Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Tonight's Concert in the Malvern Arms

I've always liked the song. There's something slightly operatic about the interplay of Shane McGowan and Kirsty MacColl. My younger daughter, however, loathes it with a vengeance. When she was a student in Dublin, she worked in a very busy place called Cafe en Seine. In the run-up to Xmas, that song was on an almost permanent loop. It drove her nuts, and even now, many years later she can't stand it.

I do like the whole story of how Kirsty MacColl got to sing the female part. Originally, it was meant for Cait O'Riordan, with whom they made a few unsuccessful recordings of the song. She then left when the band fell out with producer Elvis Costello (with whom she was an item at the time). When the band returned to recording the song, initially in the absence of a female vocalist Shane McGowan was singing both the male and female parts. The new producer, Steve Lilywhite, offered to get his wife Kirsty MacColl to lay down a vocal for it at his home studio. The rest, as they say, is history.