51. ‘Wassailing Song’

One-sided 7-inch single ‘released’ 16/12/92. Produced by Blur.

In December ’92, as Christmas lights illuminated Britain, Blur experienced their darkest hour. Food was refusing to release their second LP as it had no obvious singles. Meanwhile, Britain’s musical climate underwent a cold snap as wintry as the weather, and the only hot property was imported American grunge. Seen inebriated once too often, Blur were taken seriously neither as musicians nor as people.

Against Food’s advice, Blur played a gig on December 16 at the Hibernian, an Irish nightclub in Fulham, 200 yards from Maison Rouge studio. Five hundred copies of this 7-inch single, recorded during a break in the ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ session, were given away to the audience. ‘The Wassailing Song’ was a medieval Christmas carol that Damon and Graham sang as children in the Stanway Comprehensive school choir (a wassail is a wooden bowl into which hot punch is poured). The verses are sung by each member of Blur in turn (Damon, Graham, Dave and Alex) over a backing track of drums and accordion-esque keyboard chords. The song later accompanied the Stonehenge footage on Blur’s longform video Starshaped.