Girls Aloud have announced a vinyl and CD reissue for their festive album ‘Christmas ‘Round At Ours’.
The girl group first released the Christmas collection as a bonus disc with their third album ‘Chemistry’ in 2005, but now, with the holiday season on the horizon, they have revealed that it will be getting a full re-release.
The new version has a reordered tracklisting and includes a previously unreleased remix from the vault of ‘Not Tonight Santa’. It is available to listen on streaming services now, while the physical release will come on November 14 on CD and red vinyl – pre-order/pre-save yours here.
It sees the band covering the Christmas classics ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ by Slade and ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Wizzard, as well as the festive staples ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, and four Girls Aloud originals.
Kimberley Walsh has said: “Just as we were adding the finishing touches to what would become our ‘Chemistry’ album, our producer Brian Higgins had a wildcard last minute idea. As the album had been scheduled for a December release, how about we record some bonus Christmas tracks? Our record label loved the idea but went one step further and suggested we record a whole Christmas album which could be packaged with the main album as a strictly limited-edition deluxe format.”
Nadine Coyle added: “The day we photographed the front sleeve was the same day we were photographed for the main ‘Chemistry’ sleeve. When we walked into the photo studio it was like walking on to a film set – the kitchen scene you see on the front of the album was a set build and it looked so impressive, like something from a 1950s Hollywood movie. If you’d told us then than many years later the chosen image from the day would be celebrated by the National Portrait Gallery (which it did in Christmas 2023) we’d never have believed you!”
Nicola Roberts has said: “We decided to record four classic Christmas covers – and the Xenomania team were going to write four brand-new original Girls Aloud Christmas songs. There was only one issue – time. We had one week for the remaining new songs to be written and to record everything. Everyone went into festive overdrive. While we were recording the Christmas covers in the Xenomania studio (we picked ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ because it was in the movie Mean Girls), Miranda Cooper and Lisa Cowling spent a weekend in Devon writing lyrics to the four brand new Christmas songs.”
Cheryl added: “The new songs were all highly kitsch and sometimes ridiculous. The album
was always meant to be called ‘Christmas ‘Round At Ours’ – that’s why the Christmas TV
advert was themed “At home with Girls Aloud”, but it was decided it was too confusing to
give it a name of its own, as it would only ever be available as part of the ‘Chemistry’
album. Until now that is.”
Girls Aloud – ‘Christmas ‘Round At Ours’ tracklist:
- ‘Christmas ‘Round At Ours’
- ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’
- ‘Not Tonight Santa’
- ‘Jingle Bell Rock’
- ‘Count The Days’
- ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’
- ‘I Wanna Kiss You So (Christmas In A Nutshell)’
- ‘White Christmas’
- ‘Not Tonight Santa (Christmas Party Mix)’
In August, Girls Aloud released the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of ‘Chemistry’, while for BBC Children In Need last November, they released a new version of ‘I’ll Stand By You’, with the late Sarah Harding featuring exclusively on lead vocals.
Harding died from breast cancer in September 2021 after announcing her diagnosis to the public in August 2020. She was 39 years old. Girls Aloud revealed in late 2022 that they had raised more than £1million in funds for breast cancer charities over the past year.
