Welcome back to my corner. Apparently the last sentence of my previous entry - "I declare this series complete" - has sent ripples of dismay through the wider Lilac community. But a Top Ten has certain inviolable parameters which I am powerless to expand, and extending the series to fifteen, twenty, or even forty, would involve a rapid tailing-off of greatness in each consecutive moment. So, faced with requests for a cheery Christmas Lilac Time anecdote from bygone days I am quite at a loss. The Lilac Time always took a holiday at Christmastime.

There was of course the remix of Black Velvet with jingle bells and heavenly choir, which was not a seasonal number one in any territory. Certainly engineer Tony Phillips struggled with it, faced with a heavenly choir unable to finish singing the word "velvet" at the same time, which is why most of the voices on the recording are simply singing "velve". Phonogram made their customary contribution to the cultural gravity of the event by issuing a promotional copy of the CD in a black velvet bag with a Christmas card and a recipe for black velvet.

Then it was Christmas and we all took the week off. There were plans in place for the new year but they began to gang agley quite rapidly. The Old Smithy in Kempsey, Worcestershire, had been booked for the recording of the fabled Paradise Circus instrumental album, and Nick Waterhouse and Caroline Radcliffe turned up early to do new year's eve and run through a few tunes.

So that was all going according to plan until a) we were invited to do Pebble Mill at One and b) Stephen got called away to do a week of press. That fabled second disc might have turned out very differently if he'd played snare drum on every track, not just Shepherd's Plaid.

Pebble Mill was of course an unforgettable experience. Going into the building my violin bow got shut in the door and snapped, leaving me with an unruly hank of horsehair on a stick. Since we were miming this wasn't such a big deal, but the gaffer-tape only just held out through "You've Got To Love". Later I made a more permanent repair with bias binding and epoxy resin, which has held to this day.

After YGTL was Black Velvet. This called for some atmosphere, apparently, so the smoke machines were turned on. Every one of them - all set to "High Opacity Fog". TV screens across the UK turned grey as The Lilac Time were engulfed by a thick peasouper which teams of BBC operatives waving clipboards were powerless to diminish.

We left the BBC and went our separate ways again. Merry Christmas 1988 and a Happy new Year 1989.

And seasonal cheer to you all right now.