0:01

BBC sounds, music, radio

0:03

podcasts. Comment

0:06

upon Christmas with our work we

0:08

see. A whole lot of struggle.

0:10

You see people's stress levels start

0:12

to really elevate. You

0:14

see a lot less rent being paid.

0:17

If there's mental health issues, then

0:19

they're definitely being exacerbated at

0:21

that time of year. There's addictions

0:24

usually. They start to ramp up around

0:26

that time of year because Christmas is such

0:28

a focus on family and good

0:30

times and material wealth, And

0:32

so all of that contributes to this

0:34

persistent turmoil that you can kind of

0:37

see building in people ahead of

0:39

Christmas. I'm Konstantina

0:41

Palmer. I live in St. John's Newfoundland.

0:44

I'm a social worker here with the provincial

0:46

government, and I'm also married

0:48

to an Orthodox Christian priest. So

0:51

we have a little parish here. And in the

0:53

parish, I go by Matishka. So

0:56

I was driving around town doing

0:58

different home visits, visiting clients a

1:00

couple weeks before Christmas. And I had

1:02

stopped into a shop to pick up some groceries.

1:06

I heard the beginning, the acoustic

1:09

guitar interlude of the song. And

1:12

I was immediately intrigued because I

1:14

really like folk music. And

1:17

then when he started to sing,

1:20

the first lines really caught my

1:22

attention.

1:23

There's said there'll be snow

1:26

Christmas. They said

1:28

there'll be peace on that.

1:32

But instead, it just gets

1:34

on my head. A

1:36

paleo teaspoon of virgin

1:38

butter. He was able even in just

1:40

those few lines to convey that

1:43

feeling of unfulfilled hope.

1:47

And I thought what a powerful image

1:50

of what it feels like

1:52

to expect snow and

1:54

it is he left with the the chisel

1:56

and the fog and the depressingness

1:59

of having rain instead. And

2:02

I thought a lot of my clients must feel

2:04

that way lot of times in their life

2:06

this anticipation of something

2:09

peaceful and beautiful and instead

2:11

just this sort of dreary mundaneness

2:14

of a rainy day.

2:18

Peter Jones infield here, lyric

2:20

writer to King Crimson and Amazon

2:22

Lake and Palmer in Greg Lake, and

2:24

Go Write off. I believe in

2:26

Father Christmas. To the hardest of the dude

2:28

4 so often throughout the opening night,

2:31

and I'm very pleased, quite proud,

2:33

you know, of the opening night. Because

2:35

it sums up the whole song.

2:37

They said there'd be snow at Christmas. They

2:40

said there'd be peace on Earth, but it

2:42

said it kept on raiding, avail of

2:44

tears. For the virgin birth.

2:46

What I did is I went searching through

2:48

my vaults and thought about Christmas songs

2:50

I like from one of the courses John

2:52

Lennon's So this is

2:54

Christmas. And I have a union,

2:56

and I sort of borrowed that mood.

2:58

I'd like to have been dealing with quite a lot of sadness

3:03

I was especially struck by the

3:05

second person. He goes on to say they

3:07

sold me a dream of Christmas. They

3:09

sold me a silent night. And

3:17

he talks about sort of being dubbed into

3:20

believing these two characters

3:22

of what he calls a fairy story. The

3:24

Israel Light, which is a derogatory term

3:26

for Christ, and father Christmas.

3:31

I woke in the morning and I saw through his

3:33

disguise. And of course, you

3:35

know, he's being a little clever. Because he

3:38

needs this whole dream of Christmas

3:40

of both of those two things. Of

3:42

course, he feels cheated when you mix

3:45

truth with falsehood when you mix

3:47

the birth of the savior of the world

3:50

with this version of,

3:52

you know, a fat man who flies

3:54

around the world bestowing gifts on everyone.

3:57

I once had a client say to me,

3:59

I hate that fat man because every year

4:01

he breaks the bank. Because

4:03

every year she was struggling buy

4:06

this dream of Christmas that's being sold

4:08

to her so she can sell it

4:10

to her children essentially. When

4:13

he says, they saw me the dream of Christmas.

4:15

We have to ask ourselves at what point

4:17

in my life did I willingly buy this dream?

4:20

I really feel like the song really

4:22

captures that feeling of emptiness,

4:24

that you're sold this stream of

4:27

joy and hope and instead you're left

4:29

with this empty feeling.

4:33

I'm Bob Harris. I'm a broadcaster with

4:35

BBC Radio two. And

4:38

at the time that

4:40

I believe in Father Christmas made

4:42

the charts in nineteen seventy five,

4:44

I was the presenter of

4:47

the BBC television music show,

4:49

The Old Grey was a test. There's

4:53

something slightly mysterious

4:55

about the record in that. Okay.

4:57

Is it pro Christmas? Is

4:59

it anti Christmas? Does it talk

5:01

about the commercialization of Christmas?

5:04

Is it a song that speaks

5:07

fondly of Christmas? It's sort

5:09

of all these things. It's not anti

5:11

religious. It's a humanist

5:13

thing, I suppose. But

5:16

also the video, it was intercut

5:18

with images from the Vietnam War.

5:20

And of course, the shadow of the Vietnam

5:23

War was still clouding

5:26

the early part of the seventies.

5:29

So it gave the

5:32

listener several different

5:34

aspects as to what the meaning of

5:37

the song could be. It

5:39

got to number two. It was

5:41

kept off the top of the charts at

5:43

the time. By Bohemian Rhapsody

5:46

by Queen, the people

5:48

all around Craig at the time

5:50

that I believe in father Christmas came

5:52

out, felt that the Hemirapoody

5:55

wouldn't stay long in the

5:57

charts, certainly wouldn't prevent

6:00

him from reaching number one in

6:02

the charts. But of course, it did.

6:04

And it stayed at the top 4, I think, it was

6:06

eight weeks. So I believe

6:08

in father

6:09

Christmas, peaked at number two.

6:11

I still remember the writing

6:13

of it. When he sat in his

6:15

big leather armchair, he lived in London.

6:18

A big fire uprising in the

6:20

England 4 place. And

6:22

it starts with the Qatar piece that everybody

6:25

remembers to to have it on

6:27

have an off piece. But

6:29

what it is actually is an exercise from

6:32

his guitar teacher.

6:34

He played this thing, which was sort of stuck in

6:36

his head, which is part of his

6:38

guitar training. Very

6:40

Christmas Eve. There's a Christmas

6:42

thing to it. Sit there trying to

6:44

cover some words for this

6:52

I love the guitar playing on this record

6:55

that I honestly really do. And

6:57

it's not just the cascading.

7:00

It's not just the

7:03

formation of the chord

7:05

itself that's so attractive. But

7:07

it's also the tone of

7:09

Greg's playing he seems

7:11

to be almost sort of crushing

7:13

the strings. The tuning

7:15

of the guitar is very interesting

7:18

because Greg turned the bottom

7:20

string from an

7:22

e down to d, and

7:24

then that created the cascading

7:27

rift that that so attractive.

7:30

They sold me a dream of

7:32

Christmas. They

7:34

sold me a cyanide They

7:38

told me a very

7:41

solid. Should I

7:43

leave in the Israel

7:45

light? The rest would

7:47

took me quite a long time. A couple of months

7:49

relief to write the rest of the quite complicated

7:51

lyrics, but they're all based upon

7:54

my mother. One

7:56

Christmas, I remember it well. Why

7:58

would we had a German housekeeper? And

8:01

she used to do things like Advent's calendars.

8:03

I still remembered the Christmas tree

8:06

because my mother and sister had me a real big

8:08

Christmas tree with real candles.

8:10

But I still remembered the

8:12

excitement of going down the

8:14

stairs and finding

8:16

my presence under the tree and the

8:18

excitement within the house we

8:20

really did celebrate it. It

8:26

does really take you back to being a kid.

8:32

Lyrics like the rise full of tinsel and

8:34

fire, you know, the excitement in

8:36

the magic that is kind of in the lyrics.

8:40

I'm Emma. I work as a physiotherapist

8:43

under team manager. I believe

8:45

in father Christmas by Greg Lake is something that

8:47

I've had a connection to since childhood.

8:50

The most

8:53

prominent memory was singing it at

8:55

school. Looking

8:58

back, it seems like a really strange

9:00

scent for small children to see.

9:05

But it was very exciting to

9:07

get a couple of lines in the song and

9:09

to sing in front of your family and things

9:11

in a school concert. I

9:16

think I've always had problems with my

9:18

mental health, everything that

9:20

that kind of happened to me when from

9:22

a a traumatic point of view growing up

9:25

has led to the poor mental

9:27

health problems that I've had in the past

9:29

certainly. I

9:31

was sexually abused for my

9:33

whole childhood as far back as I

9:35

can remember, but

9:37

it was somebody that wouldn't there at Christmas.

9:40

So Christmas was safe. It was

9:42

kind of a time where the

9:44

risk of of harm for me was

9:46

low. I could have

9:48

an amount of time where I wouldn't even have to

9:50

worry about

9:50

that. And certainly, when my grand was

9:53

around, I could sleep in my grand's room,

9:55

so it's kind of double safety, I

9:57

think, knowing that had the people that I

9:59

looked very close to me and

10:01

also kind of having

10:02

Christmas. Everything was good, I

10:05

think, at that time of year. Lead

10:08

in fall of Christmas.

10:10

I look to the sky

10:12

with excited eyes

10:14

that I won't are y'all

10:16

in the first light of y'all,

10:18

and I saw him use

10:21

disguise. Listening

10:23

to the song, especially now as an

10:25

adult. You kind of hear the the pain

10:27

in this song, that experience

10:29

of of excitement versus pain.

10:33

It's the same juxtaposition that I

10:35

feel of my emotion of

10:37

having that excitement and the

10:39

magic of Christmas then actually there's

10:41

also this painful side believing

10:43

in something and having this hope and

10:45

this childlike experience of

10:47

Christmas versus the reality

10:49

or the fact that for some people

10:51

Christmas isn't magic.

10:59

the is so it's on. But

11:02

when the choir and everything comes in at the

11:04

end of the song, it's so huge

11:07

and that the scene had a new

11:09

year's and the Christmas bell we were

11:11

playing. So we'll take all the good bits of

11:13

Christmas and sort of play them in the background.

11:15

Whilst we could have a cynical and

11:17

melancholy over the front of the

11:19

sun. I

11:28

believe in father Christmas was

11:30

a part of Greg's solo contribution

11:34

as Emerson Lake apartment always

11:37

laced all their music. With

11:40

classical music. And their knowledge of

11:42

classical music was also much

11:44

greater than a lot

11:46

of people at the time gave them credit it for

11:48

4 felt, I think, that

11:50

ELP were kind of exploiting the

11:52

classical music that they were

11:54

using within their songs.

11:57

But I don't think that's true.

11:59

And the

12:01

idea of using a

12:03

procofiev piece in

12:06

the middle of, I believe, in

12:08

Father Christmas. It works

12:10

beautifully. And now when you

12:12

listen to that piece separately, all

12:14

you think about is Christmas because it has such

12:16

a Christmas feel to it. It's

12:24

called troika. And troika

12:27

is the word for

12:29

a sledge which is pulled

12:32

by three horses. It

12:34

came out in nineteen thirty four,

12:36

I believe, when it was first published

12:39

as a piece of music. How

12:42

apt to match it with this

12:44

song because it expresses it

12:46

so beautifully. There was

12:49

not the guarantee that when

12:51

you lace a

12:53

Christmas single with classical music, that

12:55

that's really gonna propel it up the

12:57

charts. In fact, if anything, it's likely to hold

12:59

it back because because you're asking a

13:01

little more of the audience than

13:03

if you're just telling them to repeat

13:05

the line, Mary, Christmas, everyone.

13:07

It's a different intellectual exchange

13:10

that's going on between this record and its

13:13

audience. To

13:17

complicate yourself. And

13:19

what the easiest thing to do is

13:22

get it to come back

13:24

again. It starts well enough which is a

13:26

tune and the lyrics say everything

13:28

you should do in the first two lines that I

13:30

have to think of things to do, which

13:32

are equally christmasy and

13:34

yet have the right

13:36

feeling to him. And that was quite

13:38

tricky to do. And then

13:40

when we you went and borrowed the

13:42

classical bit in the middle, which

13:44

this is sort of lifted up to be something

13:46

bigger again. I think it Once

13:51

we put that in there as well, we had

13:53

good of everything. We

13:55

recorded an Abby Road number

13:57

one which is a fantastic union,

14:00

but it's also enormous. But it

14:02

had to be enormous because we had a

14:04

sixty four piece choir and orchestra

14:06

in

14:06

there. That we're all gonna be live

14:08

and recorded live. The whole thing is recorded

14:10

live. It was an

14:13

incredible

14:13

session. They all

14:15

started playing, and then the

14:17

choir came in with the halo

14:19

produced in the art. And I just

14:21

collapsed in the corner of these studios

14:23

Such an amazing sound. It's

14:34

massively orchestrated, isn't it? It

14:36

has a sense of real sense of

14:38

kind of light and shade. It

14:40

builds. It reaches a

14:42

massive crescendo. It's

14:44

complex in that respect.

14:46

I really love it. It just

14:48

fitted with kind of musical

14:51

scene, the pushing out of the barriers that

14:53

we'd experienced over that previous

14:55

few years. Where people

14:57

weren't afraid to experiment with

14:59

production. You know, they weren't

15:01

afraid to bring in orchestras.

15:04

It was just part of the expression of

15:06

everything at the

15:07

time. The

15:11

journey to adoption was

15:13

quite traumatic for us.

15:15

We'd had three lots of

15:17

IVF that didn't work. Then

15:20

I got pregnant naturally then

15:23

I miscarried, then I

15:25

lost my father. And

15:27

the process is that every time there is

15:29

a trauma in your life an adult.

15:33

You are required to go

15:35

through a period of grief

15:37

and loss and assess

15:39

all of that. That's

15:42

really how we ended up in Morocco

15:44

because we've chosen to go away

15:46

for the Christmas of

15:48

two thousand fine. One

15:51

of my elder

15:53

brothers had recently

15:55

had a baby and they already had one

15:57

child and I knew it was gonna be a

15:59

big family Christmas with

16:01

babies around that made it very

16:03

difficult for me to deal with. I

16:06

didn't want to impose my

16:08

emotions on a

16:10

family who were celebrating the

16:12

birth of that My name

16:15

is Joe Goroflow. I am the

16:18

creative director for voice in a

16:20

million. I'm an adoptive

16:22

mom of two children and

16:24

I work for adoption UK. When

16:27

I look back, I think we

16:30

ended up in Morocco for a reason.

16:32

My dad worked in the Middle East

16:34

for most of my sort of childhood. He

16:37

saw me go through three lots of

16:39

IVF and the third lot of

16:41

IVF. He begged me

16:43

to not do this and put myself through it

16:45

and adopt instead.

16:48

And sadly, he didn't live

16:50

to see as a doctor Sam That

16:52

was the first thing that struck me that I

16:55

was meant to be in that place.

16:59

The orphanage was up a really

17:02

really steep hill. We went

17:04

through the bottom floor fast, which

17:06

was all children up to the age

17:08

of

17:08

five. And then we went into the baby's

17:11

room.

17:11

And Sam's Cott was

17:13

the very last one on

17:16

on the left. So he was like the last child

17:18

I saw. Naima, who

17:22

ran the orphan at the

17:24

time followed us

17:26

round. And when we got to Sam's court,

17:28

she lifted him up and said this

17:30

is the one for you. The

17:32

minute I held him, I

17:34

felt this like massive rush of

17:36

love that I'd never experienced 4.

17:38

At that stage, we

17:41

didn't know what was going to

17:43

interfere with the journey and a battle

17:45

to get to bring him home,

17:47

but was still the best day of my life.

17:54

Robin and I have been

17:56

involved in the entertainment industry for a really, really long

17:58

time, both of us are entire careers.

18:01

We had done the

18:03

35th anniversary tour

18:05

for the yes, with

18:07

Greg Lake and John Anderson and

18:09

Rick Wakeman. So people like

18:11

Greg had sort of been on

18:13

this journey with us And

18:15

we returned from Morocco,

18:19

we had this desire to

18:21

do something that

18:23

would highlight the need for

18:25

a change in

18:27

the adoption system and the adoption

18:30

process, the duration for

18:32

children to be placed and

18:34

for families to be

18:36

assessed. So we

18:38

decided that we would get in

18:40

touch with the British Association of

18:42

adoption and fostering about us doing

18:44

a concert and we would raise

18:46

awareness. And so my

18:48

husband developed a musical

18:50

which we called the orphan's Christmas

18:52

wish. And so, of course, Greg

18:54

being a friend, Robert,

18:57

approached Greg and

18:57

said, can we use, I believe, in

19:00

far the Christmas? And he was

19:02

like, absolutely.

19:04

And Greg came in and we did a track

19:06

and we got some children in

19:08

and recorded and all the school children

19:10

that took part in that

19:12

show, learnt the chorus section of I

19:15

believe in Father Christmas, and that's how

19:17

that became part of that show.

19:29

Back in the

19:32

mist of time in nineteen sixty

19:34

eight when we were all proper hippies, I

19:36

had a child, a daughter,

19:39

and I was just becoming successful in one thing and

19:41

another and not getting on too well

19:43

with the mother. And we put her

19:45

up for adoption. I thought it

19:47

was better. She would go off to a nice

19:50

middle class family and be properly brought

19:52

up and like being brought up by

19:54

me and to a circle of

19:56

musicians and near the wells I moved

19:58

in. And so we gave her

20:00

away. But recently, she

20:02

went to an agency and she

20:04

found me. Which was

20:06

fantastic.

20:17

So I am Nikki, and

20:20

I am Peterson Fields

20:23

daughter. Could say long last daughter. I

20:26

got curious, I suppose. I

20:29

had a very conservative, small

20:32

sea, upbringing. And

20:34

there's a bit of me that is

20:36

much more Bohemian in my character.

20:38

And as I got older, the

20:40

differences between me and my adopted

20:44

mother became more

20:46

obvious. I

20:49

already knew my mother's name,

20:51

but actually didn't know my father's

20:53

name, then starts the

20:55

story of realizing who

20:57

my father was. They said there'll

21:00

be snow at Christmas.

21:04

We've gone down to London. It was my son's twenty

21:07

first birthday, and we'd

21:09

gone to Ronny Scots because both of my

21:11

children are musical. And

21:13

I was carrying around this information

21:16

as to my

21:18

father was Peter Simfield and his

21:20

name sounded vaguely familiar to

21:22

me and I was thinking, you know, was he a famous

21:24

photographer? Wasn't sure.

21:26

We stayed in a hotel overnight, and

21:28

first thing in the morning is this was really

21:30

playing on my mind. So I actually

21:33

got my phone and I I googled

21:36

basically, up pops, all

21:38

this information. And

21:40

my first thought was, well, it can't be

21:42

him. And as I started to read

21:45

through, details of his life

21:48

actually started to match the details that I'd

21:50

been given by the adoption

21:51

agency. So at that point,

21:54

I think I shrieked a bit

21:56

loudly and won't my

21:58

husband up who was next to

21:59

me. And and said I think I my

22:02

father. They sold me

22:04

a dream of Christmas.

22:06

And from that moment, it

22:09

was a though I looked in the mirror and I

22:11

saw myself differently. You

22:13

told me. Not only of have you found

22:15

your father, but you are the daughter of

22:17

somebody who is

22:19

incredibly creative, very

22:22

Bohemian, still, and definitely

22:24

was then. Him and my birth mother

22:26

did the hippie trial. So started

22:28

to tick all the boxes

22:30

in my character and not only

22:32

mine as well, it started to answer

22:35

questions about the boys. I've got two

22:37

boys. One of them writes

22:39

songs. The other one has

22:41

set himself up as an independent

22:43

producer, and it was just like oh my goodness.

22:45

It was like a jigsaw piece actually falling into

22:48

place. So we answered so

22:50

many questions about who I

22:52

was. And then I got a phone call

22:54

from my social worker saying, I should speak

22:56

to Peter and Peter would like to meet me. I

22:59

saw me dream of

23:01

Christmas. We met

23:03

and

23:04

we met in a in a restaurant.

23:06

It was

23:07

very easy and we

23:10

have so much e como. didn't

23:12

stop talking.

23:16

The Christmas. The

23:20

Christmas song. The Christmas song has been

23:22

very interesting because my

23:24

husband is not a musician by

23:26

trade, but likes to dabble in sound

23:28

recording and plays

23:30

guitar. So every year,

23:32

we do some kind of charity

23:34

thing normally, often in in the

23:36

local church, you know, with other musicians.

23:39

And Paul would actually play

23:41

Peter's song as his

23:43

party piece. Couldn't

23:46

quite believe that my father

23:48

actually wrote that song. It was quite

23:49

incredible, actually.

23:51

He had played a role in our

23:54

life. And unbeknownst to us would play more

23:56

of a role in our life as we look

23:58

forward. 4

24:11

think the beginning of that song every

24:13

year that I hear it, it's iconic.

24:17

You know as soon as that

24:19

song starts. What song it

24:21

is. That just gives me like

24:23

tingles. I think it's so

24:25

intertwined with our story.

24:27

And spending weeks and

24:30

nights on the road with people like

24:32

Greg and Rick and John was an

24:34

amazing experience and amazing part of

24:36

my life. But then to have

24:38

him agree to

24:40

put that song within a piece of work

24:42

that we did post being

24:45

a family. I think a bit history that I hope

24:47

my kids will talk about when I'm not here

24:49

and tell their grandchildren about.

24:55

And that they'll probably

24:55

smile and they're here at the beginning

24:58

of, I believe, in father Christmas

25:00

every year.

25:01

Think it'll be played every Christmas forever

25:04

long after we're here. I've

25:08

had

25:08

a very fortunate life

25:11

and wonderful, certainly wonderful adopted

25:14

mother. So it was never two male and

25:16

coolly. There was always questions

25:18

though, which I think the song

25:20

in the middle of a song, there there are questions.

25:22

There's that one lyric. It just

25:24

kept on raiding, avail of tears,

25:27

for the virgin birth, and I love that. And it's just

25:29

like, you know, you promised snow and why

25:31

isn't it snowing. It it's just

25:33

still raining and it's measurable

25:35

I wish

25:38

you a hopeful Christmas. I

25:40

wish you a brave new year.

25:50

That is really

25:52

for me what Christmas is about.

25:55

It is about hope and it's about

25:57

being brave and about

25:59

the goodness that people can do, and

26:02

I think that sometimes, especially

26:04

with OCD or anxiety or other

26:06

mental health problems as well, I imagine,

26:09

there is this fear of the world

26:11

and that people are

26:13

bad, and the world's a bad place.

26:15

But actually, they're

26:17

not. There's some great people in the world. And I think

26:19

those lyrics in particular kind of ending

26:21

on that hope is certainly the

26:23

message to me that I

26:25

take with

26:26

me. Even rice at the end, there is a

26:28

a softening of the stance.

26:31

But the idea that

26:33

you get the Christmas you deserve

26:35

chimes with me

26:38

about the idea of karma.

26:40

So what that year has been to you

26:42

is now expressed in the kind

26:44

of Christmas that rounds off that year.

26:48

I like

26:51

the end. The idea

26:55

that you read what you sow, I

26:59

like the idea. That

27:02

things will be okay in the end.

27:11

I

27:13

feel my life has a happy

27:16

ending, and it was also a

27:18

new

27:18

beginning. At beginning of

27:22

getting to know somebody who

27:24

I almost felt I'd known all my

27:26

life. Coming

27:31

full circle like the

27:33

song. Praise

27:40

see.