The Miserable Rich
'Everything You Wanted' b/w 'Stop The Cavalry' 7” single
Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club - SNOWFLAKE 3

The Miserable Rich's “Everything You Wanted / Stop The Cavalry” is one of four 7" singles released as part of the 2013 (and first) edition of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club.

The third single in the series sees Brighton chamber pop band The Miserable Rich bring us an uplifting original, 'Everything You Wanted', a happy song in which the string-based sound of the band is joined by a cheerful trumpet and swinging percussion. Singer James is out to buy a Christmas present for this lover - that perennial search for the perfect gift - he succeeds, and the song's climax finds him, present safely wrapped, relaxing with friends in the pub at the end of the day. A good way to spend Christmas Eve! On the flipside, The Miserable Rich turn the antiwar protest song 'Stop The Cavalry', written and made into one of the most loved Christmas songs from the early 1980s by Jona Lewie, into a melancholic chamber pop song.

The Miserable Rich started out in 2007: Will Calderbank (cello), Mike Siddell (violin) and James de Malplaquet (vocals), founding members of Brighton folk collective Willkommen, revisited some songs James had written, using cello and violin to play all the lead parts, much like a baroque chamber ensemble. Following some early radio plays of their dark, atmospheric cover of Hot Chip's Over and Over, The Miserable Rich released their debut album, 'Twelve Ways To Count' in 2008, to much critical acclaim (described as 'heartbreakingly beautiful' by NME) Two more albums followed, 2010's “Of Flight & Fury” and 2011's “Miss You In The Days”, an album inspired by ghost stories and their first album to feature drums. After four years of extensive European touring, The Miserable Rich went on an hiatus in November 2012, while Will and Mike toured the world as the string section for Mumford & Sons. Their contribution to the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club is their first new recording in two years and precedes their planned release of a live album and a collection of all their cover versions in 2014, and who knows: maybe even a new studio album too…