Five smartly-attired gentlemen from the North, THE HOSTS have been smouldering away in the margins, buffing up the buttons on their waistcoats and waiting for their moment to shine. Earlier this year they released the terrific 'September Song' and 'Give Your Love To Her' singles, two raffish slabs of retro alt.pop which represented the missing link between Roy Orbison and Richard Hawley and which waltzed all over BBC 6 Music and Radio 2. Happily THE HOSTS have now signed with fierce panda for the release of their debut album which is due for release in February 2014. Before then there is seasonal fun to be had with their suitably chilled version of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ the Mariah Carey classic homage to The Ronettes which was originally released in 1994 and became the nineteenth-best-selling single of the decade, not to mention the best-selling holiday record of the ‘90s.

‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is available as a free download on December 16th, but you can see the Ski Sunday-themed video for it here:

THE HOSTS • ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU from The Hosts on Vimeo.

THE HOSTS make quite the perfect live guests, too: they've toured with Paul Weller, The Walkmen and Cold War Kids and played their broken hearts out with Richard Hawley, Cherry Ghost and other such sombre cats. But out of darkness comes euphoria, and so it is that THE HOSTS are preparing for the launch of their debut album which is called 'Softly, Softly' and is released on February 10th 2014. It will be big of soul. It will be broken of heart. It will be merry of melody. It will be.

DECEMBER 20TH SHEFFIELD SHAKESPEARE

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