On December 3, 1982, Brian Jacques released a Christmas record, "If Only Christmas Were", featuring members of the Liverpool Everyman Youth Theatre Choir. Jacques wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the effort. It was not released on a particular label and distributed in only a blank sleeve, however BBC TV Manchester was the vinyl's publisher.
The previous year, Jacques had written a BBC Christmas TV play called Look Out, He's Behind You. Three of the actors in that play, Carlene Lundon (credited as Carleen Lundon), Jake Abraham (credited as Jacob Abraham), and Barbara Hart, sing the songs on this 2-track project.
Richie Close and Terry Wheeler, who were also involved with "Look Out, He’s Behind You," assisted with production, as did Ray Colley.
Side A of the 45 vinyl consists of "If Only Christmas Were," which features Lundon's vocal backed by the choir.
At the time, Jacques told The Liverpool Echo the song was "in the traditional mould, plus a bit of social comment." Lundon appeared in Jacques' first Everyman Theatre play, Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies and Scouse, as well. She sounds younger than the other two singers, and it's a bit of a serious song for the holiday season.
Side B is a song called "I Can Be" (also titled "I Can Be Anything I Want To") with Abraham and Hart covering the main part of the song, while the choir sings the chorus. It's more whimsical in sound and focuses on the power of the imagination. Abraham was about 15 at the time and went on to pursue an acting career, eventually landing a minor role in Guy Ritchie's 1998 movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Like Lundon, he also appeared in Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies and Scouse.
The Redwall Wiki now has this very rare record in our library, which we're excited to share with you!
We reached out to Jake Abraham, and he had this to say about this his time with Brian Jacques:
"Brian gave me my first job when I was 12 at the Everyman Theatre and then on the BBC play he wrote, which the record ... is from. 10 or so years later I was on the train going to London for an audition and seen Brian on the train we were chatting and I asked him what was he writing. He was writing one of the early Redwall novels in freehand and a really bumpy train. We always kept in touch and he would often mention me on his radio shows, what shows I was doing etc. I don’t see them again about three years before he died I may be wrong about the years but he asked me would I do some of the voices on a recording of one of his novels. I loved Brian since I was a little boy and the world he opened up for me. So happy for him when he found the success he did as a novelist a true Liverpool legend x."
Please enjoy listening to samples of this music, which in all likelihood hasn't been heard in 38 years, and probably never in the U.S., before now.
Click through to read the songs' lyrics.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season with your loved ones.
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