Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?

I found myself writing out a proper (i.e. computerised) version of Merry Xmas Everybody yesterday. I have a handwritten version that I did about twenty years ago, and because it's adequate for showing the harmonies and everyone knows the tune, I've never got round to rewriting it. However, because one of my band's gigs next week will now include a singer who's never sung with us before, and we won't have a chance to rehearse with her, I thought I'd better make the music as clear as possible, and that was the most illegible one! (Singing one to a part is great until someone has an emergency that means they can't be there - normally I'd just amend the set list to include songs with fewer harmony parts, but on this occasion we already had two singers who could never make it. so we were already doing only songs with the minimum parts... hence the need for a stand-in.)

(It seems that a London hotel has banned this song because it's "too irritating". It's not Christmas without it!)

(You may be interested to know, if you didn't already, that my spelling of the song title is correct and that of the Telegraph is incorrect. (Because I'm very sad, I am always amused over Christmas to see how many times this song is given an incorrect title!) Slade used unconventional spellings in lots of their song titles - e.g. Coz I Luv You, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Gudbuy T'Jane, Cum On Feel The Noize. The use of the Xmas spelling is hardly weird at all in comparison!)

Anyway, if you would like to hear us perform this song live, come to the Henry Watson Music Library on Saturday between 1.30 and 2pm. Yes, I get to shout in a library again! (This isn't the gig with the three missing singers - that's a few days later.) There are other groups performing too, but I don't know what time they are - it's an all-day event including stories, crafts, mince pies and a treasure hunt. Should be fun!

(Oh, and for those who ask me where we got the name of the band from, here's a picture of the original Pleiades.)

I always feel as if the musical Christmas season doesn't really start properly until Messiah is out of the way, and now it is. It was on Sunday and it went very well, although it was a REALLY long day! I heard quite a few choir members saying it was their best Messiah ever. It wasn't my favourite one - that accolade goes to the 2004 version, conducted by our own choral director. Although I invariably enjoy the performance, 2004 was the only year I found it EXCITING. But this year was pleasant enough, and as usual Hallelujah really got to me and I couldn't sing the first minute of it due to the lump in my throat!

Tonight we'll be starting on this year's batch of carols - I always love the first carol rehearsal, because it involves lots of lovely sight reading - but in the meantime, here are a few links.

Man killed for hogging karaoke microphone. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. (Which reminds me - I had a go at the vocals on Guitar Hero World Tour a few weeks ago. Very amusing - I must write about it sometime.)

Earplugs to the rescue of music course.

Rows ruin La Scala's big night.

Can you smell classical music?

Folk music trains from Piccadilly.

Tom Service explains why Schubert was a genius.

Yet more nice memories of Richard Hickox.

A report on the Choir of the Year final (it's on BBC4 on Friday night, so if you don't want to know who won, don't read this!)

No reviews of Messiah (there never are for some reason), but there was a fabulous review of the orchestra's concert the previous night.

Fascinating article from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra blog - they don't write often, but when they do it's always a good read. This one's about the music of Stravinsky.

There was some controversy over a film being disqualified from being considered for an Oscar for best original soundtrack because it had "too many composers", but now they've changed their mind.

The Spectator reviews a couple of operas in such glowing terms that I wish I could see them.

If you're in Manchester this weekend, you can put a giant version of your handprint on the side of the City Tower.

Also, Ben Ainslie will be in Manchester on Saturday, but annoyingly it's just when I'll be singing at the library so I'll miss him! (I'm hoping he wins the BBC Sports Personality award, but I suspect it will go to Rebecca Adlington.)

Talking of sailors, Mike Golding is (at the time of writing) 5th in the Vendee Globe, only 50 miles behind the leader. You can see a map showing where they're all up to at the official site (wait a few seconds for it to load the boat positions). You'll see that most of them are now in the middle of the Southern Ocean.

And finally, if you're wondering what happened to my Guardian article, it got delayed due to a rewrite, but I'm told it's still likely to be printed before Christmas - I'll let you know. (It will be in the Experience section - I always assumed that the articles there were actually written by the subjects, but that's not the case with mine (I don't know whether or not it is with the others). If I understand it correctly, the finished article will consist entirely of things I said to the author, but it won't be me that chooses what to include!)