Fili once texted me out of the blue and said "what's that sleigh driver all about in the Shakin Stevens official Merry Christmas Everyone video?" It was something that had been troubling me for years as well.
There's a couple of things about the video that are worth noting. Firstly, about 1 minute in, Shaking Stevens shakes the snowman's hand very enthusiastically. I guess the snowman mustve said "I'll send you those rare Elvis '55 demo tapes when I get back home after I melt in the thaw". Secondly Shaking Stevie reaches over and nearly puts his arm round the female sleigh driver but at the last minute decides against it. Still, the two of them drive off into the dark while Santa and all the kids wave them on. Where they are going in temperatures of -10c nobody knows, except the shakester.
There's a few other tv appearances from Shaking Stevens around this time singing this song. Mostly he's wearing a jumper from the bottom of the donation pile in Oxfam and doing a very energetic dance in a pair of Farrahs. He looks utterly bored but he's a compelling performer because you spend all your time thinking how close or far from Elvis he really is.
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