I put Amy's Nikon D50 at prime focus and made a few 5 second exposures, unfortunately the focus wasn't quite right - it's hard to get sharp focus when you're using that tiny viewfinder. Anyway, I stacked them and this is a thumbnail of what resulted....

The planet Saturn rises about 8pm right now and last night I manged to snap some images of the ringed planet. Hopefully I'll have a chance to improve on this when the weather gets clear.

This is it, this is absolutely, the best Christmas record ever in the history of all that is Christmassy. No contest, no arguments, no appeals.

Performed by Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl, the duet relates the story of 2 down and outs in the New York drunk tank on Christmas Eve. Unusually for a duet the two singers spend much of the song insulting each other, but we all know that they love each other despite this combative tone.

Tragicly Kirsty was killed in a boating accident in 2000 and Shane MacGowan has had continual alcohol and drug problems. But the record keeps coming back and has been re-released for the 4th time this year, with  the proceeds going to various charities. In 1987 it was kept off the number one spot by The Pet Shop boys, and while I love their version of 'Always On My Mind' I can't help but feel that justice will not be done until this record reigns supreme at the top of the singles  charts on Christmas day....

maybe this year....

John Peel would always broadcast 'The Festive Fifty' in the run up to Christmas every year, compiled from listener votes it always contained an eclectic selection of artists, from established superstars to one hit wonders. The Cuban Boys topped the list in 1999 with their consumately annoying work of genius - "Cognoscenti vs Intelligensia" aka - 'The Hamsterdance'. Sadly John is no longer with us, but the festive 50 as a tradition is being continued by Rob Da Bank, Huw Stephens, and Ras Kwame.

Anyway, The Cuban Boys took it upon themselves to create a record which tries to sum up an entire John Peel show in three minutes and fourteen seconds. The Nation Needs You is something that is vanishinly rare - a high energy sample driven happy hardcore record which is Too Short - but within the all too short confines of the track it succeeds on every level.

The only thing I know about this band is that they came from Ohio and were basically ignored except for this one memorable yuletide moment from 1981. The title is of course a pun on the conversational delivery of the lyrics, and there are a lot of lyrics in this song, about being single on Christmas Eve and about the missed opportunities of the last year.

A definite contender for 'Best Christmas Record Ever'.... but for me that honour is being saved.

Now this is a great way to do a christmas single, forget jingle bells and choirs, just write some nonsensical lyrics with the word Christmas in it. This record is a blast, probably just some silly moment in the studio that somehow escaped into the eye of the public, or maybe it was part of their machiavelian plan to infect the world with ear worms. Who cares, I love this record.

Over 2 decades on and it's still as relevant today as it was when Bob Geldof and Midge Ure called up all their friends in the music business and crammed them all into a recording studio for a day. The lyrics are somewhat weak, the music is a bit cheezy and many of the performances are, well, crap - they even had to dump a section that was recorded by Status Quo because it was't up to par. But despite falling short in every field the results are far greater than the sum of its parts, there's some tangible honesty in many of the performances from the artists on the record. For some of the artists it may be just because of the speed with which the recording was made, but I'd like to think that the majority of the performers really cared about the cause.

Compare this against the awful 'We Are The World' which was an altoghether more crafted creation from start to finish and yet the combined efforts of the writers, performers and producers brought us something that fails on every musical level. Yes I know it made more money, but there's something wrong about artists performing for charity and turning up to record their lines in limos.... Kool & The Gang got it right - they were the only US act to appear on Band Aid and therefore managed to help the charitable work without getting involved with this mess.

Also, we should forget the regrettable 1989 remake with a lineup stuffed by Stock, Aitken & Waterman stable of 'talent', at least they didn't screw around with the arrangement. The 2004 version did a more interesting remake, adding some new lines for rapper Dizee Rascal, featuring many performers doing more than just singing - Paul McCarteny on Bass, Thom Yorke on piano and Damon Albarn making the tea for everyone. Sure it's not as good as the original, but it was a worthy endeavor nonetheless.

Another member of that so rarified club of great Christmas records. Bing was already king of the Christmas record and was on tour in London in September 1977 to record material for his annual Christmas TV show. Bing had the idea that he should have some star from the younger generation perform on the show, someone suggested David Bowie and although Bing had never heard of David his kids had.

Bing's original idea was that they would perform "The Little Drummer Boy" as a straight duet, however Bowie felt the song didn't showcase his voice and so "Peace on Earth" was added. They met for the first time on the morning of the recording, and after a short rehearsal managed to record the final version in 3 takes.

Sadly, Bing died a month later and the public didn't see the performance until after his death, but it became one of those iconic moments in music, and an eternal fixture in the holiday season.

This record is sooo sweet, a straight minimal techno take on the Christmas carol, starting out sounding like a kids toy playing the tune and then gently rolling in glitchy white noise to add percussion - it seems that evey DJ out there has a soft spot for it. Even purveyors of the hardest, grimiest, glitchiest drill n' bass have had their hearts melted and given in to playing this.

I had a fantastic commute into work today largely because of this fantastic new cd, sure the roads were quiet, but all of the good vibes were coming from this intense mix of Drum n Bass.