Santa Claus Man: Leeds musicians aim to spread Christmas cheer with festive banger
A group of musicians are aiming to spread Christmas cheer with a re-working of one of their most popular songs.
Pudsey four piece Rollercoaster won a Radio Aire Award for their song Modern Man, a tune which was also considered for a Levi’s advert at the time and came 30th out of over 1,000 entries for UK Eurovision entry in 1998.
Fast forward to 2024 and three quarters of the band Jonathan Wormald (lead vocals and guitars), Stuart Place (bass) and Daniel Richards (drums and percussion, acoustic guitar) have come back together to rework the original track into a festive banger called Santa Claus Man.
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“We always felt musically we had unfinished aspirations. We chatted, the timing was right and we agreed on re-working one of our older songs,” Jonathan. “We chose Modern Man and came up with the idea of moving it on 28 years to going out last minute shopping for your partner or kids presents on Christmas Eve and being Santa Claus Man. Everybody can relate to that.
The song boasts a 1970s rock/pop feel and the lads brought in Calverley-based WASP Academy School of Performing Arts kids’ choir to add background vocals.
“We wanted to musically orchestrate it to the sounds of 70’s rock/ pop music we grew up with, this was a departure from the original Modern Man orchestration and arrangement,” explained Jonathan.
The track was recorded and mixed by Luke Haran of Prospect Studios in Bradford and is being released under Jonathan’s music pseudonym Dark Eyed J.
“We are extremely pleased with the outcome,” said Jonathan. “What was to be some fun and friendship has actually produced in our opinion, a really good Christmas song.”
The lads will be performing the song live at Pudsey Christmas Lights switch on ceremony on Sunday, December 1.
Jonathan said: “This will be the first time since 1998 Dan, Stu and I have performed live together and we will have the Choir, saxophonist with us and to keep it in the family have brought in Stuart’s son Ben on second guitar.”
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Rollercoaster was formed in 1995 with the addition of school friend Andy ‘Baz’ Barraclough who now lives in Australia. The band released a single, Commercial World, before going their separate ways in 1998.
* Santa Claus Man will be released on Sunday, November 17, and available via Apple Music and Spotify at the standard download rate. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal.