The Florin Street Band reached number 40 in 2010′s UK Independent Christmas Chart, and received airplay throughout the UK, Ireland and the USA.

The UK’s longest running breakfast presenter Tony Horne of Metro Radio, said, “I have done nearly 20 years of breakfast shows on commercial radio non stop. This is simply the best and indeed the only Christmas song since Pogues/Kirsty in 1985.”

“My Favourite Time Of Year” was written by composer Leigh Haggerwood. Disappointed by the demise of the Christmas Charts, Leigh set about writing an authentic, traditional style song that would include all the elements of a true Christmas Classic.

We grew up in a time when everyone really looked forward to the charts on Christmas day, but the magic has gone, partly because of the way the music industry has changed over recent years. However, with last years Facebook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to Christmas Number 1, with downloads alone, it became quite clear to us, that people still do care about the much loved Christmas charts.

So we gathered together a collective group of musician friends to form The Florin Street Band. A festive bunch of 36 musicians in total from across the country, including the English Chamber Choir, with the sole purpose of re-capturing the true spirit of Christmas.

Leigh’s vision for the video was to create a Victorian winter wonderland, however most production companies would not entertain such a grand production idea with such a small budget. We were fortunate enough to discover director, Nick Barleet and his company Pixelloft, who were completely enchanted with the song and loved the idea for the video, so agreed to do the shoot. Meanwhile, American cinematographer, John Perez also heard about the project and loved the idea of shooting a Christmas video in a quaint English Victorian town, so he offered his services as Director of Photography. John has shot videos for Jay-Z, Beyonce, Coldplay and Alicia Keys, so it was incredible to have him work with us on re-creating Leigh’s vision. Budget was a big issue, but in true festive tradition, family and friends pulled together to create a magical winter wonderland of snow-filled streets and lanterns, just how Leigh had imagined. We chose Blists Hill Victorian Town at Ironbridge in Shropshire as our location. It’s a wonderful place, very authentic and was the perfect setting for our video. The result of a nights shoot is a truly amazing video that really captures the spirit of Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

www.florinstreet.com