From Wick High School's class of 1980 to a class Christmas banger
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A Wick man shared his jaunty Christmas song and talked about the heady days of the late 1970s when he went to see live bands at the former Rosebank Hotel.
David Cormack, aka Corky, lives in Aberdeen but his roots are in Wick where he lived with his parents on Sinclair Terrace and attended Wick High School. His seminal musical influences are also firmly embedded in his experiences of visiting the town's now defunct Rosebank Hotel (aka The Roser) that stood on Thurso Street and was run by by the late Alistair Sutherland.
"It was back in 79-80 when Alistair Sutherland would have local bands and bring up other rock bands to play there," reminisced Corky.
"I can rabbit on for hours about how listening to rock bands playing at the Rosebank Hotel on Saturday nights was a formative influence on my musical taste and one that has not been forgotten despite the demise of The Roser – High Society and Blue Whin being two key bands to namecheck. Loads of old farts from our era will still remember those names.
"There was one band from Iceland that had a chorus `Radio Iceland - Reykjavik! Reykjavik!' and that line still sticks in my mind. It was a nice simple, repetitive and catchy sound. That was the formative piece, the catchy hook, that stayed in my head for 40 years and helped when I was putting the song together."
The song Corky refers to – in the spirit of most festive hits – has a simple and easy to remember title, 'A Rocking Christmas Ceilidh', and was recently released by the band that he plays bass guitar in called Alba Tudashi. It contains a very catchy and slightly sardonic chorus line with its "Yo Ho Ho, Santa's on his way, have a very merry Christmas Day!" and the feeling is that Corky's tongue was firmly embedded in his cheek when he came up with that gem.
The jaunty melody is picking up traction across social media with many sharing the well-crafted video which contains a parody moment based on Queen's Bohemian Rapsody. One YouTuber said, "Good fun and catchy - I 'm feeling Christmassy now! Thanks for spreading the joy" and another commented, "Great little song here. Nice job! Strong bass line too".
Though he deftly handles the bass guitar throughout A Rocking Christmas Ceilidh, Corky recalls that, back in his Wick days, he was more into listening to rock bands than playing in them.
The 61-year-old was more into playing sports, such as cricket, volleyball and badminton, in his spare time and admits that he only started playing guitar after he had left his home town to work as a roustabout on North Sea oil rigs. Corky initially went to university to study "pure science" but it didn't work out for him and he much preferred the "hard, physical work" he encountered on the rigs along with the roustabout lifestyle.
"I picked up the guitar when I was offshore and heard my boss, a crane operator called Rab, and thought I could do that. I went to see him gigging in Airdrie and I swung in past the music shop in Glasgow and picked up an acoustic guitar. That was the first I started in around 1983/84."
A chance discussion with a member of Cults Tennis Club this year led to Corky hooking up with drummer Craig and that was the genesis of A Rocking Christmas Ceilidh. One jam in and Corky decided it was time to fulfil a decades old dream of recording a Christmas single.
Corky knew the perfect person to add vocals – a local lass called Anna Matheson who was a music graduate from Aberdeen University. After bouncing things around between the five of them for a few months, Captain Tom's Studio in Aberdeen was booked in early August and the five band members – Anna Matheson, Craig Swinburn, Graham Chalmers and Barry Carroll – finally got together for the first time and the song was laid down. Rab sadly passed away several years ago but gets an equal writing credit with the rest of the group on A Rocking Christmas Ceilidh.
"The reception has been great. We were interviewed for the radio DJ for the Northsound Breakfast Show and he said it was a great Christmas song. I know people who hear it for the first time and 20 minutes later can sing the tune. It's a bouncy, light and frivolous Christmas tune that will cheer you up.
"Next step is to get it coming out of radios as the sound of Christmas 2023!"
More info including download links and merch for sale can be found on the band's website at: albatudashi.co.uk/
You can also email Alba Tudashi: albatudashi@outlook.com
Reader Fiona MacLellan emailed an interesting update to this article to say that the band from Iceland that Corky refers to was actually from Inverness and called Those Intrinsic Intellectuals. She added: "Radio Iceland was the only single they ever put out. The reason I know this is because the lead singer is my friend's brother and we all got copies of the single!"
