Interviews - Christmas 2007

Another seasonal question special. This time I asked recent interviewees some festive questions for a Native.tv Christmas special.

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

CHRISTMAS 2007

Greg Gilbert (vocals, guitar) - Delays

Where were you last Christmas?
In Southampton. It’s a total family time for me. I just love it. I love doing the whole cliché thing, I love being with my family eating dinner and getting drunk and sitting in front of crap TV falling asleep, paper hat on my head.

What’s the best present you received?
I got the James Bond DVD set one Christmas. The trouble is with DVDs is I have to be in the right frame of mind. I channelsurf endlessly. Sometimes I put a DVD on and think oh there must be something great on, but Bond is great comfort on lonely nights.

What’s your best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song is either Roy Wood or Slade, I’m a big fan of all those glammy Christmas, Life On Mars kind of era. I didn’t like Paul McCartney’s Christmas song. That’s not one of my favourites.

What’s your New Year’s resolution? Or have you not got one yet because we’re asking you this on November 1st?
Let me think of one. My New Year’s resolution is to try and find as many things funny as possible. I think when you find something so funny you belly laugh, there’s absolutely nothing better.

Tom Baxter

What are your favourite and least favourite Christmas songs?
You know what, I really like that George Michael song ‘Last Christmas’, I think that’s a really good song. I always feel sorry for the guys in Slade because they’re just labelled a Christmas band. The Cliff Richard stuff I don’t really like, that just drives me up the wall a little. It’s all a little bit insipid and milky for me.

How did you celebrate New Year last year?
Oh God, where was I? For the life of me, I can’t remember. The last Christmas I did, I had a house party so I was very drunk and then I had to go to Argentina the following day so I was a bit worse for wear.

What’s the worse thing about Christmas?
It’s just like a false sense of family sometimes, and I think that’s a real shame. I think sometimes particularly in this country we don’t make enough effort to just be a family. It’s all so split up. So I think that it can be quite a lonely time for people can’t it, if you haven’t got family and if you don’t get on with your family.

Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
My New Year’s resolution is just like everyone else’s, to get fit actually. I just haven’t been to the gym for so long.

Matt Bowman (vocals) and Oli Main (guitar) – The Pigeon Detectives

Best Christmas present you’ve got?
Oli: A guitar.
Matt: Pair of rollerskates.

What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Matt: Mine’s going to be smoke more. Just to say ‘Fuck you’ to those that are trying to ban it.
Oli: Smoke indoors more.
Matt: That’s for both of us, that.

What’s the worst thing about Christmas?
Matt: Buying Christmas presents. Not made of money.
Oli: I fucking hate Christmas, everything about it.

Best and worst Christmas songs?
Matt: Worst one was that Darkness effort.
Oli: Slade’s is the best one.
Matt: Yeah, obviously Slade.

What did you do last New Year?
Matt: Played a gig at the Faversham in Leeds. It was excellent. Drank lots of beer, got paid, and…
Oli: Fell over a wall.
Matt: Fell over a wall. Probably. [thinks] No, that weren’t then...

Stine Bramson – Alphabeat

Best and worst Christmas songs?
[Favourite] Wham! ‘Last Christmas’. That’s always good. I love that, I love Wham! in general. [Least favourite] That’s probably mostly Danish ones. The silly ones that don’t really have a good melody and sung by kids always.

What do you eat at your Christmas meal?
We have duck at home with everything that comes with that.

Where were you last New Year?
I actually had dinner with the friend who’s over at my place right now. Then we went to a big private party at a friend’s house in Copenhagen.

Greg Churchouse – Scouting For Girls

Where did you spend last Christmas?
Last Christmas, I was pretty much working most of it. Myself and Roy both worked in shops, so Christmas time was always the busiest time of the year. We literally got Christmas Day off, and it was working til 10, 11pm on Christmas Eve and then back to work on Boxing Day. This is going to be the first Christmas we’ve both not been working since we left school which is going to be absolutely lovely stuff.

What’s the best present you received?
Blimey. That’s a tricky one. I’d say when I was like 14 Roy persuaded to get an acoustic guitar for Christmas instead of a Megadrive. Quite lucky he did otherwise who knows what would have happened, I’d have been sitting at home, being a computer geek, as opposed to sitting in the back of a freezing cold tour bus somewhere in Scotland!

What’s your New Years resolution?
I would say I’d like to get fitter. But as I’ve never ever stuck to a New Years resolution in my life for more than, say, a day, I doubt it’s really going to happen.

What are you best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song would be ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! I don’t know what the worst Christmas song would be actually. [laughs] Roy just said ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! It’s a double-edge sword. I was personally going to go for ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ by Cliff Richard.

David Guetta

I’m going to ask you some cheesy Christmas questions, if that’s all right.
Bring on the cheese!

Where were you last New Year?
I was in Dubai.

How do you celebrate Christmas?
Really classic, you know family, tree, my wife is totally into that, she’s like really excited and we have a boy, he’s three and a half years, so we’re gonna wait for Father Christmas to come and say hello and everything.

What are your best and worst Christmas songs?
I think that is more of a UK thing because we don’t have that so much in France. I’ve seen that you have a lot of that here and it’s all a big deal but we don’t really. ‘Baby When The Light’ is number one on the airplay and it will be for Christmas. We don’t have special Christmas music. I think it’s a good thing!

Have you got a New Year’s resolution?
Yes I do. I’m going to go back to the gym, I’m going to eat healthy, I’m going to start some proper music lessons – harmony, piano lessons, percussion lessons, guitar lessons. Today I’ve done this today, it was a great experience, I’ve done this show for Channel 4 called ‘Freshly Squeezed’ and we’ve done an acoustic version of ‘Baby When The Light’. It was really exciting, I was like I wanna do this more, I need to come back home. I programme so I can play keyboard but not that good, and I want to learn how to play the real thing. That’s my resolution for next year.