The Waitresses - No Guilt (Live TV 1982)

My Waitresses moment had a long gestation period.

It began in 1999 when I was (appropriately) a Catering Assistant working at Stockport Co-Op. In the run up to Christmas, the department store CD, which used to go around in a sonic loop about eight times a day, was changed for a festive CD, which not only had less songs on it (meaning they came round more often and I was being slowly tortured by the Westlife version of 'Last Christmas') but which also only included one song that I actually liked. That song was the Waitresses 'Christmas Wrapping'.

I'd just dropped out of my degree at Bolton Institute and, as if that wasn't enough, started a new job the week before Christmas in Macclesfield, which required a horrible and extortionate commute by bus and train every morning. I remember coming home knackered after the commute from hell one night, not long afterwards collapsing into bed while the John Peel show was on, and then frantically throwing the bedcovers off and running across the bedroom to the tape deck, hitting record and play as the twinkly opening chords to that most realistic of festive songs rang out.

It was as I was running out of material to fuel my Martha and the Muffins obsession that I returned to the Waitresses and, still not downloading, even in 2008, I bought the Waitresses best of CD. And discovered what a bloody great post punk band they were.

People tend to know them mainly for either 'Christmas Wrapping' or 'I know what boys like', and if that's the case for you, 'No Guilt' should prove a pleasant surprise. It's a very arch, very funny tale of girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl discovers the joys of independence, girl has a great time and gets on with her life. No apologies.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue #1

Heaton Moor Christmas Tree

The Waitresses'  'Christmas Wrapping' is my favourite Christmas song of all time.

I like it's realness, it's sense of harassed pre-Christmas organisation and the merry hell Christmas preparations can have upon everyday life. Anyone trying to get in or out of Manchester city centre recently will know what I'm talking about here.

I first encountered the song in the late 1990s when I was in the process of leaving my job as a Catering Assistant for an ill fated stint as a Researcher at a publishing company. That saxophone definitely kept me sane, and Patty died far too young.

'Coconut Water' by Milk & Bone is a sweetly sad, wistful song I only heard recently. It came out in March so I haven't built any history with this song yet, just really, really like it's electro pop elegance. It reminds me of Foxbase Alpha period Saint Etienne, and doesn't feel much like a winter song, but put that to one side because it has all the hallmarks of a classic.

'She moved through the fair', here being hauntingly performed by Sinead O'Connor as 'He moved through the fair' is a traditional folk song I have loved for several years now. There is a ambiguity and sadness to it that I really like. This version, needless to say, is perfect.

It's taken me a while to settle on a Billie Holiday track, but I've settled in the end on 'T'ain't Nobody's Business if I Do' because I like it's cheery 'fuck you' attitude, its knife edge morality and all round excellence. Enjoy...

Image of Heaton Moor Christmas tree by Cazz Blase. Copyright Cazz Blase, all rights reserved.