A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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My Christmas record collection
Since there was no Substack during the previous Christmases during my time writing about my record collection this weeks lazy last-minute post looks back at the posts to AHFoW I made during Xmas 2023, 2024 and this year.
If you celebrate have a lovely Christmas, if you don’t have a lovely time doing whatever you choose to do during this time of the year. I choose to eat, watch telly, listen to (Christmas) music, and walk on the beach. Pretty much like the rest of the year!
Luna - Time / Egg Nog (red vinyl)
So, most of the posts in this series have been selected randomly, the exceptions are the recent acquisitions posts which turn up when they come into my possession; and, because it would have seemed odd blogging about Christmas when it wasn’t Christmas, I’ve scheduled some seasonal posts for during the festive season.
So… is Luna’s Time / Egg Nog single a Christmas single?
- PRO: It was released around Christmas in 1992.
- CON: It was a promo so wasn’t in the shops, so you couldn’t buy it as a pressie!
- PRO: It was released in green and red vinyl editions - the two most Christmassy colours!
- CON: Time isn’t really Christmassy at all - “the summer is now past” - so maybe an autumn song?
- PRO: “Egg Nog” is a Christmas drink - not really so much in the UK though.
- PRO: Egg Nog makes abudant use of sleigh bells - the most Christmassy instrument!
- CON: Egg Nog is an instrumental so no Christmassy lyrics about bearded gents or sleigh rides or having a simply wonderful time!
- CON: Luna have played Egg Nog live all year round.
- PRO: The label has the words “Merry Christmas from Luna²” written on it… on both sides!?
- CON: Egg Nog is the b-side.
Dean once described Egg Nog as “one of the best things we ever put to tape”, see what you think:
And here’s Luna playing it… in September… without sleigh bells!
This is the red vinyl copy and I think I probably bought it on eBay a few years back.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/003
- Artist: Luna
- Title: Time / Egg Nog
- Notes: Red vinyl promo
- Packaging: Generic Elektra paper bag
- Format: 7”
Old Toy Trains / He’s Coming Home - Dean & Britta (blue vinyl)
This lovely Dean & Britta Christmas single was put out in 2007 on Chimney Rocks! Records by long-time mailing list member and contributor Scott. No concerns about the Christmas-credentials of this single - both sides are wonderfully xmassy!
It came as a limited run of 500, some in blue vinyl (not sure how many), and I think Scott sent me this blue vinyl copy later (I had got a black vinyl one on release). It had a beautiful two colour silk screned sleeve on lovely heavy card - and a polythene bag that was also screen printed with snowflakes… that have been, I guess appropriately, falling (off) over time.
Both tracks are gems, Dean & Britta had released Old Toy Trains as a free download a few years earlier, but this was the first outing of their cover of He’s Coming Home (originally by The Wailers (not Bob Marley’s ones) and called She’s Coming Home).
She’s Coming Home has one of my absolute fave little bits of Dean & Britta’s recorded output – there it is, at about 1’38” in… just before the short solo Britta shouts out “Go Dean!” - lovely. It also has lots of sleigh-bell action! And among Britta’s many credits is midi banjo!
The whole single is a beaut! I love Christmas, and with bizarrely few exceptions, love Christmas singles and this one is right near (or at) the very top of my faves, up there with Macca and The Wombles!
Dean & Britta played He’s Coming Home live during their Christmas live stream in 2020 (I do hope they don’t mind me sharing these clips) - but, it’s a gem - and does have the “Go Dean!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWgVlH4TRdk
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/066
- Artist: Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom
- Title: He’s Coming Home / Old Toy Trains
- Notes: Blue vinyl. Only Old Toy Trains is with Sonic Boom.
- Packaging: Lovely screenprinted sleeve and bag.
- Format: 7”
White Christmas - Damon & Naomi
Damon & Naomi recorded Irving Berlin’s perennial classic in 2008 for the film Lovely, Still, a romantic comedy with Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn, and released it on a limited CDR when they played an in-store at Rough Trade East in London in October 2008.
The CDR was in a plastic envelope with a card insert, and each disc had a different hand design drawn on it by Naomi, I’m not sure how different since I’ve only ever seen the one copy I own.
The film was shown on C4 over here a few years ago and I completely by accident flicked it on just as Martin and Ellen were dancing to White Christmas - but that’s as much of the film as I’ve ever seen, I have been meaning to catch it all some time.
I assume that Damon & Naomi’s version was recorded, like all the best Xmas hits, in the spring or summer, in 2008. It has Michio Kurihara on guitar, Bhob Rainey on sax, and Greg Kelley on trumpet. It was eventually given a digital release on the Spirit of Love Bandcamp compilation of ‘b-sides, bonuses, and soundtracks’ in 2016.
In the Originals series in 2013 I decided that ‘White Christmas’ (the song) was a bit shit and that no one except Darlene Love had been able to make anything worthwhile out of it despite many, many attempts - according to Wikipedia there have been more than 500 recorded versions of the song, now I haven’t listened to them all but I have listened to quite a few and they are all pretty awful!
Damon & Naomi’s is, of course, rather lovely - not Darlene lovely, but lovely all the same!
Seriously though, I’d be happy to hear suggestions of decent versions.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/093
- Artist: Damon & Naomi
- Title: White Christmas
- Format: CDR
- Bought at Rough Trade East from Naomi, I can’t remember how much it cost!
- Buy ‘White Christmas’ on Bandcamp
Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom- He’’s Coming Home / Old Toy Trains
This is a black vinyl copy of Dean & Britta’s lovely Christmas single put out by Chimney Rocks! back in 2007. I wrote about an un-numbered blue vinyl copy last Christmas. This one however has a number 480/500.
Both of these tracks have recently reappeared on A Peace of Us the fab Xmas album from Dean & Britta and Sonic Boom, although of course this version of He’s Coming Home still has the “Go Dean!” that was bafflingly removed for A Peace of Us.
Allison: the quarantine shows were beyond special. and hey, where was the "go Dean!" in this version?
Andy: Did I miss the "Go Dean"!???
Dean & Britta: we took out "Go Dean", you can say it yourself each time!
Andy: That "Go Dean!" is about my favourite xmassy thing ever!!
A Peace of Us listening party (22nd November 2024)
Since I’ve already written about the (blue vinyl) single in this series, and the two songs in the originals series I guess I’m pretty much all out of words for this… and, since this is the eve of Christmas Eve I guess I’ll just post some completely unrelated Christmas nonsense :)
Five reasons I love xmas - even though I’m not religious!
#1 - Because my mum loved it - even though she was religious!
#2 - Foooood - I love so much xmas food - Brussels sprouts, cheese, mince pies, nuts, roasties, etc.
#3 - Scrooge, the musical with Albert Finney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkq7WZTzkLQ
#4 - Most Christmas pop songs of the 70s - here’s one of my faves (but not the one I’d be expected to post)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPc7esgvsA
#5 - These folk
… and since it’s been over a year without a Motorhead reference†
Have a lovely xmas, if you celebrate, and a lovely few days doing whatever makes you happiest if you don’t. My record collection is having a week off and will be back on New Year’s Eve.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/037
- Artist: Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom
- Title: He’s Coming Home / Old Toy Trains
- Notes: Black vinyl #480/500
- Packaging: Screen printed card sleeve and poly bag
- Format: 7”
Previously in my record collection:
† actually it has only been a couple of weeks but the last reference was a little obscured :)
Dean & Britta - Variations (CD)
And so we arrive at what should be the last (of three) Christamases of this series. Most posts are picked at random but for Christmas I’ve tried to be seasonal for a couple reasons:
- It seems right for AHFoW to get into the Christmas spirit.
- It would seem odd writing about Christmas songs in July!
“But”, I hear you ask, “what has a compilation of Dean & Britta rarities got to do with Christmas?”, well…
Variations was a digital only EP released in January 2008
“But”, I hear you ask, “digital only!?”
Officially it was digital only release but Dean & Britta had some CDs made to sell on their US tour in February and Dean sent me a copy, obviously packed up and posted around Christmas - it arrived on the 10th January.
The EP contains six songs from Back Numbers remixed by a number of different folk - Scott Hardkiss, My Robot Friend, Britta, Sonic Boom, Sand Pebbles, and Richard Formby - and one track, Song of You which was actually a solo Britta number that was released on an Esopus covermount CD in 2005. The version on Variations is a Tony Visconti mix and credited to Dean & Britta.
You can hear the Esopus version on their website and the Tony Visconti mix on YouTube (or wherever you stream).
The sleeve of the EP was a photo of Dean and Britta taken by Michael Lavine and is a riff on the image used for the poster of the 1966 film Blow-Up (carrying on the Antonioni theme from L’avventura) - the original shot features the photographer (played by David Hemmings), with his shirt unbuttoned, straddling his model (player by Veruschka). Dean and Britta’s variation has Britta in the David Hemmings role (but buttoned up) and Dean being the model… but… unbuttoned!
Mubi did a blog post about the posters for Blow-Up a few years back (where I lifted that image from!).
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/009
- Artist: Dean & Britta
- Title: Variations
- Notes: Signed by Dean
- Packaging: Digipack
- Format: CD
Previously in my record collection - Christmas edition:
- [100] Luna - Time / Egg Nog (red vinyl)
- [101] Old Toy Trains / He’s Coming Home - Dean & Britta (blue vinyl)
- [202] Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - A Peace of Us
- [208] White Christmas - Damon & Naomi
- [209] Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom- He’s Coming Home / Old Toy Trains
Luna - Time / Egg Nog (green vinyl)
This is my second copy of Luna’s promo/christmas 7” from 1992, this is the green vinyl version and, like the red vinyl copy came in a generic Elektra sleeve.
Last time out, for the red vinyl version of Luna’s Christmas single from 1992 I debated whether or not it really was a Christmas single - I don’t think I came to a firm decision either way but one piece of evidence I missed was what Dean had written about Egg Nog in the sleeve notes for Best of Luna.
Elektra asked us to record a Christmas single in 1992. Justin had written a little instrumental that he thought might work - all we had to do was add sleigh bells and give it a Christmas-y title. This was our first recording session as a quartet, Sean having joined the band about a month earlier. These sessions took place at Mixolydian Studios in Boonton, New Jersey, with Feelies' engineer Don Sternecker recording and mixing. Over the course of two days we recorded "Indian Summer", "Ride Into the Sun", "That's What You Always Say" and "Egg Nog". Sean's playing was stellar, and for the first time Luna felt like a band.
Dean Wareham - Best of Luna sleeve notes
So, it seems that Egg Nog existed before it was turned into a Christmas song with the addition of seasonal percussion and an appropriate title.
I don’t really remember Egg Nog (the drink) as being a thing over this side of the pond, or at least not in our house - my mum was rather fond of a Snowball which was made with Advocaat which is I guess a nog-ish beverage, and was certainly more likely to be drunk at Christmas - but the fizzy addition of lemonade took it quite a distance from Egg Nog.
Back in 2017 I decided to make an Egg Nog and made the mistake of handing my phone/Instgram account to the boy
It became a bit of a tradition, you can watch the 2019 #eggnoglive over here - the look on my face as I took a sip shows that I’m clearly not a drinker!
A couple of weeks back we were watching the 1938 film Four Daughters and were confronted by this little bit of dialogue…
"Oh come along, let's have some Tom and Jerry"
Which led to some Googling and the revelation that a Tom and Jerry is an egg nog variant that, according to Wikipedia, is served hot so we might give that a go this Christmas!
… and that is enough of my record collection for 2025 (102 posts!) - if you celebrate have a lovely Xmas, if you don’t celebrate I hope you make it through to 2026 relatively unscathed! All being well the next post in the series will be on 5th January… but there’ll likely be more from me before then.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/004
- Artist: Luna
- Title: Time / Egg Nog
- Notes: Green vinyl
- Packaging: Elektra sleeve
- Format: 7” single
- While I can’t remember how the red copy came into my possession, this copy was definitely an eBay purchase since it has a nice hand-written note from the seller tucked into the sleeve.
Previously in my record collection:
Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - A Peace of Us
So, after 20 years of Dean (and Britta, and Sonic Boom) slowly building a catalogue of Christmas songs, their Christmas album has finally arrived, and what a beauty it is.
“20 years!?” I hear you say.
Yes, it was in December 2004 that Dean emailed me an mp3 of “Old Toy Trains”:
Andy,
I am attaching a song I thought you might want to put up on your site as a giveaway:
Old Toy Trains (Roger Miller)
performed by Dean Wareham, Britta Phillips and Sonic Booom
Mixed by Sonic BoomWe're going to put it up on the Luna site too.
All the best,
Dean
Email from Dean Wareham (December 2004)
… and since then there has been a fairly regular trickle of Xmassy goodness from Dean…
- 2004 - Dean & Britta and Sonic Boom released “Old Toy Trains” as a download via Fuzzywuzzy and AHFoW.
- 2006 - Sonic Boom did a remix of “Old Toy Trains” and it is once again shared digitally.
- 2007 - “Old Toy Trains” / “He’s Coming Home” got a vinyl release on Chimney Rocks! records.
- 2014 - Dean did an Aquarium Drunkard “Lagnapipe session” with “Christmas Can’t Be Far Away” and “Stille Nacht”.
- 2017 - Dean & Britta and Sonic Boom released “Little Altar Boy” for “Home for The Holidays” an Amazon digital album.
- 2019 - Dean covered “Snow is Falling in Manhattan” for a David Berman tribute album.
- 2020 - Dean & Britta did a gorgeous Instgram Live performance of “Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown”
- 2020 - Dean & Britta did a Christmas live stream that includes “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, all of the above… and more.
So, it was no surprise to hear early in 2024 that Dean & Britta were working with Sonic Boom on what was to become A Peace of Us.
It is a beautiful LP, I must admit I approached it with some trepidation - I LOVE Christmas and Christmas records so it had to be good to live up to my expectations, not just good actually… better than that! But it is lovely - all the above tracks are included in either re-recordings or remixes (mostly the latter I believe), and all sound special - although the missing “Go Dean!” in “He’s Coming Home” still smarts somewhat - particularly as I had just described it as “one of my absolute fave little bits of Dean & Britta’s recorded output”… but it’s still a beauty, and I do have the Chimney Rocks! release to go back to… or I can just add the “Go Dean!” myself… which I do!
My copy was the “Christmas splatter” edition released by Rough Trade - I (have so far) resisted also buying the green vinyl copy… but… tempted!!
I do also rather love the sleeve art by Marco Papiro, the way that the CND symbol has been worked into it… because now more than ever Nuclear Disarmament sounds like something we should be working very hard to achieve!
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/104
- Artist: Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom
- Title: A Peace of Us
- Notes: Rough Trade exclusive “Christmas splatter” vinyl
- Format: LP
- Bought from RT for £27.99
- Buy ‘A Peace of Us’ on Bandcamp