A song…For Christmas

Last year postie Luke Barker, from Scarborough Delivery Office, came second in our Sing into Christmas competition.

Now he hopes he has gone one better with the release of his festive song, writes Peter Kirby.

‘Instead of singing an established Christmas song, I thought I’d have a go at writing one myself about a postie’s experience of the festive season,’ said Luke. ‘I was really pleased with how the song, called For Christmas, turned out and thrilled when I won myself a bike.’

This year, Luke and his friend Chris Jones, who runs Beck View recording studio in Scarborough, decided to record the song properly.

‘The lockdown restrictions made this quite tricky,’ said Luke. ‘But we eventually managed to record, once we were able to, with the help of another brilliant friend, Adam Carpenter, who played piano, Hammond organ and drums on the track.

‘I even persuaded Chris to try recording my three young children doing backing vocals. They did a surprisingly brilliant job. We were working somewhat under pressure with the second lockdown looming but were delighted with how it came out.’

Luke then decided to make his own video to accompany the song.

‘I got some very funny looks wearing a Christmas hat in November, singing at a phone blu-tacked to my trolley!’ he said. ‘Fortunately, the sorting office scenes were completed before the wearing of masks became mandatory.’

Luke said his wife thoroughly enjoyed throwing confetti and ice cubes at him and pouring a watering can over his head as they filmed the ‘bad’ weather.

‘The best part was videoing an early Christmas day with my kids,’ said Luke. ‘Two of them have birthdays in December, so we wrapped their presents in Christmas paper. We also had a blast filming in front of an amazing light display. The lovely couple it belonged to even gave the kids some chocolate selection packs.

‘Somehow, Chris managed to cobble together the footage I gave him into a rather nice video,’ which you can view here. ‘I’ve received some really lovely feedback from friends and customers and can feel the appreciation for what we do coming through.

‘I wanted to dedicate the song to all my fellow posties, as we’ve had such a tough year. I hope it manages to bring a little Christmas cheer.’

For Christmas by Light Bulb, is now available from all good digital music providers direct and via http://ditto.fm/for-christmas.