In Christmas there is no East or West

"Christmas Time is Here Again!" So sang The Beatles on their 1968 Christmas record, a tres psychedelique christmas cookie recorded specifically for and distributed to their wordlwide fan club (a collection of all of these annual Moptop mistletoe missives came out as a boot awhile ago)...this tuneful little ditty has been playing in my head repeatedly as a counter-soundtrack to the blazing big guns of the offical Pop Anthems that bombard one as holiday soundtrack fodder here in jolly old London (even on the Virgin Atlantic flight over, one was soothed or subjected to, depending on how you feel about it, a medley of Xmas tunes by Slade, Band-Aid, the Beach Boys, and my favorite, Roy Wood's Wizzard's Phil Spectorish "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day"). But the Beatles Goon Show-esque recording wins hands down for sheer aural pleasure, at least in the mists of this veteran of the psychic war's recollection, and someone at EMI was remiss indeed in not liberating it from the archives and sharing it with the world at large this holiday season (who, remember, must be Fed)...later on on that '68 fans-only record one was treated to Paul (I believe) doing an acoustic Syd Barretish singalong to the (half-remembered, remember)Learlike lyric "Happy Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Autumn, Happy Miggle Moose, Happy Christmas to You!" First one to write in and straighten me out as to the exact lyric therein (and whether it was indeed Paul or John singing this bit of whimsy)wins an advance copy of the new Fast 'n Bulbous album.

So in London we are indeed...Caroline and I staying in our favorite hotel, a Victorian mansion gone slightly to seed (the way we like it)in a beautiful non-hectic part of city...the bar filled with chancers, eccentrics, and various raffish characters..went wandering down England's Lane today, Boxing Day, everything shut but a crisp brilliantly sunny made-for-strolling kind of afternoon, popped into the Violette Cafe to be greeted with a "Hey Gary!" and lo and behold it was my old friend Anton Corbijn, ze famousz photographer to the likes of U2, Beefheart (Ice Cream for Crow) and yours truly (the cover of my Gods and Monsters album)...hadn't seen Anton since running into him at Bryan Ferry's afterparty in the Radio City bar during the Roxy Music reunion tour...he was looking well indeed, and we spent a couple of hours or so in his most congenial company...

I Love London! More later, meanwhile

Happy Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Autumn, Happy Miggle Moose
Happy Christmas to YOU!

XXLove

Gary