray, White Town, bis, Pete Astor and many more. It was around this point that my idea for a 20-30 song album began to trend to the mammoth 108-track compilation that was released last Christmas. There were just so many unbelievable songs that I had to try and track down.

An example of the obsessive hole that I was digging for myself came when I read a write up on a Minneapolis band called GLOSS (who became Poshlost) before splitting up. Christmas Underground called their song 'Gifts Received' 'the best Joy Division/New Order Christmas song of all time! From the baseline, to the vocals, to the lyrics, GLOSS have hit the nail on the head when it comes to writing a dark, pulsing, disturbing Christmas song'. You can imagine, as someone whose favourite band is JoyDivision/New Order how much I wanted that song, because, unbelievably and against all the odds, it did sound like a Joy Division Christmas song. The band had long since split up though (the song dated back to 2015) and my bandcamp messages met with silence. In the end, I tracked down a band member on Facebook and received an immediate and favourable reply. That wild goose chase was repeated dozens of times through 2022.

Volumes I and II succeeded in raising £5,800 for Crisis, nearly treble the target I had set myself, having been played on BBC6 Music, BBC Scotland, Radio X and BBC Radio Wales (each volume was named Album Of The Week by Huw Stephens). In addition, the songs were played on "indie" stations around Europe and America (thanks to Sandra and Alice for constantly playing the albums on their shows from Berlin) but also in Canada, Hong Kong and Australia. Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas was also shorlisted as a (Welsh Origin) AOTY by Wales Arts Review.

The main aim accomplished then, but what of my personal ambition to compile an album that would be played at Christmas for years to come? Here is the verdict: A REMINDER OF THE INCREDIBLE REVIEWS FOR HAVE... (tumblr.com). I don't think there is anything else to touch it. For example, Rough Trade, as good an Indie label as there ever was, released a Christmas comp this year (some five or six tracks are on HYAMIC too), but it comes nowhere near the quality of any of the three volumes that constitute Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas.

Speaking of Volume III (you may have read the tracklist already at Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol III: Line Up Reveal - Wales Arts Review), it matches the standard of its predecessors, featuring The Wedding Present, The Futureheads, Helen Love, Euros Childs and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard.

The project closes then, having rounded up 143 distinctive, thrilling Christmas earworms into a three volume compilation that raises money for a cause which demands urgent support. This is the 21st Century and no one should be homeless in the United Kingdom. Thank you all for your generosity in helping others and for giving these forgotten songs a home too.

A track from Volume III "Xmas Trip" by Run On

You can purchase all three volumes here Music | Various Artists (bandcamp.com) If you do that on December 1st (after 8.ooam UK time) bandcamp waives its commission, raising more money for Crisis at Christmas.

#indie music #christmas music #xmas #Youtube

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Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Tracklisting Unveiled at Wales Arts Review - Available to Pre-Order Now!

The third and final volume of the 'greatest Indie Xmas compilation album ever' is available to pre-order now (hold on if you can and buy on Dec 1st, to maximise money being raised for Crisis).

Wales Arts Review has unveiled the line up today at https://www.walesartsreview.org/have-yourself-a-merry-indie-christmas-vol-iii-line-up-reveal/ The album is available at https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

#indie music #christmas music #xmas

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TWO WEEKS TO HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY INDIE CHRISTMAS VOLUME III

Following on from the huge success of Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volumes I & II, comes Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol III. Okay, no prizes for originality on the title front and, in truth, the format for song selection hasn't been updated either - it's the same eclectic mix that led to reviewers declaring the original compilation as 'potentially the best Indie Xmas album of all time'. That means more celebrated indie bands, more cult combos and more underground groups from all over the UK, Europe and America that you will be thrilled to discover for the first time. Indeed, having worked harder than a lorryload of enthusiastic elves for the whole of 2022 to earn reviews like these https://redsoapbox.tumblr.com/post/703978515931054080/a-reminder-of-the-incredible-reviews-for-have , I had no intention of letting my standards slip in any way on the third and final volume.

The 35 tracks on Vol III (the track listing will be unveiled by Home - Wales Arts Review next week, but will include bands from Berlin, Brighton, Oslo, Chicago, New York, Cardiff, London, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Seattle, Adelaide, Leeds, Wisconsin, Glasgow, Sunderland and St. Louis. Suffice it to say, if you enjoyed Volumes I & II then you will be 100% on board with the new release.

Have Yourself A Merry Indie Christmas Vol III will be on sale from https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/album/v4velindre priced at £5 (don't forget, you can always pay more!) on December 1st. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted that is a bandcamp Friday, which means the company waives its commission, resulting in every penny going to Crisis at Christmas. The album will be available to pre-order a few days before (you can listen to five tracks too), but Crisis makes more money if you purchase on bandcamp Friday! As per usual, I won't be making a penny.

#indie music #Christmas music #alternative

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Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume III Set for December 1st Release

Having tweeted out plans to release deluxe versions of Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas volumes I & II for 2023, I have had a bit of a re-think and decided to abandon that idea and instead press ahead with a third volume.

It just seemed easier to market a separate volume and that makes it easier to raise money for Crisis, which is the point after all. This will be a smaller scale affair, though, with maybe 20-25 tracks rather than 54 this time around. That is going to be reflected in the reduced price of £5.00. The reason for the reduced number of tracks is that it took me a whole year to hone down the hundreds of Xmas songs that I tracked down into the 108 tracks that comprised volumes I & II. This somewhat last-minute decision won't result in a compromise in the quality of the material for a number of reasons though - I received some excellent songs after the deadline for submissions last year which I can now revisit, plus the contacts that I made through 2022 have enabled me to gather in some great new songs in double-quick time. Having had sensational reviews for the first two volumes (see archives), I won't be diluting the standard I have set myself now. It will be the same eclectic blend of Indie, perhaps slanted slightly more in the direction of garage rock/post-punk, with the quality control set to stratospheric. I will start revealing the line-up, one act a day, in November.

The album is set for release on the first bandcamp Friday in December (the 1st) with all monies again going to Crisis at Christmas. I'll be blogging/tweeting about the contributing artists through November.

A reminder that you can still purchase volumes I & II here

Music | Various Artists (bandcamp.com)

#indie #christmas #Xmas #compilations #alternative #pop

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DELUXE EDITION OF HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY INDIE CHRISTMAS SET FOR RELEASE IN NOVEMBER 2023

Have Yourselves a Merry Indie Christmas (digital volumes I & II plus the Selected Songs CD) raised nearly £6,000 for Crisis at Christmas last year. The album, championed by internationally renowned critics such as John Harris (Guardian & Rolling Stone) & Pete Paphides (The Times, Mojo), received sensational reviews across the board, genuinely staking a claim to be the best-ever Indie Xmas compilation of all time. (see reviews in the archive section).

For 2023, in order to raise more money for Crisis, I will be releasing a deluxe version, with a half-dozen or so extra tracks. If there are any artists who have an original Xmas song, past or present, that they want to submit for consideration, then please email me at [email protected]

The original digital albums can still be purchased here - V4Velindre | Various Artists (bandcamp.com), but the CD has sold out.

#indie #christmas #xmas #christmas blog #singer songwriter

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Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Raises £5,801.66 for Crisis at Christmas 2022.

I’m very pleased to announce the final figure raised by Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas as being £5,801.66. Huge, huge thanks to the 108 artists who contributed a song and to all those who purchased or promoted the album. 

The money raised exceeded my expectations (my previous fundraising album V4Velindre has just topped the £2,000 mark). I had a twin purpose in curating the album - the most important being, of course, to raise as much money as possible for Crisis, but as a music journalist, and as somebody who has always loved Christmas music, I wanted also to compile an album that was good enough to become part of peoples’ Christmas for years to come.  

If you have already read the incredible critical reception afforded Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas (see archives), then you just might be able to guess how proud I am of the album.

Thanks again,

Kevin McGrath

https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

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The Current Amount Raised for Crisis by Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Stands at £5,365

As of the 1st of January 2023, the amount raised for Crisis at Christmas currently stands at £5,365. £5,000 of that has already been banked by Crisis, with the remainder due to be sent at the end of the week. There is a chance that Spillers records will have sold a few copies of the limited-edition CD Selected Songs From Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas, although the chances of that went down a little when my plan to distribute 300 leaflets at the sold out Al Lewis Christmas Show had to be abandoned when Al lost his voice on the day of the show.

There are still a handful of CDs available as a result, which I intend to reduce to £5.00 for one day only on the next Bandcamp Friday (February). There won’t be a better CD available for a fiver in 2023, so get in quick and you will be one of only 100 people in the world to own the CD. Despite the kind offer of Subjangle to extend funding into next Christmas, I don’t anticipate my following up on Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas next year. After all, how can you better 108 songs and the universal acclaim with which the Christmas album(s) were greeted? The album will remain on sale via bandcamp https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music with all monies still going to Crisis. I may even be tempted to add a few new songs to each volume.

All of the credit goes to the musicians who kindly contributed their incredible songs and to the people who played or purchased the albums. You helped put a roof over the heads of a lot of people this Christmas. Thank you.

https://www.crisis.org.uk/crisis-at-christmas/

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Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Passes the £5,000 Mark For Crisis at Christmas

When I set out to curate an album of original Christmas songs in order to raise money for Crisis, I had in mind emulating V4Velindre, my fundraising album from 2021 which raised money for the National Health Service. As with V4Velindre, I wanted the album to be one that I would play personally long after the fundraising side of the project was over. As a Christmas compilation, it was doubly important to me that the album would be good enough to become a part of people’s Christmases for many years to come. I’m glad to say that the wonderful critical reception (see the archives section) that the album has received, here in the UK and in Europe and America, suggests that that may well be the case. Massive thanks to all 108 artists who “donated” a song to the album(s).

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas (Vol I & II) and the limited-edition CD Selected Songs from Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas has now combined to raise over £5,000 for Crisis at Christmas 2022. That is £3,000 more than the amount raised from V4Velindre. Heartfelt thanks to all the critics, bloggers, presenters etc who supported the album 100% of the way. The album will remain on sale via Bandcamp and will hopefully raise a tidy amount next Christmas and into the future.

As for myself, two exhausting years of fundraising means that I am ready to take a break in 2023. Next year, I will be listening to music just for pleasure. Once again I will have time to read a ton of books and to catch up with many of the films that I have missed out on during 2021/22. Luckily, Santa has started the ball rolling already. As you can see, it’s all books, CDs and DVDs for Christmas ( I consider receiving socks or smellies from Karen as grounds for divorce). I don’t expect redsoapbox to be a hive of activity this year, but I have reviewed movies and books previously, so I might turn in something from the goodies you can see below (a dozen Douglas Sirk movies, some Screwball comedies, a (hopefully) definitive book on film noir , a biography of Harold Wilson, some fiction from Emeric Pressburger, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and Meiko Kawakami). There’s a fair few books on music and an assorted number of CDs (not as many as usual, because I spent the whole of 2022 listening to Christmas music!), so check in here from time to time to see if I’ve got my act together and posted anything.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Where to start?

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A REMINDER OF THE INCREDIBLE REVIEWS FOR HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY INDIE CHRISTMAS

‘AN INCREDIBLE FEAT’ - PETE PAPHIDES (THE TIMES, MOJO, Q, TIME OUT)

‘ A BRILLIANT COMPILATION - JOHN HARRIS (THE GUARDIAN, ROLLING STONE, Q,  THE NEW STATESMAN, THE TIMES)

‘THE ULTIMATE ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC ALBUM’ - WALES ARTS REVIEW

‘A GUIDEBOOK TO AN ALTERNATE CHRISTMAS MUSIC UNIVERSE THAT FEW KNOW EXISTS’ - CHRISTMAS UNDERGROUND

‘ A COLLECTORS ITEM’ - ADRIAN GOLDBERG (BBC5 LIVE, RADIO BRUM)

‘A GREAT IDEA.. SOME REAL GEMS’ - JOHN KENNEDY (RADIO X)‘ 

‘A PERFECT INDIE FANS STOCKING FILLER TIMES TEN’ - NEW SOUND WALES

‘A FABULOUS CHRISTMAS COLLECTION. I CAN’T RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH’ - COUNTRY MILE RECORDS

‘DELICIOUS ALTERNATIVE MUSIC’ - OOR MAGAZINE (THE NETHERLANDS)

‘AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF BRILLIANT FESTIVE TUNES’ - GOD IS IN THE TV

‘A MONUMENTAL FUNDRAISING PROJECT’ - 53 FRIDAYS

‘YEEEOW, A BEEZER’ - SLE PUNK AND INDIE SHOW 

‘WELL WORTH GETTING A COPY’ - VIC GALLOWAY (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)

‘KEVIN’S EXCELLED HIMSELF THIS TIME... AN EPIC FEAT’ - WHERE’S ME JUMPER DERMOT?

‘A STAR-STUDDED LINE -UP’ - THE OFI MONDAY SHOW

‘EXCELLENT’ - YOUR TUESDAY AFTERNOON ALTERNATIVE

‘POTENTIALLY THE BEST INDIE CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER’ - PETE GREEN (MUSICIAN AND POET)

‘A COLOSSAL ACHIEVEMENT’ - EMMAS HOUSE MUSIC

‘108 TRACKS & NOT A BAD SONG... 500 STARS. A BROAD RANGE OF POP TUNES THAT HELPS BRING ALT XMAS MUSIC THE RECOGNITION IT DESERVES’ - JG

‘A STAGGERING CORPUS OF TOP TUNEAGE’ - THE JET VAN SET

‘AS USUAL WITH ANYTHING MCGRATH COMPILES, THE SOUND QUALITY IS GREAT AND THERE IS PLENTY TO ENJOY’ - WALES ARTS REVIEW

SHORTLISTED FOR WALES ARTS REVIEW ALBUM OF THE YEAR (WELSH ORIGIN).

HUW STEPHENS ALBUM OF THE WEEK ON BBC RADIO WALES TWO WEEKS RUNNING! 

DOWNLOAD AT https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/  ALL PROCEEDS TO CRISIS AT CHRISTMAS 2022

YOU CAN HEAR ME TALKING ABOUT HOW THE PROJECT CAME TOGETHER AT https://www.soundsofchristmas.com/podcasts.html (scroll down past Muppet Xmas Carol),  ALSO HERE -  https://www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/indie-christmas-music-with-amerigo-gazaway-charlie-darling-and-have-yourself-a-merry-indie-christmas AND HERE  https://www.mixcloud.com/BrumRadio/adrian-goldbergs-adventures-in-music-have-yourself-a-very-indie-christmas-kevin-mcgrath-121122/

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More exciting developments: The album has now raised £4,500 for Crisis, received its first play on BBC6 Music, featured on Gareth Jones’ legendary Christmas Mix and is named Huw Stephens Album of the Week (again!)

It’s been a really positive week for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas. Huw Stephens followed up naming Volume I as his BBC Radio Wales album of the week, by repeating the honour for Volume II. After seeing the limited-edition CD go on sale at the world’s oldest surviving record store (Spillers, Cardiff), who would have thought that things would be even more thrilling this week? 

However, seeing the album pass the £4,500 mark, while notching its first play on BBC6 Music and having three songs from the album included in Gareth Jones’ festive mix for 2022, the stakes have indeed been raised. There is more to come too, with BBC6 Music’s Vic Galloway set to join his colleague Gideon Coe by playing tracks from the album on his forthcoming Christmas show. Radio X’s John Kennedy and BBC Radio Wales’s Adam Walton are going to be playing tracks as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fsjd  listen to the whole show folks, but especially at 2.41.27

https://www.mixcloud.com/DandelionRadio/gareth-jones-xmas-show-20221223/ Listen to the whole show, but particularly 1. 44.08

https://www.mixcloud.com/Darren157/the-157-show-christmas-special/

https://www.mixcloud.com/djindiegroove/the-ofi-monday-show-podcast-the-one-in-aid-of-crisis/

https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

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The Netherland’s Biggest Selling Music Magazine Oor Reviews Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas

The December issue of Oor includes interviews/features with Bono, Harry Styles, Jools Holland, Low and Fontaines D.C. All good stuff. However, the highlight, at least for me, is tucked away in the review section, where a short review of Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas rubs shoulders with Chris Isaak’s Everybody Knows It’s Christmas.

Google translates reveals a positive review: ‘A number of Snowflake Singles Club titles can be found on the digital compilation Have Yourself A Merry Indie Christmas. Spread over two Bandcamp streams, there are 108 (!) original indie Christmas songs on it – no covers – from the past few years. Independent productions in many genres. There is synthpop by Sally Shapiro, seventies garage rock by The Pocket Gods, bubblegum punk by The Prettybads, sunshine pop by Super 8, surf music by Building Rockets and subdued pop by Pete Astor. Delicious alternative Christmas music. The proceeds go to a UK homeless organization’.

Many thanks to Oor for breaking their own rule about not covering digital-only releases and making an exception for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas.

https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

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As More and More Excellent Reviews Pour in for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas, the Amount Raised for Crisis Reaches £4,000

Thanks to the incredible support of radio stations, podcasts, music bloggers and some of the UK’s leading music journalists, Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas has doubled the amount I raised last year for Velindre Cancer Centre. With the album set to be played by BBC6 Music, BBC Radio Wales, Radio X, Dandelion Radio over the coming month, there is a decent chance that we could exceed the £4,000 already raised for Crisis at Christmas 2022.

Thanks to everyone who has already bought the 54-track digital volumes and to those who have also bought the 16-track limited edition CD Selected Songs. 61 of the 100 available have sold in the first 48 hrs.

You can buy all of the above here:  https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.crisis.org.uk/

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16 Selected Songs from Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Available as a Limited Edition CD on Bandcamp Friday

I’m thrilled to announce that a limited edition of 100 CDs of 16 Selected Songs from Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas is now available on Bandcamp. Also, From the 11/12/2022, the CD will be on sale at Spillers Records, the oldest record store in the world! In addition, both volumes of the digital-only albums remain on sale and have continued to receive rave reviews. Here are a few -

‘A brilliant compilation’ - John Harris (The Guardian & Rolling Stone)

‘An incredible feat’ - Pete Paphides (The Times & Mojo)

‘An absolutely essential buy’ - Christmas Underground

‘A perfect indie fans stocking filler times 10′ - New Sound Wales

‘Potentially the best Indie Christmas album ever’ - Pete Green

‘Yeeow. A beezer’- SLE’s Punk and Indie Show’  

You can purchase the albums and support Crisis here https://v4velindre.bandcamp.com/music

As always, all of my proceeds will go to Crisis at Christmas.

https://www.crisis.org.uk/crisis-at-christmas