It’s Friday The 13th – unlucky for some, but not for Gareth Jones (a former DJ at Bristol’s Thekla and Bath’s Moles Club), who is behind our 13th door. Today Gareth shall be playing non-stop Christmas songs for 12 hours non-stop, at Bristol’s Stag & Hounds public house. The event aims to raise money for Save The Children, with people asked to donate via a text line, or wear a Christmas jumper to the event and pay £2.
Gareth’s inspiration came from the 2018 effort by Bristol DJ and record shop owner, Mike Savage, who played Toto’s ‘Africa’, non-stop for 24 hours to raise money for charity. This year Gareth hopes that people get right into the spirit of the event, and be unafraid to “make a knit of themselves” by attending the event wearing their best (or worst!) Christmas jumper.
Admission to the event will cost £2, with donations made in cash on the day, or by texting TEAMSTAG to 70050, where their £2 will automatically go to Save The Children. You can also donate any money you choose, by using Gareth’s Just Giving page. Just £2 will pay for antibiotics for 8 children suffering from pneumonia, one of the biggest killers faced by children.
Gareth, who is behind small independent label Cherryade Records (you may recall we featured their latest seasonal release on December 1), contacted many venues around Bristol about his plan, with most either refusing to host the 12 hour event, or not responding at all. Eventually the Stag and Hounds pub, situated in at 47 Old Market Street, Bristol, agreed.
The event will commence at 12pm this Friday, 13 December, and end 12 hours later, at midnight. Gareth, who will be performing under the nom de plume of DJ Kitschmas, shall be diving deep into his extensive Christmas music collection, and playing not just the obvious songs (although you can expect them to make an appearance).
Promised on the playlist include:
*All the usual big Christmas hits of course! (Slade, Wham!, Mariah, etc.)
*Indie/Alternative Christmas songs
*Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas songs
*Soul/Funk Christmas songs
*Reggae Christmas songs
*Doo-Wop/Rhythm ‘n’ Blues Christmas songs
*Comedy Christmas songs
*Children’s Christmas songs (e.g. The Muppets, The Wombles, Disney)
*Crazy and unusual Christmas cover versions and song parodies and much more!
Gareth has been collecting Christmas music ever since he was a child. He used to make Christmas mix tapes which he forced upon his reluctant friends for a few years. He now curates an annual Christmas compilation CD released on the small independent label Cherryade Records (who released the first two albums by BBC 6Music favourites The Lovely Eggs) available at their Bandcamp page. with this year seeing the release of the 14th edition.
Gareth also presents a monthly show on the John Peel-inspired online station Dandelion Radio. After Peel passed away, Dandelion Radio became the home of the Festive 50, the annual best-of-the-year chart voted for by Dandelion listeners, formerly a big part of Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show.
In addition to his day job working at ents24.com, the national entertainment tickets website, Gareth also runs a part-time DJ service named after a Pulp album, called Different Class Disco. He is available for weddings, birthdays and of course Christmas parties.
Prior to that, he was a DJ for 4 years on Bristol’s Thekla and 10 years at Bath’s Moles Club, where he also booked live bands. His biggest success story was booking the Mercury Prize-winning band Klaxons and the highly successful electro-pop band Metronomy on the same bill for a total of £160 before they were famous!
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