East 17 – And How!
Being a lover of all things Christmas, I find that there are not many things that help to get me in the festive mood more than a good sing along to some of the classic tunes that we hear on the radio every December. Some are downright sentimental, some a little bizarre (who can forget Sausage Rolls For Everyone by Ladbaby?!) but all of them aim to lift our mood and help us to think of the good times that so many of us have at Christmas.
One of my enduring favourites over the years has without doubt been Stay Another Day by East 17. Whilst not officially a Christmas song, it was released in November of 1994 and topped the charts that Christmas.
As a company, W. Uden & Sons has the community at its heart, and over the years we have been involved in all sorts of community and charitable giving and events. I am always thinking about different and fun ways to get involved in something for the benefit of others, and in recent years the germ of an idea grew in my mind which I finally acted on last year.
I came up with the idea of making a spoof version of “Stay Another Day” featuring my “unique” vocal talents, and those of my brother Jason and other members of the team at Udens. We had a brainstorming session consisting of several pints of Dutch Courage, and hatched the initial plans to hire a studio to record this rival to Band Aid.
Without a moment to lose, we roared off in search of our costumes, and my colleague Lee, who knows his minims from his crotchets, set about ensuring that we wouldn’t end up in prison for copyright infringements over Christmas. Armed with everything that we needed for our masterpiece, we set in motion an avalanche of Christmas entertainment, the likes of which had never been seen before. And the rest, as they say, is history!
We had an absolute blast making the video for this song, but most importantly, we raised well over £1000 for the Demelza House children’s hospice, a charity that is very close to our hearts. Christmas is all about being with and remembering those that we love, and the lyrics of Stay Another Day are very poignant to many people this Christmas; Baby if you’ve got to go away, Don’t think I could take the pain, Won’t you stay another day? I’d urge you to cherish those that you love, and take every opportunity to let them know how important they are to you.
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Love always.
Matthew “Brian Harvey” Uden.
