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Jingle Bell Rock
Dec. 20th, 2022 07:58 pm
Earlier in the year I’d come up with the idea of paying a return visit to Heath and Reach at Christmas and duetting with Sarah, landlady of The Dukes, on Fairytale of New York one more time. So last Friday I travelled up to Bedfordshire for the first time since moving away, close to three years ago.
On the road in from Leighton Buzzard, passing the sign marking the start of the village and then seeing the Axe and Compass from the window were so nostalgic. Walking into the Dukes to check in, I saw Sarah who was talking to one of her staff behind the food counter, and said hello. She came over and gave me a hug and a kiss before issuing me my room key.
I went back out back to my room, unpacked, and streamed versions of The Kunts’ Fuck The Tories a few times - got to try and help it into the Christmas chart - until it was time to cross the road to the village green for the annual carol-singing accompanied by the Heath Band and the Leighton Buzzard Philharmonic.
I love a bit of carol singing. We were out there for an hour and sang most of the well known carols, plus Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells and to finish We Wish You A Merry Christmas. It was chilly out there - during the interval, one of the organisers announced “It’s minus four degrees” - but it felt nice to be part of a Christmas community gathering, and the mulled wine and warm mince pies passed round helped a lot.
Then we headed back to the Dukes, where I opted for a large mulled wine while Sarah got the equipment set up. Sarah asked me if I was happy for us to open the evening and I agreed. She set up a karaoke version of Fairytale on the laptop then I stood up and joined her. Sarah gave me a lovely intro, telling the people at the surrounding tables that I used to live there and that we used to sing the song every Christmas and that now I’d travelled from Portsmouth to sing it once more.
Sarah and I did our best - she sang her part with a spirit that Kirsty would have been proud of - but our mikes were unamplified so we were battling to be heard against the backing track. We still danced round in circles to the instrumental run-out and thanked each other at the end. Then as Christmas songs played on the lap-top while we waited for other singers to come forward, Sarah came over for a catch-up chat with me.
Throughout the rest of the evening, I quaffed a series of tasty mulled wines. There was a lull in people coming forward; there was talk of a group of guys sitting at a middle table coming up to do Stay Another Day but they didn’t deliver. In the end Sarah announced that the next person to sing would get a free shot. I obliged, singing Stop The Cavalry - that got most of the place clapping and singing along. Sarah was there at the end with a shot of Jäger that I downed.
At the table to one side of mine were a couple; the guy was called Matt but, alas, I didn’t catch his girlfriend’s name. They chatted to me on and off about which songs to sing. The lady said a few times that she was wanting to do Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You but that she couldn’t hit the high note at the end of the hook line. I said “Drop an octave”; she sang the line, dropping an octave for the “you”, and burst out laughing. She really wanted Matt to sing, he seemed less enthusiastic. We joined efforts to try and persuade him to do one of the Christmas classics. He apparently had a family connection to a member of Wizzard, so for a while the consensus was that he’d sing I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.
There was a couple on the table the other side of me who arrived during the quiet spell before my Stop The Cavalry performance; they were quieter but offered the odd observation on favourite Christmas songs.
The lady was just as concerned with getting me up to sing again. Needing a refill of mulled wine, I said I’d sing after 10 pm. Meanwhile, Matt had settled on Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody as his choice. Two girls were singing Underneath The Tree. When they’d finished Sarah asked who was next, I indicated the lady and said “She’s doing Mariah” but the lady showed me her watch, which was showing 10 o’clock precisely, and said to me “It’s you.”
I made a brave stab at David Essex’s A Winter’s Tale, thinking of Sarah my lost true love (not the same lady as the pub landlady!) Nothing now could keep the lady on the adjacent table from her date with destiny. She gave a good rendition of the Mariah Carey number, putting the mike out to the assembled punters for them to sing “you” a couple of times then singing it herself at the end and doing a decent job. Matt went up next and, despite his earlier reticence, seemed to enjoy himself singing the Slade classic. Certainly everyone in the pub was having a good time to it.
After one girl singing One More Sleep and another doing I’m Going To Be Warm This Winter, it wasn’t long before Mariah wanted me to take a fourth turn at the mike. I began to explain to her “I’ve exhausted my Christmas repertoire. I’m not brave enough to…”
She cut in with “Not brave enough?? Look at me!”
I replied “You don’t know what I was going to say. I’m not brave enough to tackle 2000 Miles.”
She looked puzzled. “Is that a Christmas song?”
“Yes.”
She got Matt to join her in an amusing rendering of Baby It’s Cold Outside. When they returned to their seats she said to me “You’re next.”
Nobody else stepped up to the plate. Sarah was behind the bar so the laptop was unattended. I remembered her at the start of the evening saying singing accompanied by the original record was OK. So I cued up The Goodies’ Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me and sang that. It gave the punters a laugh, so that was good enough. Sarah came over at the end with another Jäger shot for me.
We were reaching the end of the evening. Two ladies were standing by ready to perform Last Christmas. Sarah called me over and asked if I wanted to sing Fairytale again. The chance at redemption I’d been hoping for all evening. Naturally I said yes. Sarah indicated the ladies and said they’d be going first.
I replied “They do Last Christmas then we do Fairytale”? Sarah nodded. The couple to the other side of me signalled their approval. “That’s the perfect way to end the evening,” the man said.
The ladies did a lovely rendition of Last Christmas then Sarah and I stepped forward. All went well as I sang the first verse…then Sarah’s mike broke. Technology wasn’t on our side tonight. The punters watching were probably close enough to be able to hear her, a crumb of comfort as we carried on gamely, putting plenty of ginger into our performance still. For the last chorus I held my mike out for us to share, then during the run-out we held each other to dance conventional style.
The punters began slowly to drift away and I went to say my goodbyes to Sarah. After I’d told her I had an early start in the morning so wouldn’t be around for breakfast, she sorted me a couple of pains chocolat and an orange to take to my room for the morning. We hugged and kissed again and she said she hoped I’d come up again next year.
Saturday homeward bound, with a bit of a sense of comedown. But I made it to the Wicor in good time for AFC Portchester’s match with Blackfield & Langley, which went ahead despite people ominously testing the pitch with forks during the hour before kick-off, I stood on the Curva Portchy singing with the usual crew, and Portchester won 3-0.
Sunday morning I pottered around the house wishing we could do it all again.
Late last night my copy of Lionesses : How Football Came Home arrived. Stuck it straight on this afternoon. Wonderful. Brilliant too to see them get a shout-out on tonight’s Royal Variety Show.
On the road in from Leighton Buzzard, passing the sign marking the start of the village and then seeing the Axe and Compass from the window were so nostalgic. Walking into the Dukes to check in, I saw Sarah who was talking to one of her staff behind the food counter, and said hello. She came over and gave me a hug and a kiss before issuing me my room key.
I went back out back to my room, unpacked, and streamed versions of The Kunts’ Fuck The Tories a few times - got to try and help it into the Christmas chart - until it was time to cross the road to the village green for the annual carol-singing accompanied by the Heath Band and the Leighton Buzzard Philharmonic.
I love a bit of carol singing. We were out there for an hour and sang most of the well known carols, plus Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells and to finish We Wish You A Merry Christmas. It was chilly out there - during the interval, one of the organisers announced “It’s minus four degrees” - but it felt nice to be part of a Christmas community gathering, and the mulled wine and warm mince pies passed round helped a lot.
Then we headed back to the Dukes, where I opted for a large mulled wine while Sarah got the equipment set up. Sarah asked me if I was happy for us to open the evening and I agreed. She set up a karaoke version of Fairytale on the laptop then I stood up and joined her. Sarah gave me a lovely intro, telling the people at the surrounding tables that I used to live there and that we used to sing the song every Christmas and that now I’d travelled from Portsmouth to sing it once more.
Sarah and I did our best - she sang her part with a spirit that Kirsty would have been proud of - but our mikes were unamplified so we were battling to be heard against the backing track. We still danced round in circles to the instrumental run-out and thanked each other at the end. Then as Christmas songs played on the lap-top while we waited for other singers to come forward, Sarah came over for a catch-up chat with me.
Throughout the rest of the evening, I quaffed a series of tasty mulled wines. There was a lull in people coming forward; there was talk of a group of guys sitting at a middle table coming up to do Stay Another Day but they didn’t deliver. In the end Sarah announced that the next person to sing would get a free shot. I obliged, singing Stop The Cavalry - that got most of the place clapping and singing along. Sarah was there at the end with a shot of Jäger that I downed.
At the table to one side of mine were a couple; the guy was called Matt but, alas, I didn’t catch his girlfriend’s name. They chatted to me on and off about which songs to sing. The lady said a few times that she was wanting to do Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You but that she couldn’t hit the high note at the end of the hook line. I said “Drop an octave”; she sang the line, dropping an octave for the “you”, and burst out laughing. She really wanted Matt to sing, he seemed less enthusiastic. We joined efforts to try and persuade him to do one of the Christmas classics. He apparently had a family connection to a member of Wizzard, so for a while the consensus was that he’d sing I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.
There was a couple on the table the other side of me who arrived during the quiet spell before my Stop The Cavalry performance; they were quieter but offered the odd observation on favourite Christmas songs.
The lady was just as concerned with getting me up to sing again. Needing a refill of mulled wine, I said I’d sing after 10 pm. Meanwhile, Matt had settled on Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody as his choice. Two girls were singing Underneath The Tree. When they’d finished Sarah asked who was next, I indicated the lady and said “She’s doing Mariah” but the lady showed me her watch, which was showing 10 o’clock precisely, and said to me “It’s you.”
I made a brave stab at David Essex’s A Winter’s Tale, thinking of Sarah my lost true love (not the same lady as the pub landlady!) Nothing now could keep the lady on the adjacent table from her date with destiny. She gave a good rendition of the Mariah Carey number, putting the mike out to the assembled punters for them to sing “you” a couple of times then singing it herself at the end and doing a decent job. Matt went up next and, despite his earlier reticence, seemed to enjoy himself singing the Slade classic. Certainly everyone in the pub was having a good time to it.
After one girl singing One More Sleep and another doing I’m Going To Be Warm This Winter, it wasn’t long before Mariah wanted me to take a fourth turn at the mike. I began to explain to her “I’ve exhausted my Christmas repertoire. I’m not brave enough to…”
She cut in with “Not brave enough?? Look at me!”
I replied “You don’t know what I was going to say. I’m not brave enough to tackle 2000 Miles.”
She looked puzzled. “Is that a Christmas song?”
“Yes.”
She got Matt to join her in an amusing rendering of Baby It’s Cold Outside. When they returned to their seats she said to me “You’re next.”
Nobody else stepped up to the plate. Sarah was behind the bar so the laptop was unattended. I remembered her at the start of the evening saying singing accompanied by the original record was OK. So I cued up The Goodies’ Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me and sang that. It gave the punters a laugh, so that was good enough. Sarah came over at the end with another Jäger shot for me.
We were reaching the end of the evening. Two ladies were standing by ready to perform Last Christmas. Sarah called me over and asked if I wanted to sing Fairytale again. The chance at redemption I’d been hoping for all evening. Naturally I said yes. Sarah indicated the ladies and said they’d be going first.
I replied “They do Last Christmas then we do Fairytale”? Sarah nodded. The couple to the other side of me signalled their approval. “That’s the perfect way to end the evening,” the man said.
The ladies did a lovely rendition of Last Christmas then Sarah and I stepped forward. All went well as I sang the first verse…then Sarah’s mike broke. Technology wasn’t on our side tonight. The punters watching were probably close enough to be able to hear her, a crumb of comfort as we carried on gamely, putting plenty of ginger into our performance still. For the last chorus I held my mike out for us to share, then during the run-out we held each other to dance conventional style.
The punters began slowly to drift away and I went to say my goodbyes to Sarah. After I’d told her I had an early start in the morning so wouldn’t be around for breakfast, she sorted me a couple of pains chocolat and an orange to take to my room for the morning. We hugged and kissed again and she said she hoped I’d come up again next year.
Saturday homeward bound, with a bit of a sense of comedown. But I made it to the Wicor in good time for AFC Portchester’s match with Blackfield & Langley, which went ahead despite people ominously testing the pitch with forks during the hour before kick-off, I stood on the Curva Portchy singing with the usual crew, and Portchester won 3-0.
Sunday morning I pottered around the house wishing we could do it all again.
Late last night my copy of Lionesses : How Football Came Home arrived. Stuck it straight on this afternoon. Wonderful. Brilliant too to see them get a shout-out on tonight’s Royal Variety Show.
