Many festive greetings from your faithful chums at Giovanni L'Immigrato headquarters. Bells are ringing, robins are singing, white stuff is falling all around... you know it's that festive time of year again! Here’s the low down on what we got up to over the festive period, jingle bells all round!
Our festivities started with our annual Giovanni Christmas dinner hosted by our mandolin wielding, formaggio loving, pastafarian extraordinaire Dario and his family. It was a cracking night where we exchanged some not-so-subtle secret Santa presents, played "guess the Giovanni song" (Buzzcocks style) and some of us went a little overboard on Jonny C’s homemade sloe gin...
Our Christmas gig was once again held at the Bath Brew House, we love playing here and it's always a smashing night - good times had by all! Thanks to Justin Towell for organising the evening (his last ever, end of an era!). We thumbed in a selection of Christmas covers; with Fairytale of New York being ever-popular, some rootin' tootin' Stop The Cavalry, a stomping version of Do They Know It’s Christmas (the original 1985 version of course) and Nic C belting out a spectacular rendition of All I Want For Christmas. Neil even got to play his melodica and xylophone in the same song and the sleigh bells also got their annual outing in Conor's sort-of-kind-of-capable hands. He's having a good time, that's the most important thing.
On Christmas day itself, all the band members left Bath to be with their respective families far and wide, venturing as far as Derby and even Lon-don. But it wasn’t long before we were all back and practicing in the gooch of the year for our NYE gig! Crucial preparations also included our annual nog-off, where band members competed to make the best egg-nog and be crowned nog champions of the room. Much to the displeasure of Murray, it looks like Neil was victorious once again, with blind taste tests leading more Giovanni members to sip from his creamy nog than other offerings. This year there was even a dairy-free entry which sadly failed to live up to hype, much to Sarah's disappointment.
Our New Years Eve gig at The Huntsman went down a storm, with some familiar faces and old friends in the crowd. We even managed to set up in enough time to let Nic time to tune her drums for the first time in months! We played a 2.5hr mega set which included a healthy mix of Giovanni classics, a brand new song from the back catalogue and some folky favourites grouped together in the setlist listed simply as "Onslaught in D". The fan favourite Country Roads even got a blast (sorry we're not quite at the techno version yet). Having already played our usual encore, the chants of "ONE MORE SONG" from the crowd prompted a rendition of Lonely Boy (throwback to bassist Sean's wedding earlier this year!) to finish. We saw in the new year back at the Chouler's residence, where the last remaining egg nog was polished off in sticky, noggy style.
One regret of the Christmas gigs this year was they we didn’t get time to debut our brand new and edgy Christmas Song "Christmas is Coming" – perhaps next year!
Nothing left to say now but to thank you all for your support over the years, we love and appreciate every last bit of it. So from all of us to all of you, here's to 2020!
Much love,
Giovanni x
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