Do audiences really want Xmas songs at Xmas parties / Dec pub gigs and does your covers band oblige?

[scalpy]

We’re doing Fairytale of New York, Jackson 5’s Santa Claus is Coming to Town, I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday and Merry Christmas Everyone.

 

Fairytale is a risk as mentioned so we’ve put it at the end of the first set which seems to be working. Fortunately our Sax player can shift over to flute which helps and we have male/ female vocals who rip the mickey out of it so it’s been going well. The bars of 3 and 5 can trip some drummers up mind!

[krispn]

We play Fairytale near The end of the night - drunks like a sing along it is always a floor filler for that time of night. Mariah, Shakey and Rockin Around the Christmas Tree always affords a wee bit of jazz walking during the solo which is nice to play.

 

@Al Krow depending on the venue/occasion and number of songs/sets one or two per set seems reasonable 8 however might be really pushing it. Depends if it means you'll have 8 new songs to learn from scratch in a week or two. As a punter I'd expect to hear a band bust out a couple of classic's on a night out in December. As an example we play in an Irish bar and get grief off the occasional punter for not playing enough Irish music - i.e. Boyzone and Westlife!

[Franticsmurf]

We're playing a Christmas party on Saturday. Into the set has gone Fairytale, Blue Christmas, Merry Christmas Baby, Merry Christmas Everyone and Merry Christmas Everybody I get the latter two titles mixed up so the set list is annotated Shaky and Slade respectively. This is a regular Christmas party gig for us (the singer's work colleagues) so we know what they want (and don't want). 

 

For a general Christmas gig, we have the above songs plus a couple more to call on and would probably include a couple of festive tunes as a matter of course and to test the waters. 

[Grimalkin]

Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is worth checking out.

 

All this Crimbo prep has reminded me of one of my favourite Christmas Tales...

 

"We told our children he wasn’t the real Santa. He was an imposter and will be going on the naughty list..."

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/santa-claus-angry-swearing-father-christmas-children-fire-alarm-grotto-st-ives-cambridgeshire-a8681456.html

[Bassfinger]

Certainly the pub and club audiences do, and we give them Slade and get it out of their system.

[gafbass02]

Same, shakey, slade and fairytale 

[casapete]

When I was in a function band, we’d trot out the Wizzard and Slade offerings at all our 

Christmas bookings. As most of them were corporate parties I’m pretty sure we’d 

not have got rebooked for the following year if we didn’t do something festive.

Left it to the DJ to do any more if they wanted them - we sadly never attempted

‘Fairytale of NY’ due to not having a female vocalist, although I’m sure it can be

got round. 

[Greg Edwards69]

Yes. Every year around Christmas time. We stick Santa hats on and break out the sleigh bells too.

 

we currently do Slade, Wizzard, Mariah Carey and the Pogues/Kirsty McColl. The later goes down really well, largely aided by having both male and female lead singers in the band, and one of the guitars switches to keyboard and had a patch setup with piano, accordion and strings to cover the key parts. 

[Al Krow]

44 minutes ago, casapete said:

When I was in a function band, we’d trot out the Wizzard and Slade offerings at all our 

Christmas bookings. As most of them were corporate parties I’m pretty sure we’d 

not have got rebooked for the following year if we didn’t do something festive.

Left it to the DJ to do any more if they wanted them - we sadly never attempted

‘Fairytale of NY’ due to not having a female vocalist, although I’m sure it can be

got round. 

 

Cheers - but sounds like 2 Christmas songs in a two-hour set was plenty - or were you typically doing a few more?

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, Delberthot said:

We're about to start playing Christmas Parties from this Friday so yes I'll be expected to play Christmas songs at Christmas parties.

 

The ones that work are Mariah obviously, Slade, Shakey and Winter Wonderland as a sing a long one for all of the drunk people.

 

The problem I always had with Fairytale and why it went down like a lead balloon is because out of the 4 or 5 minutes of the song, only just over a minute covers the happy, upbeat part. The rest of it is the depressing slow bit so it was binned after a couple of gigs. Step Into Christmas was one that should have worked as it's a great song but it didn't so we stick with what works

 

Yup totally agree on what you're saying about Fairytale - it seems to be more of pub singalong rather than a corporate-party dance-along. I mean, yes it's definitely one of the more meaningful Christmas songs, but function bands aren't typcially booked because they include Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen in their sets are they?

 

Aside: the (genuinely) saddest version of it I came across of it was actually one done by the Pogues themselves with Katie Melua. Shane MacGowan's demons visibly coming home to roost. Still, he's written something more beautiful and meaningful than I ever will.

[neepheid]

Yes, we do it, we do it semi-willingly in December and it goes down well. We do Slade and Shaky. Pre COVID we did The Darkness too but people didn't seem to like that one so much so we dropped it.  Weird, because they love I Believe In A Thing Called Love.

 

Lighten up, it's only one month out of twelve, you damn Scrooges

[casapete]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Cheers - but sounds like 2 Christmas songs in a two-hour set was plenty - or were you typically doing a few more?

We found doing one in each set did the trick. ( Usually did 2x60 min sets.) Rest of our stuff was

well known mix of tunes so people would be dancing most of the time. 

[krispn]

For all the slagging and eye rolls there’s a decent number of Christmas songs that help makes folks staff nights out/annual get together with friends or just spreading simple Christmas cheer which are fun to play  and no real hardship for any working band. Often the bigger issue is which songs get dropped to accommodate the festive tunes. 
 

In my old originals band we always did a seasonal song mostly if it was a December gig or a Hallowe’en gig. We’d either do a stylistic mash up where we’d mix up the verses and chorus with different styles of music  often staring very light and ending in a mad punk or metal finale or we’d mash up various songs for that season. 
 

Just got a message from the lead singer tonight asking about festive tunes for the weekends gig!
 

 

[BassAdder60]

Last gig for 2022 was last Saturday and we played our normal rock covers setlist 

We thought back in November should we add one Christmas song but decided no lol 😂 

[asingardenof]

We've had Christmas songs vetoed on the basis that it's not worth learning them just to play them at maybe one or two gigs a year.

[Al Krow]

38 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

We've had Christmas songs vetoed on the basis that it's not worth learning them just to play them at maybe one or two gigs a year.

 

Yup, completely understand that line  of thinking! If you're going to be playing them, be nice if they're on a par with the rest of the sets you're doing, although a drunk Xmas pub audience probably wouldn't care too much if you were including one or two rough cuts at the end of the second set. 

 

I suspect most bands wouldn't offer to learn more than one or two new songs for a wedding gig (eg a the first dance and maybe one or other fav) which typically pay the most. 

 

Having said that, once you've got them learned you can at least roll them out every year - as someone's already mentioned, there has not really been anything much new in terms of Xmas songs written since the 1990s... I guess they really are turning into modern day carols! 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Al Krow

[Franticsmurf]

To answer the original question, do audiences want Xmas songs? I don't think they want Christmas songs specifically but they probably expect to hear a festive tune or two. And they probably want songs they can dance/sing/fall over/smooch to. Slade and Wham would cover those expectations.

 

At the gig I mentioned above, the audience will have been wine tasting since at least midday, and so when we go on at about 8 and as long as there are sleighbells and festive hats, we'll get away with anything.

 

"It does sound a bit like 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', but its actually Floyd's 1979 Christmas hit." 😀 

[Cat Burrito]

At the weekend we busted out a version of Hanoi Rocks' classic "Dead By Xmas".

 

We're also available for Children's Parties. 😺

[fretmeister]

Mariah is great - especially when I swap the last verse and chorus bass part for a big band walking line. 

[asingardenof]

16 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Yup, completely understand that line  of thinking! If you're going to be play them, be nice if they're on a par with the rest of the sets you're playing, although a drunk Xmas pub audience probably wouldn't care too much if you were including one or two rough cuts at the end of the second set. 

 

I suspect most bands wouldn't offer to learn more than one or two new songs for a wedding gig (eg a the first dance and maybe one or other fav) which typically pay the most. 

 

Having said that, once you've got them learned you can at least roll them out every year - as someone's already mentioned, there has not really been anything much new in terms of Xmas songs written since the 1990s... I guess they really are turning into modern day carols! 

I've tried those arguments but as I'm the new boy I was beaten down by the more established members. I did say I already know how to play That Song by That Black Country Band but nothing doing. I think I'm going to try learning Christmas Wrapping this year though just because.

Edited December 6, 2022 by asingardenof

[Franticsmurf]

Just now, asingardenof said:

I think I'm going to try learning Christmas Wrapping this year though just because.

I learnt that one for last year - it took me ages but it is a great bassline and I enjoyed working on it. Then the band decided not to do it. 😬

[asingardenof]

Just now, Franticsmurf said:

I learnt that one for last year - it took me ages but it is a great bassline and I enjoyed working on it. Then the band decided not to do it. 😬

Philistines!

[Al Krow]

13 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

I learnt that one for last year - it took me ages but it is a great bassline and I enjoyed working on it. Then the band decided not to do it. 😬

That bass line is definitely the best bit of that song, haha! 

 

For me, the Jackson 5 Xmas song is one that combines a good bass line with a decent tune. But then the Motown brigade have always understood what a decent bass line is about. 

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Franticsmurf said:

they probably expect to hear a festive tune or two.

 

Not exactly a gig situation, but I've lost count of the number of people who come into our shop and say "it's so nice to walk in somewhere and hear something different from all those same old Christmas songs!" 

I do slot a couple in, like Bootsy's "Silent Night" and this one (which our band refused to cover 😁)

 

 

[Huge Hands]

I think I have told this story on here before but around 2004ish I used to play in a blues band (mainly covers of obscure blues music).

 

The last gig they played before I joined was a wedding - a fan of the band's daughter had got married.  

 

It turned out he was the head of one of the London district councils, and booked us for his council office Christmas party.   I piped up and asked the guys in the band if we "...should a least not throw some bluesy versions of some Christmas songs in there?"

 

The answer was a flat "no" - it would tarnish the band's image blah blah.

 

That was one of the most cringeworthy gigs of my life.  Watching the bloke who booked us grooving away at the back of the hall while a load of young office staff just sat and stared at us with the look of "what the f**k is this s**t?"

 

I certainly grabbed the money and ran that night....