Label: Mosa
Year of Release: 1981
An incredibly obscure Christmas single on the tiny Mosa record label, "Christmas Song" by the intriguingly named Yellow Chair is an odd mix of influences. There's some tribal drum thumping, folky vocals, and faintly new wave guitar lines, all adding up to create something which sounds festive in an Elizabethan kind of way.
Nobody bought it, of course, and you'd be hard pressed to find any details about who the hell The Yellow Chair were; certainly, this seems to have been their only single. In the producer's chair, however, was none other than future Pogues member Philip Chevron, who later performed on one of the biggest British Christmas hits of all time in the form of "Fairytale of New York". It's a far cry from that to this, and it's odd to think that most critics and listeners probably have absolutely no idea that this piece of juvenilia even exists.
To be completely fair, it's relatively unremarkable, and it's only the "Christmas Dub" on the B-side that brings something a bit different to the festive party. Nonetheless, it's an interesting little curio.
3 comments:
Yes, dub version is great! Much better than the A-side.
Some further info... Teresa D'Abreu was a founding member of of the The Sadista Sisters, an all female(initially)group created to perform political cabaret challenging society's treatment of women. They were around mid 70s to late 90s with numerous changes in band members, some of whom went on to further successes in bands like Au Pairs, The Slits, Girlschool, The Tourists and Eurythmics. In 1976 they released an LP and a couple singles. (More info on Wikiblabla and here http://sadistasisters.blogspot.com
Teresa was long gone from them when this was released and she also, at one point, released another one off single with her own band. The song, "Sister Revolution", was the only release on the Miss Chief Records label., (Title and label giving further insight into the psyche of Mz. D'Abreu.)
This wasn't the only single by The Yellow Chair. While looking for info on Hurt & Husband, the only thing I came across was a single by Hurt & Husband with The Yellow Chair - "Holy Cow" / "Dirty Lies". Check out the pic sleeve on Discogs... Holy Cow!
Also of note, Philip Chevron released a 5 song EP on Mosa in 1981.This EP and some of the other 'older' Mosa releases can be heard on 'Mosa Radio' on the label's website, mosarecords.com.
See what you made me do! Seriously, thanks for all the great shares and info on your excellent blog!
Thanks so much - that's all very interesting stuff and I'll look it up! I haven't thought about this single in a long while.
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