Carol Concert

Background
"Top Gear was the venue for some inspired one-offs well loved by listeners, such as the 1970 Christmas Carol Concert, at which all the usual suspects - the Faces, Marc Bolan, Ivor Cutler, Sonja Kristina (of Curved Air), John Walters, Robert Wyatt, and myself - squeezed into the studio to contribute our own idiosyncratic versions of 'Silent Night', 'Away In A Manger' and 'Good King Wenceslas.' (Margrave Of The Marshes, p. 297.)"
 * This one-off recording by an aggregation labelled 'The Top Gear Carol Singers' featured a group of musicians commonly associated with Peel's Top Gear show, augmented by JP and Sheila ('Peel and The Pig'). Sheila recounted the event thus:
 * The Peel Sessions (p. 265) lists the personnel as: David Bedford (piano), and the vocalists Marc Bolan, June Child, Ivor Cutler, Sonja Kristina (& friend), Rod Stewart, Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane, Peel & Pig, Kenney Jones, and Ian McLagan. Walters is not listed by Garner as being present, and the majority of the carols are played on an electronic organ, presumably again by Bedford.
 * 'Away In A Manger' was sung by Stewart solo (although Walters remembered on It's Alive in 1991 that he was not keen to do this), backed by Bedford on the piano: 'Silent Night' was sung by Kristina solo, with the choir humming along: and 'Good King Wenceslas' featured solo lines by Lane and Wyatt.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * None

Sessions

 * One session only, recorded in Maida Vale 4.

1. Recorded: 1970-12-08. First broadcast: 26 December 1970. Repeated: 22 December 1971 and 26 December 1974.
 * God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / Away In A Manger / Good King Wenceslas / Silent Night / O Come All Ye Faithful

Other Shows Played

 * All tapes of the session appear to have survived, and four of the tracks were repeated by BBC6 Music on Marc Riley's show in December 2009.