Something for the weekend…
Well-known Christmas songs can’t fail to get most people into the festive spirit.
But this is especially the case for their composers who earn enough through royalties during the festive period to fund their pension.
Bob Heatlie, who wrote ’Merry Christmas Everyone’ for Shakin’ Stevens, told the Sunday Times: “It’s a nice little pension. I think I was one of the last people to get my foot in the door in regards to writing Christmas songs; they’ve not been the same since.
However, speaking on Radio Four’s Today programme, Roy Wood, who wrote Wizzard’s hit ’I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday’ said that the invention of downloads and subsequent drop off in sales meant he has had to rethink his plans to use the song’s royalties to fund his pension.
Maybe auto-enrolment will soon benefit Christmas songwriters too.