Christmas Magic in the Air

As the festive season is fast approaching, it's good to begin to take stock of the year gone by and start to look ahead to the coming year. For The Summats, January 2015 will see the release of a new single, 'You Could Be James Dean'. This track, featuring Becky Dawson on lead vocals, was completed in October and is just about ready to roll.

As mentioned in the previous blog, this is Becky's first lead vocal on a Summats release and she has given a wonderful performance, the track also features some outstanding and very haunting lead guitar work from John Kettle. We are so looking forward to you hearing it, however given the impending festivities, we thought a January release would be wise, hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Becky in the studio

We haven't recorded a new festive song this year, although we really did intend to, time just got away from us. Rest assured, there are new tracks on the way, and we will be looking to be back in the Christmas song song business next year.

Something new which is very much available this Christmas is a short ebook I have written entitled 'Christmas Magic in the Air'. The book, which I am incredibly proud of, covers the whole back story around the writing, recording and release of 'All I Want Is Christmas'. We have had such great success with it that I thought it was worth putting pen to paper (metaphorically of course, I actually used a computer!) to let you all in on what has been a roller-coaster ride since the day we wrote it. I've shared a great deal of memories and anecdotes from playing in our first bands together way back in the 80's, which included sharing a stage with Rick Astley and takes us right up to the present day. Primarily it is based around what has been a tremendously popular song for us but there are also some great tips for budding songwriters and hopefully you will find a few amusing anecdotes which will give you a giggle as well as a real insight into the songwriting process. The book is available from Amazon in the Kindle store, if you don't have a kindle eBook reader, not to worry, you can download the free Kindle app from the Amazon store which will allow you to read the book on your computer, tablet or smartphone. Who knows, some of you who have supported us from the beginning may even be mentioned. There is certainly a big mention in there for Tunecore who act on our behalf as both our distributors and publishing administrators, we couldn't have done it without you guys.

With the above in mind I would like to say a huge thank you to all you wonderful people who have supported The Summats from day one, downloading our music, reading and sharing our blogs and Facebook updates etc. As a very special thank you,  'Christmas Magic in the Air' is available as a free download for the next five days, after which it will go back to its usual Amazon store selling price around the world. I hope you will take the opportunity to download the book whilst it is free and if you enjoy it,  please rate and review it afterwards, that will certainly help it on its way.

I have thoroughly enjoyed writing 'Christmas Magic in the Air, the writing process, as far as books go, is obviously new to me but it is amazing how much detail comes back once you begin trawling your memories, I can definitely recommend it. It is very time consuming, which is something I never seem to have enough of, however it was written over two summer holidays in 2013 and 2014, writing a story about a Christmas song whilst sitting by the pool in Italy was an interesting experience to say the least! Hope you enjoy the book.

Our friends over at Segal Gardens have done us proud in their Christmas video. Damo Cummings has been a big supporter of The Summats over the past few years and really has done a brilliant job using 'All I Want is Christmas' as the soundtrack, You can check out their video at Summats Songs

Also worth checking out our friends over at www.festivesongs.com, the site is very supportive of The Summats and is also a great place to hear brand new Christmas music.

Good to see that Band aid is going all out to help worthy causes again this year, the track is possibly not as strong as in years gone by given the lyric changes and the new lineup, but, well, who cares! It's for a great cause.

On that note, I will sign off by wishing each and every one of you a fantastic Christmas and

Hope that you have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.

Thank you  for your support.

Take care and keep smiling

Baggers

You Could Be James Dean

The end of October saw us back in the studio to work on a new single entitled 'You Could Be James Dean'. 

The track features Becky Dawson on lead vocals and will again be produced by the brilliant John Kettle formerly of Wigan band 'The Tansads' and now a integral part of 'Merry Hell' when he isn't producing.

It's almost a year since we were last in the studio and it is good to get back to producing music again. The song was actually written about four years ago whilst I was still living in Australia but has never been far from my mind, I have been looking for an opportunity to get it recorded, Becky has produced some great vocals on it, the song is available from all good digital stores! Worth noting that it is also a big moment for Becky as it is the first time she has taken lead on a Summats single. Go Becks!

John and his band 'Merry Hell' have recently worked on 'The Armistice Pals'. This is a wonderful recording and reworking of Pete Seegers 'Where have all the flowers gone' and is to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of the first world war. In addition to John and his band mates, some of Britain's finest folk singers have contributed to the track, they were all joined by the late Pete Seeger's sister Peggy. It is a wonderful piece of work and and all proceeds from the single which you can downloaded here, will go to some very worthy charities not least of which is the British Red Cross.

Very sad to hear of the passing of Alvin Stardust earlier this week. The 70's glam rock star always seemed to be a thoroughly decent guy as well as great live entertainer and hit maker. His cover of 'Pretend' in 1981 was a brilliant track and one of my favorite singles of the 80's. Very sad to see him go before his time.

Last year the lovely people from Segal Gardens, which is a specialist residential and care facility in St. Helens, Merseyside, used our track 'Happy New Year Baby' in their festive video. Recently we were contacted again by Damian Cummings from Segal Gardens to ask if they may use 'All I Want Is Christmas' in this years video. We were more than happy to allow our music to be used and will share with you once Damian has completed work on the video.

The story of our Christmas song and the success we have had with it is the subject of a book I have written titled 'Christmas Magic in the Air'. It will be a short Kindle eBook and is scheduled for release in December if we can complete the final drafts and editing. The song has done some amazing things for us and gone to heights we could have only dreamed of, hopefully it will make for both a entertaining read and a interesting insight into the songwriting process, particularly for any budding songwriters out there.

Look out for both the book and the new single 'You Could Be James Dean' soon. Until then...

Take care and keep smiling

Baggers