We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Where Will the Nighted Showman Go?

from Run V​.​T. by Ian Evans

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1 GBP  or more

     

about

This is one of my favourite tunes from this collection. I love the rollicky rhythm and the guitar lick and it commemorates a really good few days - My first ever Christmas day in London and the days leading up to it; with a baby and wife (2012 - what a crazy year!)

lyrics

Question: Where will the nighted showman go?
Answer: To East Ham... and other places

Candlemass director's commentary
Amazing Slade evening on BBC3
Now Lidl's immitation Baileys starts my first Christmas with Liz and Toby

A lemon and milk I'm sent to buy
Toby smiles to all the passers by
The Denmark and the Ruskin Arms
Eight month old dancing to Jon Poole's pledge album
Kate Bush has won a CBE
Dance to it with Toby as Liz pre-cooks our first turkey
We’ve recently been dancing to a Stevie Wonder CD I bought specially
Kieron Leonard's records are recommended by J. Carty

So many Christmas treats for me
As I sort out Skype to chat to my family
Someone has uploaded the first Monsoon Bassoon clip I've ever seen

Christmas joy on the next morn
Master of Reality and iwrestledabearonce
Bucks Fizzes as recommended by Sealett
And smoked salmon bagels for breakfast

The last time I went to East Ham
A painful shallow latch and a Rush fan pack
A key ring of the Clockwork Angels clock
Collecting a breast-pump from Leytonstone
Wanstead actually being posh
I saw the West Ham market and castle turrets
The kill your wife sign is sexist in more than one way (which is rare)

The last time I walked along Green Street
On my first time alone in weeks
The Doctor Who shop showed me their stuff and remembered Liz
They have the actual hand of fear and Metebelis Crystal too
A real Foamasi and Kane's German helmet in a back room

References:

* "Where will the nighted showman go?" - This is a chapter title from The Box of Delights, a favourite Christmas story of mine. I previously referenced it in my other Christmas song (The Christmas Tape) and also used another of it's quirky chapter titles as a song title (Leave Us Not Little Nor Yet Dark)

* East Ham - A region of east London which is still traditionally working class and non-gentrified

* Candlemass - A Swedish doom metal band whose first album I enjoyed around this time. Their album has a director's commentary on it, which is hilarious

* Slade - Genius glam rock band of the 1970's. There's not much better in life than Christmas food and drink with that sort of TV on, in a warm house in winter

* BBC3 - A BBC youth/comedy channel

* Lidl - A cheap but really interesting supermarket, where we'd just started to shop in. It's German and has quite exciting stuff

* Imitation Baileys - Lidl sell a lot of food and drinks which are shameless copies of other brands, but just as nice or even better

* A lemon and milk I'm sent to buy - On the East Ham trip described in this song I was on a mission to buy these two items, for one of my wife's Xmas recipe plans

* The Denmark Arms and Ruskin Arms - Two pubs in East Ham. The Ruskin Arms is where Iron Maiden played many of their early gigs. Now sadly closed, which is mind-blowing short-sightedness by someone

* Jon Poole's pledge album - I'd just got the download of this pledge-funded rock album by former Cardiacs guitarist Jon Poole. It was perfect music to jump up and down too with a toddler, as we planned our Christmas

* Kate Bush has won a CBE - Yay! This happened at Christmas 2012. I love Kate Bush!

* Stevy Wonder - I love this musical genius and bought an album by him when Liz was pregnant, as I thought it would be music that a new baby could instantly respond to, and couldn't possibly give off any bad vibes

* As Liz is cooking our turkey - I was wrapping presents and dancing with Toby at the time, with Facebook open on another tab of the computer playing our music. Two exciting posts happened to come up...

* Kieron Leonard - A Frank Zappa-esque musician was recommended by...

* J. Carty - Jason Carty, one of the most talented people I've ever met, who played in the bands Geiger Counter, Foe, Art of Burning Water and Markers. A super nice guy as well

* The Monsoon Bassoon - An obscure but favourite band of mine. Amazingly, a live clip of them was finally made available on Christmas eve 2012, which I never thought I'd get to see. I'm actually in the video too, walking past the camera! So I suddenly saw myself on screen (aged 20 and much thinner)

* Skype - A free phone service on the internet, used mostly to call my Mum. It helped to make our Christmas to have them on the screen on Christmas day

* Master of Reality - Black Sabbath's most stoned album, which I got as a Christmas present

* iwrestledabearonce - Another band whose album Liz go me as a present. They're so much fun. I love what they do - They can take a lot of listens to realise how good they are

* Bucks Fizz - A Christmas morning drink my friend Vic recommended. When Liz and I discussed what our own Christmas routines should be I suggested it should involve me drinking as soon as possible (not entirely a joke)

* Sealett - One of my friend Vic's nicknames, as her surname is Peckett and her phone used to auto correct it to this nonexistent word

* Smoked salmon bagels - What Liz and I decided our Xmas breakfast should be

* A painful shallow latch - This is a reference to breast feeding, which is harder than you think and dominated our lives for a year

* Rush fan pack - Rush's album of the time (Clockwork Angels) was released as a fan pack with a free keyring, poster and magazine. I bought it and the album is amongst their best

* Collecting a breast-pump from Leytonstone - One of my dad missions involved collecting this device from a nurse, who lived in this district of London

* Wanstead actually being posh - I passed through Wanstead on the way to collect the breast pump and it seemed like a very bleak area of concrete and dirty A-roads. I later saw a different street there and it was revealed as a beautiful and very posh area

* West Ham market - This is actually next to Upton Park station and is a really traditional London market. One of the few still surviving

* Castle turrets - West Ham football ground is shaped like a castle

* The kill your wife sign - A laundry shop on Green Street has an old sign on it saying, "Don't kill your wife, let us do it". (The joke is supposedly that you shouldn't kill your wife with laundry work but let them do your laundry- Kind of sexist in both the "all wives need killing" and the "laundry is women's work" ways). However, I guess I don't exactly care that much about laundry and husbands and wives both wind each other up at times

* Green Street - The street where the West Ham football ground is. A film about football hooliganism is named after it

* My first time alone in weeks - Being a new dad is overwhelming in terms of work and isolation from friends. Going out to buy a lemon and milk was my first time outside work or my house for a few months and felt like incredible freedom!

* The Doctor Who shop - I love Doctor Who and often visit this memorabilia shop. It includes a small museum of old props. I visited with Liz when she was heavily pregnant and they remembered her

* The hand of fear - A prop which you can see there, from one of my favourite episodes

* The Metebelis Crystal - A Dr Who prop, which is key to several John Pertwee episodes. You can also see the actual prop in the Who Shop

* Foamasi - A lizard alien from the episode The Leisure Hive. (There used to be a good band in London called Leisure Hive, who all played matching black and yellow striped guitars)

* Kane's German helmet - In the episode Dragonfire, the bad guy Kane wears a spiked helmet, a bit like a German one from World War I

credits

from Run V​.​T., released August 4, 2015

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Ian Evans UK

Pop/experimental/rock musician and songwriter from London

contact / help

Contact Ian Evans

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Ian Evans, you may also like: