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The opening of a song came on the radio as I was driving home for pre-Christmas. I recognised it and for some reason The Sweet popped into my head. Was it Fox on the Run, the first record I ever bought at a jumble sale in Loughborough (or possibly Quorn) in around 1974/5? No, it wasn’t - that starts with a police siren I believe and this one had a Christmassy feel, but it seemed familiar and distant at the same time.
It turned out it was
Wombling Merry Christmas which was the other first record I bought from the same jumble sale. Both singles, as memory served, had the same orange label and maybe came in orange stripy sleeves. In any case my brain holds on to this moment enough to confuse the two songs. It’s a long time since I’ve heard Wombling Merry Christmas and the song pulled me back to the 1970s. I still knew many of the words, presumably because I had only had two records and played them endlessly. I preferred the B Side, Madame Cholet (as sweet as cafe au lait, from the tips of your toes to the twinkling in your eyes), perhaps the sexiest love song ever written to a fictional rodent. I only liked Sweet because I fancied Brian Connolly - which of the Wombles had caught my eye? Based on future sexual partners I would have to say Uncle Bulgaria. Or maybe I just really like the music.
The Womble songs were much better than they needed to be, though obviously pastiches of other musical styles. Back then I thought this was all down to the musical genius of Orinoco, but now I know that voice and talent belongs toMike Batt. I wondered if he ever resented giving away such good tunes to this novelty band. The verse in particular is rather nice and barely mentions Wombles. He probably didn’t mind as he presumably made some cash from the Womble fans, like me (though I am not sure the jumble sale would have given him a cut of my 10p or whatever I parted with).
Hats off to Batt though.
Strange to be taken back to childhood in this way, as I took my kids to my childhood home for the weekend. Cheddar seems as familiar and distant as the opening bars of Wombling Merry Christmas. But it was worth the trip to see the kids interacting with their delighted grandparents, even if wandering through the village with them sent my mind reeling back and forth in time.
Was hoping for some comedy gold to help me with the scripts for the last two Relativity episodes, but nothing too remarkable happened, except that I almost went to bed before my daughter, who stayed up til 8pm. In the end I got to bed a good quarter of an hour later than her, so remain cool.
