Whamageddon

Topic

I think we should pay this. Who’s in? (Or more to the point, who’s out? )

Replies

I think I could get far in this game.

 

edit: or not. All the shops will start playing Christmas music after Sinterklaas is past.

I was unwhamed last year, let’s see if I can manage it again.

Noise cancelling headphones are going to be an advantage.

I got hit as soon as I turned on the radio this morning. Apparently Zoe Ball gave a warning to players before putting the song on, but it was half-way in already when I tuned in.

I honestly just discovered this was by Wham.  The popular version I usually hear is by Hilary Duff

James Dean Bradfield did a lovely acoustic version on TFI Friday many years ago.

(Watching this takes me back.)

I’m old enough that the original was a staple at the school disco.

Fun fact – and I won a cash prize for knowing this in the pub quiz – Last Christmas by Wham is the biggest ever selling number 2 single in the UK. Number 1 that year was the Band Aid charity single that sold squillions of copies so they had no chance (although George Michael also sings on that so he still has a claim on the top spot).

I had no chance at Whamageddon – the movie just came out here and the trailer was on TV Sunday night so I was out as soon as I started.

 

garjones wrote:

I’m old enough that the original was a staple at the school disco.

Thankfully I’m old enough that it wasn’t

(Not that I would ever be caught dead at a school disco.)

garjones wrote:

I’m old enough that the original was a staple at the school disco.

There’s a real nostalgic quality about it for me, possibly as a result of this. (I know I’m a couple of years younger than you but it hung around for a while.)

I actually think it’s a pretty good song.

It’s a really good pop song. I don’t really care what Meadows thinks.

My other fun Wham! fact is that while most people know Andrew Ridgely didn’t do much other than keep George company (because he was too shy to launch a career on his own) he did co-write a grand total of two songs. One of them Club Tropicana and the other is Careless Whisper which even though it was on their album was then rather strangely released as a George Michael solo single.

So all that time when he got included despite doing nothing much, when he actually did contribute to a song that sold millions it was all credited to George.

I’ll take the Wham song over other pseudo-Christmas songs like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”, and the song that sets my teeth on edge: “Feliz Navidad”.

Humbug. Feliz Navidad is great.

As a Ben Folds fan I like Lonely Christmas Eve, but I am also pretty partial to Fairytale Of New York. It’s great in its own right but was also a favourite of a friend of mine who sadly died far too young (and his wife who is still with us), so it means a lot to our friendship group and always makes me think of him.

Being Ireland, Fairytale of New York was the first Christmas song I heard this year.  The trams were out this morning so I had to get a bus into work and the driver had the radio on.

Dave wrote:

Humbug. Feliz Navidad is great.

It’s the Christmas equivalent of “Happy Birthday To You”. By the time the second repetition comes around, I’ve heard enough.

No offense to Jose Feliciano.

njerry wrote:

“Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”,

You can’t invent songs just to prove your point!

I did really well at Whamageddon last year.

This year, well as you can guess from the fronted adverbial, not so much.

I was stood on poolside on Monday preparing my class for their swimming lesson when my brain realised what it was hearing. The pupils looked confused as I started to mutter about whamaggedon under my breath.

I heard my third Christmas song of the year yesterday.  Being Dublin, it was Fairytale of New York again.

You guys are just making these songs up to troll me, right?

Anonymous wrote:

You guys are just making these songs up to troll me, right?

Would you believe me if I told you there was a song called I’m Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas?

It’s no “Christmas At Ground Zero”.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You guys are just making these songs up to troll me, right?

Would you believe me if I told you there was a song called I’m Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas?

Probably.

I usually believe you. You’re trustworthy.

Unlike Martin

Anonymous wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You guys are just making these songs up to troll me, right?

Would you believe me if I told you there was a song called I’m Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas?

Probably.

I usually believe you. You’re trustworthy.

Unlike Martin

Good choice

 

Though Christmas at Grond Zero is also a song…

As is The Night Santa Went Crazy

My Christmas normally “officially” starts at the Mostly Autumn Christmas gig in York, at which I can guarantee the encore will include Fairytale of New York and I Believe in Father Christmas, plus a couple of other Christmas songs, but never Last Christmas, thank God. It’s honestly the first time I actually feel “Christmassy”, up until then I’m still going round shops muttering “bah humbug” and kicking crippled orphans etc.

This year, due to family commitments, I am missing their Christmas gig for the first time since 2004. I am disconsolate. I feel like Christmas may not actually begin for me this year

 

No worries, Mr. Meadows; just give us your address, and the Carrier Choir will sing Christmas carols outside your home from now until December 25th.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

I heard my third Christmas song of the year yesterday.  Being Dublin, it was Fairytale of New York again.

Obviously round here it’s Slade and Wizzard all the way.

Martin Smith wrote:

It’s no “Christmas At Ground Zero”.

That is one of the only Christmas songs that I actually like.

Another favorite:

Not so much a song but a fantastic take on a classic poem:

Hark the trendy buggers here: ‘ooh I only like this obscure Christmas song that’s non commercial and niche’.

Sod that, get your sleigh bells out for a bit of Slade, Wham! and Mariah Carey.

Todd wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

It’s no “Christmas At Ground Zero”.

That is one of the only Christmas songs that I actually like.

Another favorite:

Not so much a song but a fantastic take on a classic poem:

“Christmas in Hollis” got you a vote up.

And to add to the conversation:

So I started playing Holiday songs from my iTunes library at work today, in shuffle mode. The infamous Wham song is part of that mix, but I have about 500 Holiday songs in my library. Over the course of ~9 hours today, I dodged the Whamaggedon bullet; it’s fun living on the edge!!

njerry wrote:

So I started playing Holiday songs from my iTunes library at work today, in shuffle mode. The infamous Wham song is part of that mix, but I have about 500 Holiday songs in my library. Over the course of ~9 hours today, I dodged the Whamaggedon bullet; it’s fun living on the edge!!

Ridgeley Roulette!

njerry wrote:

So I started playing Holiday songs from my iTunes library at work today, in shuffle mode. The infamous Wham song is part of that mix, but I have about 500 Holiday songs in my library. Over the course of ~9 hours today, I dodged the Whamaggedon bullet; it’s fun living on the edge!!

Sinterklaas has past so now the supermarket is playing Christmas songs all day long. I’ll likely hear Wham at some point during shopping.

I lost.

It’s my own fault for choosing to play Spotify’s Contemporary Christmas playlist — the second song that came up was Wham.

Oh well, at least now the stress is over…

I’m on a winning streak that I put down to (1) not using tools of the devil Spotify, (2) not listening to mainstream radio, and (3) getting my Christmas shopping done in November this year.

I’m 100% sure I will be out as soon as I see my sister next week.

njerry wrote:

It’s my own fault for choosing to play Spotify’s Contemporary Christmas playlist

Oh, I should have posted on Sunday:

#whamageddon

I knew I wouldn’t survive contact with my sister. I was only there about an hour on Sunday before it came up on my niece’s Christmas playlist.

Nearly got hit today in Debenhams, but thankfully it was a cover version which was presumably cheaper to license than the original

I made it! I survived Whamageddon!

But at what cost?

Oh no.

I’ve managed to avoid it so far. Unless the bloke humming it out of tune in the coffee shop counts.

Is…is Brexit my fault?

Everyone knows Brexit was the direct result of the government’s failure to abide by the wishes of its citizens.

This all could have been avoided if they agreed to name that polar research ship Boaty McBoatface.

It’s as likely an explanation as any, either that or Stephen King is on to something with the number 19. Or Dr. Manhattan chucked a bus of empty promises and lies on peoples’ heads.

I’ve a tendency to over-emphasise, but not with this unless it’s a collective act of self-harm. Vote tactically I said. Ignore the propaganda and fake news. They mostly did in the North of my island. Terry Pratchett got it right, he had a background as a proper journalist: false equivalence; fake parity of info online. Not enough click past the first google hit or newspaper headline. It only takes a teeny percent to swing the vote.

But it’s all cool. We’ll get a bridge to over the water that not even Brunel could build.

But I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk…

Have a little faith, there’s magic in the night,

We’re not a beauty, but, hey, we’re all right. And that’s all right with me…

…If you haven’t heard my voice in a while,

I’ll meet you in the middle like it’s going out of style.

I have survived as well. Got hit by Do they Know its Christmas Time three times though, so it was still brutal. Always fun to have multi millionares berate me for not doing enough to alleviate the world’s suffering.