The Yobs Christmas Album
| The Yobs Christmas Album | ||||
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| The Yobs studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1980 |
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| Label (s) | Safari Records; Captain Oi! Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
14/21 |
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running time |
53 min 47 s |
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| occupation |
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Daft fader |
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Studio (s) |
Eel Piel Studios |
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The yobs Christmas Album is the first Christmas album of Boys . It was released on Safari Records in 1980 and has been re-released several times.
History of origin
The Boys have already released a single with traditional Christmas carols under the name The Yobs for Christmas. A live performance in 1979 together with Gary Holton (ex- Heavy Metal Kids ) caused a sensation when after a few songs the stage was boarded by punks and the performance had to be ended.
A year later, John Craig, the boss of Safari Records, proposed to record an entire album under the name Yobs. The four band members chose different pseudonyms. Matt Dangerfield, guitarist and singer, operated on the album under the name "Noddy Oldfield", "Honest" John Plain under the pseudonym "HJ Bedwetter". HJ is to be understood here both as an abbreviation of his actual pseudonym and as an abbreviation for the Hitler Youth . The boys had already played with National Socialist symbols on the previous singles and distorted them humorously. The pseudonym "Kid Vicious" by Duncan "Kid" Reid is a corruption of Sid Vicious , the bassist of the Sex Pistols , while "Ebenezer Pollack" (Jack Black) alluded to the character of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens . Casino Steel, the group's original keyboardist, dropped out after To Hell with the Boys .
Together with producer Daft Fader, the album was recorded within two days at Pete Townshend's Eel Piel Studios and was released in time for Christmas 1980. In addition to some traditional Christmas carols that the boys have converted into contemporary punk and Oi! - Robe were packaged, including three Yobs originals: Another Christmas , The Ballad of the Warrington and Doggy . In addition to the faster punk versions, some elements, including from reggae and synth pop , can be found on the album, which can be understood as swipes at some more or less popular musicians and personalities from this time.
After the following Yobs on 45 single from 1981, the chapter Yobs was done by 1991. The second album Xmas 11 was released that year .
Track list
- Rub-A-Dum-Dum - 3:08
- Ballad Of The Warrington - 3:11
- Another Christmas - 2:00
- Doggy - 0:39
- Jingle Bells - 4:39
- Auld Lang Syne - 2:42
- Silent Night - 3:13
- Silver Bells - 2:44
- CHRISTMAS - 1:10
- Gloria - 1:26
- Twelve Days Of Christmas - 3:18
- White Christmas - 1:00
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas - 1:18
- May The Good Lord Bless & Keep You - 2:33
Republication
The album was first released on CD in 1989. In 2000 there was a new edition of Captain Oi! Records , which contained all Yobs singles up to Yobs on 45 from 1981 as bonus tracks .
- Run Rudolph Run - 2:29
- The Worm Song - 1:11
- Silent Night (Single version) - 3:15
- Silent Night - 3:15
- Rub-A-Dum-Dum (Single version) - 3:02
- Another Christmas (Single version) - 2:02
- Yobs on 45 - 5:32
Singles
Run Rudolph Run / Worm Song (1977)
Run Rudolph Run with the B-side Worm Song was the Yobs' first single. The title track was best known for Chuck Berry's version, which the boys are referring to here. The original is penned by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie. Andrew Matheson , Casino Steele's former bandmate from The Hollywood Brats, took on the lead vocals . John Plain refused to perform on the piece because the style was too rhythm-and-blues- like for him and he didn't like Matheson. The Worm Song became the secret hit of the Yobs, as John Peel used the song as the opening song on his show for a while.
On the cover of the single, Rudolf Hess is depicted in front of the gates of the Spandau war criminal prison , who was alienated with a red nose and thus represents Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer .
Silent Night (1978)
Silent Night , one of the most famous Christmas carols, was released as the second single in 1978, both in a German version and an English version. A German friend had Dangerfield song from a German prayer book read and these had it in phonetics scribbled down. Since the boys were in trouble with their record company NEMS, Dangerfield hired a bootlegger to do the release.
The cover of the single shows Adolf Hitler in a Santa suit .
Rub-A-Dum-Dum / Another Christmas
Rub-A-Dum-Dum is the Yobs version of Little Drummer Boy , Another Christmas an original composition. The cover shows a Wehrmacht soldier wearing a pacifier around his neck .
Yobs on 45
Yobs on 45 was released a year after the debut album and was based on the popular Stars-on-45 series. The A-side was a mixed-together version of various Yobs songs, on the B-side was the album track The Ballad of the Warrington . Only 200 copies of the single were pressed.
Song information
Rub-A-Dum-Dum , Another Christmas and Silent Night were re-recorded for the album.
The Ballad of the Warrington is about a pub in Maida Vale that was very popular with the band members. The spoken passages were recorded by Mark Mason, a roadie in the band. He took on the role of host.
Doggy is a nonsense song with a cappella singing by the boys. The cocker spaniel from record company owner John Craig took on the guest "vocals" .
The version of Jingle Bells is based on Gary Numan's electro-pop . John Plain hated Numan because he had just recorded an album called New Guitars on Beggars Banquet , the same label as Numan, with Pete Stride ( The Lurkers ), but the record company only took care of Numan. The version is therefore to be understood as a satirical swipe.
Silent Night's piano intro is a swipe at British comedian Les Dawson , who used similarly poor piano solos. Despite the English title, the song has German lyrics and is actually a new recording of the single track Silent Night .
Silver Bells is a cover version of Jim Reeves .
With Gloria (short title of Gloria in excelsis Deo ) all available people who were near the studio at the time of the recording were used for the choir .
White Christmas is a cover version by Irving Berlin . The reggae singing was done by sound engineer Mike Pela.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas contains Indian , Yiddish and Chinese text passages.
May the Good Lord Bless & Keep You features Sid Vicious-like vocals.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Liner Notes of the 2000 re-release on Captain Oi! Records
- ^ CD from 1989 on Discogs.com
- ↑ Interview ( memento of November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) with Honest John Plain on August 23, 2000
- ↑ Information ( memento of January 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the boys' official website
Web links
- The Yobs Christmas Album on Allmusic (English)