On the Record

Jim Carrollon music

Putting heart back into the Christmas chart

Hands up those who would like to see Tom Waits at Number One in the Irish charts on Christmas Day? Journalist and blogger Adam Maguire has kicked off an online campaign to get Waits's Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis to the top of the charts.

Maguire hopes that both fans of the singer and those who simply want to end the annexation of the seasonal chart by X Factor winners will get involved.

"Even though I was never a big pop-music fan, I always remember being entranced by the race for Christmas Number One as a child," explains Maguire on his blog. "It was never about wanting one song or another to win, but simply about the heightened excitement of the race that surrounded the whole exercise.

"Nowadays it's different. For a start we can be pretty sure that the winner of X Factor will be Number One in Ireland as well as the UK. How sad is it that: the favourite for Number One is an as-yet-undecided artist singing an as-yet-unknown song?"

Maguire thinks Waits's song is ideal because it is "the absolute antithesis to what generally gets the Number One slot in Ireland. It's absolutely perfect as a protest against everything that's wrong with music today and it even has some real humanity in it to boot."

This campaign has been made possible by the fact that sales of digital downloads of tracks which have not been released as a single now count toward chart positions.

A similar campaign has kicked off in Britain where an attempt is underway to get Malcom Middleton's We're All Going to Die to the top of the charts.

The Arab Strap miserabilist faces competition from Eva Cassidy and Katy Melua, Shaun the Sheep and, naturally, the X Factor winner.

Last year's Christmas number one in Ireland was X Factor winner Leona Lewis (or Leona as she was known then).

The Christmas chart will be released on Friday December 21st. Downloads of A Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis purchased from now until next Thursday from such online stores as Apple iTunes, Eircom Music Club, 02 Napster, Vodafone and Easymusic are eligible for the chart.

For more information, see http://waitsforchristmas.blogspot.com

Post your apologies

Music fans with a guilt complex can stop fretting, it's time to make amends to your favourite group for downloading and not paying for their music.

DearRockers.org has been set up by Darren Barefoot to encourage music fans to write a letter to acts, accompanied by $5, to say thanks for the music.

Letters and cash for such acts as Sufjan Stevens (right), David Bowie, Radiohead, Whitney Houston, OMD and others have already been received.

The secrets of the tree

U2 fans seeking words of wisdom about the band's recently reissued The Joshua Tree album can check out what the group's manager Paul McGuinness had to say in a recent interview.

McGuinness talked at length about the album to Dublin local radio station, Phantom 105.2, last weekend.

The interview, conducted by the station's head of music John Caddell, formed part of an Album Archive special on the release.

For those who missed the show, the interview is now available to download as a podcast from the station's website (www.phantom.ie) or from the Apple iTunes store.

Comeback trail gets congested

Reunion fever is very much in the air at present. This week saw hoary, over-rated, dull rock dinosaurs Led Zeppelin reduce grown men to tears when they performed in London.

Given the fact that more than 20 million allegedly entered a lottery for tickets for this show and that some venues are believed to be on hold for next summer, a full Led Zep tour can be expected in 2008.

Tickets for My Bloody Valentine's comeback shows next summer are also in demand and all seven UK shows next June and July are sold out. Speculation is also rife about possible festival dates.

The best news of all, though, is That Petrol Emotion have became the latest band to succumb to reunion fever.

The band, featuring various Undertones and Yank singer Steve Mack, announced on their website that they're planning a 2008 tour, with Irish dates for April or May.

Ticket Gig of the Week

"Welcome to the desert." With that greeting Tinariwen opened their set in the Olympia on Sunday. It's a long way from the Sahara to Dublin but the Tuareg nomads have captured the imagination of music fans this year. A support slot to The Rolling Stones in Slane, an appearance on Later with Jools Holland and the wonderful Aman Iman album have helped raise their profile considerably. The six musicians, dressed in traditional garb and armed with electric guitars, wowed the enthusiastic audience with their hypnotic arrangements and mix of French and Tamashek singing.  Brian Keane.