As usual when in the UK I spent New Year’s Eve listening to Jools Holland’s “Hootenanny” show. I see it actually got to trend on Twitter this year, much to the confusion of people over the other side of the pond. Having said that though, a quick dip into the tweet stream showed that the majority of comments appears to be drunken idiots complaining because the musicians featured were old and/or ugly. It is getting to the stage where “don’t read the comments” applies to Twitter as well as blogs and online newspapers. Sturgeon’s Law, I guess.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I don’t have much time to keep up with music during the year, and I always find someone of interest on the Hootenanny. Here are a few highlights.

Firstly we have Rumer, who numbers Burt Bacharach amongst her fans. Listen to this and you’ll see, or rather hear, why.

Next up, the dance hit of the night, a wonderful folk band called Bellowhead. Here they are on a previous Jools Holland program performing one of the songs they did last night: “New York Girls”.

And finally, the Katzenklavier or cat piano. According to Wikipedia, the original instrument dates to 1549 when it was created using live cats as an “entertainment” for the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and his son, King Filipe II of Spain. The modern version, created by Henry Dagg for Prince Charles, uses plush kittens with carefully tuned squeakers and is much more humane. Here’s Dagg performing “Over the Rainbow”.

Please excuse the hysterical giggling in the background on that. It may well be Australians who have discovered the musician’s name.

And while it may indeed be very funny, if you attempt to recreate this along the lines of the original with live cats, the Internet will find you. As you should know, it is run by cats.