There used to be a buzz of excitement around this time of year. Away from the thought of inedible sprouts that seemed to only be placed upon the plate with frightening regularity, the Queen’s speech having to be watched because an elderly relative once saw Her Majesty dangle a gloved hand out somewhere in Weston–Super-Mare in 1965, and the usual fights that would lead to doors slamming throughout the land because someone didn’t want to enter the Christmas spirit, one thing could unite the family and be the cause of more arguments and that was who would be Christmas No. 1.
In recent years, aside from the supreme arrogance displayed by a television programme and its Frankenstein-like creators, the individuality of getting to No. 1 on Christmas Day has been hampered, held-back, stunted and with muted shame disregarded on the back of making someone a pile of cash and the chance to grin inanely at a camera or two. Andy Whorhol once said that, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, but at least they will have been famous.” What price fame when it sells your soul, prostitutes your mentality out for rent just to be a household name for a briefest second.
Christmas Day in the trenches that lined Europe, two vast opposing armies sat and listened to what could have been the faint spark of revolution, a dissention to love their fellow man and stop the barbaric insanity that sent millions to their death in what should be looked upon as a cousin’s war of posturing of Imperial design. The tune of Stille Nacht forcing its way over mud induced yards of land that constituted the barrier between men and reasoned thought.
The hours that followed have become famous for all the right reasons, the coming together over an understanding, peace breaking out everywhere except for in the Government seats of power in Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow and Vienna, the mass demonstration of what should have been done by Prime Ministers and Kings. Football, the great working class leveller was played and stories shared, the odd photograph and gentle reminder that we fight because we are told to, not because we want to.
All this was perfectly captured by a band from Liverpool in the stirring song Altogether Now. A song that defined a time of giving in a period in which has become since, one of greed, of want and of the only bells ringing out is the sound of a till displaying the obscenity that has wrecked lives.
The charity single has become one of response to the lack of Government understanding in how the bloated slug like creature called Economy has uttered the words that charity, of peace is not a valid piece of commercial enterprise. It is not good for the economy. As Megadeth once sang, “Peace sells, but who’s buying?”
Music is subjective, it is not for sale like a Government Minister who gets found out they have shares in a private medical scheme, it is there to entertain, to reflect upon, to point a view point across or simply to tell a good story with the power of instrument at its side. For the Peace Collective, The Farm’s Peter Hooton and Carl Hunter, a whole host of music stars including The Proclaimers, Guy Chambers, Englebert Humperdink, Holly Johnson, John Power, Jah Wobble and Jane McDonald and a choir made up of English and German school boys, some only just younger than many of the lads who went to fight in a cause they didn’t truly understand, the re-release of Altogether Now is all that and more. It is timely, it is needed and should be seen for the true example of British song-writing that it is, one that has the power to change minds.
Whilst everybody’s taste in music is as different as their views on what constitutes their choice of clothing everyday of the year, at least we have the choice and if by endorsing Altogether Now as the song that should be a Christmas No. 1, 100 years after the poignancy of a rare, almost magical moment in amongst the slaughter, chaos and mass murder of the First World War, then perhaps as Human Beings we might see beyond that brief hope of fame and remember what is truly important, goodwill to all.
Such things are above a rating, they are just too important to be done so, however Altogether Now is arguably the finest thing to support with very hard earned money this Christmas.
The Peace Collective’s Altogether Now is released today. All profits will go to the British Red Cross and Shorncliffe Trust.
Ian D. Hall