Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?

Well, no… not yet (we hope), but all the signs are here: the adverts with fake snow (when did it EVER snow on Xmas day, unless you live in the Highlands?); the shop windows and high streets stuffed with festive ornaments; and it can only be a matter of time before one of our presenters cranks up the Yuletide hits.

But here at The People’s Songs, as we approach our final month on the air, are preparing for episode number 50, which, as you know, will be about Christmas! And, as the entire series has been about you, the listener, we still welcome your memories and your thoughts on how December 25^th was enhanced, enlivened or just plain ruined by pop music.

From the family ritual of watching the Top Of The Pops Xmas Special (always a disappointment as it nearly always consisted of number ones from the preceding year: never a guarantee of quality) to the endless soundtrack of cheesy yet heartwarming hits, from Slade, Wizzard, Wham! or Shaking Stevens to the jazzy jive of Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ or Greg Lake’s prog-tinged ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’. In fact, if you think about it, just about every genre or act that has featured in the series has eventually succumbed to the idea of a ‘Xmas hit’.

So don your Santa hats, and send us your festive memories… You know how to get in touch. After all, Iiiiiit’s Chriiiiiiistmaaaaassss!

So here it is, the final people’s song…and if that isn’t enough of a clue then the subject of that show as chosen by you – or quite a few of you anyway - follows very soon. First though, a word on the process

From the very earliest days of The People’s Songs planning, and in particular a lively evening of brainstorming and beer in the King’s Arms, Salford, we decided that the final song, the track that would be at the heart of the fiftieth episode should be chosen by a listener. We thought that the scope of the narrative that we’d planned was broad and all-encompassing, from war to peace, school to work, from the Falklands to Ulster, and the silliness of the 'Ying Tong Song' to the exuberance of 'She Loves You' and 'You Should be Dancing' to the portentous solemnity of 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' and the gravity of 'Shipbuilding'. But it was possible we’d overlooked something, either a great song or a significant event or important issue. And seeing as that final show would be around Christmas time, when specials were abounding, we felt that a different kind of show would be a good ‘season finale’ as our American cousins would say

So we asked for your People’s Song and you duly obliged, with suggestions that ranged from anarcho-punk to disability rights, from brass bands to backpacking and gap years, prison culture to the British love of beer. Many of you suggested the death of Princess Diana and the subsequent shift in the very nature of Britishness from a country that showed the world a stiff upper lip to a nation that seems to revel in public outpourings of emotion… or at least sentiment. And of course Elton John’s 'Candle In The Wind' was the perfect song. But on reflection, we felt that those issues had been touched on in other shows, not least the 'Things Can Only Get Better' episode about the Blair landslide and the seismic events of 1997, which had included the death of the People’s Princess.

In the end, we went with the most popular suggestion. Slade’s 'Merry Xmas Everybody' and Christmas itself, not just because it would make for a topical festive show but because Christmas looms large not just over our pop music – the Xmas number one is still the one chart-topper of the year that seems to excite public interest – but also because it gave us a chance to talk about related issues; the British love of a celebration and a party, family, work and the commercialization of leisure.

So Noddy and Xmas it is. What remains now is for you to share with us your thoughts and memories, of that song itself of course, and the bleak, candle-lit Britain of 1973 it was released into, but of the importance of Xmas itself, perhaps how it has become a pan-religious celebration of ‘Britishness’ even to those not of the Christian faith.

Whatever, it’s up to you. Get in touch, and we hope to hear your voice on The People’s Songs this December.

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