The Southsea Alternative Choir had a very successful Christmas, raising just under £1,500 for Samuel’s Fund, a local cerebral palsy charity. With Christmas 2012 ten months away, the local octet already intend to up the ante by releasing their own version of The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’, which proved a highlight of the band’s set of indie/alt rock classics, which also included covers of tracks by David Bowie, Brian Wilson, Primal Scream, Bob Dylan, Blur and The Band.

The Southsea Alternative Choir have launched a Fairytale of New York website, which they will embellish as the year goes on. The choir is led by Southsea photographer Stuart Scott and also features the talents of Adam Collier; former Bluesky Research trio Charlie Waddington, Sam Richards and Matt Gill; former Kid Idiot duo Sam Davidson and Ashley Till; and former Ricky singer Jim Lines.

The Southsea Alternative Choir will record ‘Fairytale of New York’ later in the year, but in the meantime you can see the band performing the track outside The Belle Isle, mid-way through an epic six-hour session of drinking and busking that culminated in the band gate-crashing Little Johnny Russell’s one Saturday in December.