ARE you still scratching your head about what to buy your loved one as well as your husband or wife this Christmas?

Socks and pants just don’t say how much you love them. A pair of fluffy slippers and a dodgy reindeer jumper not quite what they were hoping for?

How about five inches of solid rockin’ good times, with added guitar twangin’ psycho surfabilly? Yep, thought so… Then you need to get to the Lazy Lizard in Weymouth at midnight tonight for the launch of the Surfin’ Birds new five-track CD The Bird Stroll.

The band of Paul Sharod (guitar/vocals), Johnny Fingers (bass) Liam ‘The Kid’ Sharod (drums) and pin-up girl and dancer Pennie ‘Sonic’ Paige have been gigging regularly over the past year and recorded the tracks at Mike Hallett’s studio in Weymouth. Featuring three original songs (including the interestingly-titled Play With My Poodle) and two covers – a raucous version of Johnny Burnett’s Tear It Up being one of them – a copy of the CD can be yours for a mere five of your English pounds and is available at their gigs or at Rude Not To in Upper Bond St, Weymouth. It’ll cer-tainly make a welcome stocking filler, particularly if you have CD-shaped legs.

Now then, when it comes to Christmas songs, eight out of ten women surveyed said they liked Shakin’ Stevens. The other two thought Steven should shake his own.

My personal favourite festive choon at the moment is Danny and the Goosemen’s The Migration (I’m Coming Home) which is available on free download until the end of the year at www.soundcloud.com and search for the band’s name.

There’s also a video online on www.youtube.com which left this stone-hearted misery blubbing like a baby all over his Farley’s rusk this morning.

Go to the online version of this page at www.dorsetecho.co.uk/ leisure/music/ livemusicandclubs/ to see the film, but beware, have some tissues handy to dry your tears.

Right, that’s it for this week, I’m off to boil my sprouts.

Have a Happy Christmas everyone.