44 years ago whilst still a member of Wizzard, the band who brought us the Christmas classic ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, Bill Hunt wrote ‘The Carlsberg Special Brew’ a harpsichord B-side. Now he has written a follow up continuing with the alcoholic theme ‘El Original Brew’ with his band the Ancient Order of Froth Blowers. The single is to be released on a beer coloured vinyl and has created his own pale ale with Birmingham’s Froth Blowers Brewery to be release this month. We chatted to him about his new music, beer, and of course, Christmas.
After meeting two producers in the Cotswold, George Shilling and Hamstall Ridware, at the Sundae club, Bill became inspired. As he remembers, “I thought there should be another one. There’s not enough harpsichords in the world, you know?” The single is released with his son’s more accessible classic rock tune ‘The Kentish Town Song’ on the B-side. “My son had some success as Dansette Junior. He was signed by CBS for a while and brought out a track called ‘Paranoid’ which you can still see on YouTube. Together with the Sundae Club they have made a real tribute to Jeff Lynne of ELO and the sounds of the 70s with a very similar to the arrangement of 105308 overture, which was the first ELO single.”
Reminiscing back to the days of Wizzard and ‘The Carlsberg Special Brew’ he recalls how the beer “was our drug of choice at the time… We were a happy-go-lucky, beer-swigging band and the Carlsberg Special was about 7%.”
The song itself has an interesting story surrounding it. Bill cites how “I didn’t actually call the original B-side ‘The Carlsberg Special Brew’, but the band called it that for a bit of fun and added in brackets ‘Pianos Demolished’ alongside my home phone number. These were the days when singles sold over 250,000, so in 250,000 homes around the country people had a single with my phone number on it. People obviously were curious so they started ringing the number to our house. I’d just got married to my beautiful wife and the phone would never stop ringing. They were just curious and thought they might get through to the record company or something. You couldn’t believe it these days, it’s like ringing up and speaking to One Direction (we were a successful band at the time), but I had to answer the phone in case it was my Mum ringing. I had to ring BT and get them to change my number. Then, about six months later, there was an article in the paper because some dear old pensioner had been given my old number and her phone wouldn’t stop ringing! I must try it again soon to see if it still rings now…”
It is impossible to shy away from Bill’s legendary past as a Wizzard, especially this time of year. He still gleams with pride when talking about their infamous Christmas single ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’. So, in answer to the question “do you wish it could be Christmas everyday?” he chuckles “These days, now I’m a little bit older, I wish it could be Christmas every other day. It’s always good to hear ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ and to the people who know of my involvement in the band it brings a smile upon their face. I can escape it much more than Roy Wood can [the lead singer with the long white beard you see on the throwback Christmas Top of the Pops], I can still go down the pub and have a quiet pint but I’m not sure Roy would be able to do that any time around Christmas.”
He seems very protective over the song, exclaiming “It’s much better than that Slade track!”. Although that seems to be friendly poking as he worked with Slade later on in his career. “I got to know Dave Hill [Slade’s lead singer] in the 80s and did some writing with him. We wrote an album for the new Slade line up, called Slade 2 for a time, and on that there was a Christmas track which we think is better than ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’.”
After chatting with Bill Hunt, I think it’s time we all join our loved ones, grab a beer and dance to ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ because Christmas is now truly upon us.
Jenny Pudney
Image: Facebook