Essential Advent Calendar: Festive Double A Side From Irish Rockers Heavy Soda ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ And ‘It’s All So Easy (It’s Christmas Time)’

Heavy Soda describe themselves as “three people who were once in the same band at different times came together to reform an old band with a new name that only one of them had been in before.” It’s clear from the outset that the Dublin trio are fun guys, and their choice of Christmas songs, a brilliant, almost as good as the original, cover of ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and their own composition, ‘It’s All So Easy (It’s Christmas Time)’ go further to prove this.

Essential Advent Calendar: Hanson Say ‘Finally It’s Christmas’ With New Album And UK Shows

Currently on their ‘Middle Of Everywhere World Tour’ and on the back of their ‘Greatest Hits’ release, Hanson have just released their new Christmas album, ‘Finally It’s Christmas’ on 3CG Records/S-Curve Records). The pop-rock trio will follow this with a number of special holiday concerts in Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, before heading to the UK where they’ll be performing at O2 Ritz Manchester.

Valerie Ghent – ‘New York City Streets’

Raised in SoHo and Greenwich Village, New York City, Valerie Ghent has music in her veins, with both her parents in the industry – her father Emmanuel was known to many as a pioneer of electronic music, and her mother Natasha peformed with the American Ballet Theatre and Queens Symphony. Valerie’s single, ‘New York City Streets’, is a love letter to New York City, and comes from her fourth album, ‘Velours’, released in 2016.