BBC4 XMAS SPECIAL - Extras

BBC Four celebrates merry midwinter in unique style, with an exhilarating blend of folk tradition and burlesque fun. Energetic 11-piece Bellowhead and The Unthanks get together with the impressive young singers Thea Gilmore and Lisa Knapp, plus other special guests.

Steered by genial host Paul Sartin, the assembled artists perform seasonal songs of their own alongside yuletide favourites, ranging from folk ballads and carols to parlour songs and carousing dance numbers, with everyone coming together for a final knees-up.

Filmed at the atmospheric Shoreditch Town Hall, the setting evokes an old music hall combined with a festive Victorian family parlour, bedecked with garlands, period lamps and fireplace. Even the audience are dressed up in old-fashioned finery and prove themselves ready to kick up their heels.

BBC Breakfast Telly!

I've just got back from an extremely early start 4.30am to be precise.

Now one of the reasons I went in to the music business is because of the hours you get to keep - and I wouldn't want getting up earlier than I did for my paper round to become a habit. However - it was for telly and as we all know - anyone will do anything to be on telly.

Here's a picture of Benji to prove we were on the telly.

As you can see - the BBC have put quite a bit of effort into their festive decorations. Actually, to be fair to them, it looked stunning at 6.30am before it was light but at that time in the morning I was still too bleary to think of getting my phone out and snapping it.

Anyway - this was all in aid of promoting our performances on BBC4's Christmas session - Fire & Ice which will be coming to your digitally enabled screens at 9pm tonight 17th December and it will be repeated on Christmas Eve at 10.30pm.

To promote this remarkable event - we were allowed to play 59 seconds of our song "Whiskey is the Life of a Man" using 45.4% of the band (they said it's a very small studio - actually it's a very big studio with a very small sofa in it). We also answered questions such as "is that an accordion?" and got to plug the New Years Eve gig at the South Bank. As you can see on the YouTube clip below:

This has been brought to you by Squeezy John - possibly the most infrequent blogger of them all. Mery Christmas!