Tonight is the night that the Christmas FM crew finally get a chance to have a get-together and enjoy themselves after “bringing the magic of Christmas” to Dublin and Cork for a month. I’ll be there, as I featured on the station, reading Christmas Stories on Keith Shanley’s Breakfast Show (along with my college classmate and friend Suzanne Scollard) and presenting a show on Christmas morning itself.

The station, which broadcast from the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, managed to raise a whopping €70,000 for their most Christmassy of chosen charities, the Simon Communities of Dublin and Cork – an incredible achievement – while helping bring a bit of Christmas spirit and joy to it’s many listeners.

Here’s a brief documentary video (by Jen) about the station, that even features me…

So Christmas is upon us!

In the spirit of the recession, I’m going to recycle this image from a previous post from last year (but the feeling is still there in full!)…

By the way, as you may know if you know me (or if you follow me on twitter!), I’ve been on Christmas FM presenting “Christmas Stories” as part of the Breakfast Show for the past few weeks. Tomorrow, Christmas Day itself, I’m on for a very special show – which I’m presenting myself – from 9 to 10am. I may even go in dressed as Santa Claus! (- like I did in work… see pic below!)

So, if you’re in Dublin or Cork – unwrap your presents with me on your radio! The station is on 100.3FM in Dublin and 106.7FM in Cork. If you’re anywhere else in the world, you can tune in via the web site. You can also read the news team blog there and check out some of the stories we’ve been reading out in the mornings!

A very happy and safe Christmas to you all!

Well you may know by now that they did it in the UK… In a testament to the power of the Internet, a facebook campaign has succeeded in usurping the X Factor from the Christmas No. 1 slot and installing the most unlikely replacement in the shape of definite song of the moment “Killing in the Name” by Rap metal supremos Rage Against The Machine at the top of the UK “Singles” Chart. Scott Mills announced it just before 7pm on BBC Radio 1’s Chart Show.

The (digital only) sales of the song outstripped second place Joe McElderry’s “The Climb” (which was also available on CD for the last few days) by over 50,000 making it the first download-only Christmas No. 1 and the biggest electronic sale of a song ever in the UK. (David has the figures here).

This isn’t being seen as just a victory for Rage Against the Machine or their song – or even for rock music itself. Moreover, it’s a clear message being sent to Simon Cowell and the whole manufactured TV “talent” competition establishment that has dominated the charts and removed the unpredictability and fun of the pop music charts and the institution that is the Christmas No. 1.

That message seems to have been along the lines of “no thanks, we’d rather have real bands playing real music that they wrote and performed themselves” – and the choice of song to represent that message was a well made one. In other words… “Fuck you, Cowell.. we won’t do what you tell us!”

Here’s the guys in their recent BBC Radio 5 appearance (before the chart was announced) – where they talk about the battle for the No. 1 spot, Simon Cowell & The X Factor, – and play the song itself (featuring various inclusions of the famous “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!” line at the end).

UPDATE: The band are now promising that they WILL come to the UK to play a free gig there to celebrate this No. 1 – and they are giving a huge chunk of the proceeds from the downloads of the song directly to the charity “Shelter”.

Meanwhile, the race is still on for the Christmas Number One spot here in Ireland – the chart here being announced on Thursdays – so that’ll be Christmas Eve, this year.

You can do your bit by downloading it on iTunes (as I have done) or eircom music store. The X Factor single’s chances are possibly stronger over here than they were in the UK, unfortunately, as it will have been available on CD for longer than it was there – but you never know!

Livepool F.C. slipped up lately – especially over the Christmas period, drawing games they should really have won, not beating teams they should really have trounced, and, as a result, falling back to second place behind Manchester (”The Scum”) United.

All they need is a little… inspiration. Something to put the ummph back, to energise them and give them purpose and meaning again… Yeah!

Enter… the Hoff!… (yes, David Hasselhoff, the man so awesome he has his own social networking site!)… singing their anthem.

That’ll do it.

Last couple of days have been kinda mental… apart from Christmas Day when I just chilled out and spent some quality time with the family and no-one else – as it should be. On St. Stephens’ Day, it was fairly busy in work – and we nearly ran out of beer due to a gas compressor problem! (only nearly… it was fixed)

Yesterday I was DJ’ing a pretty big house party in Ardee (a “housecooling”- clearly the opposite to a housewarming – they’re moving out). I started at about 7.45pm and finally wound down at roughly 4.45am (yes… a full 9 hours later!) Everything got played – from hip-hop to dance, punk, country, alternative, metal and even some slow smoochy numbers and a bit of trad. At 5am, someone got a guitar out and the party continued for another 2 hours or so until I went and passed out in a bedroom until 2pm. Now I’ve work at 5pm… Oh joy.

Hope all your Christmasses were all you wanted them to be. Mine was a blast in some ways – but, most importantly – was time well spent – with family and good friends.