Christmas Eve 1976

I commemorated Christmas Eve 1976 by decorating my diary page with a Paul Sample illustration from the Sunday Times, an unusual treat given that I was more used to eviscerating my Look-Ins for these pictures. Paul was a regular in the Sunday Times and also produced the covers of the Tom Sharpe novels like Wilt and Porterhouse Blue, which I would devour a few years later.

As always it's the telly and pop music that seems to make up the whole of my life. The only thing I physically do in these two days of Christmas cheer, apart from watch TV and listen to Radio 1, is collect 70p in tips on my paper round. I was living my best life at age fifteen and no mistake.

TV highlights include the Rutland Weekend Television Christmas Special, which I've watched recently on Youtube, for the first time in over 40 years, and can't say it's aged well. George Harrison's in it, have a look, tell me if I'm wrong.

And look at the enthusiasm for Christmas summed up by those "countdown to Christmas" flashes at the corner of every page. I can't imagine being that excited about anything. On which depressing thought, what awful music have I chosen as my Record For The Day.

There are a few Christmas standards in there, including Lonely This Christmas which was only 2 years old at the time and had already entrenched itself. But for my Youtube finds, here a couple of the more obscure suggestions. Here's To Love by John Christie (not, one assumes, the one from 10 Rillington Place) and Bionic Santa by Chris Hill? No, me neither.



Here's To Love, I find on its first listening in four decades, is virtually an anagram of Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again Naturally with Auld Lang Syne shoehorned in for no obvious reason. Oh yeah, you want to listen to it now.



Oh dear, I remember Chris Hill now. A DJ who fancied himself as a comedian and edited bits of records together to hilarious effect. Well I clearly thought this was funny at the time, god help me.