The London Christmas Covers Party 2026

featuring Alex Hale & The Private Sector, Binfire, Chandler D. Obelisk, Charley Stone, MJ Hibbett, Pink Opaque, Simon Love & The Old Romantics, and The Understudies & Friends - Quit Your Job Start A Band Presents THE CHRISTMAS COVERS PARTY (LONDON) 2026!We promised you we'd be back, and we are! The 2026 edition of the Christmas Covers Party (London) is going to blow your festive socks off, with a truly stacked bill of excellent performers and Christmas enthusiasts gathered under one roof. This year we are truly spoilt by some locals, some out of towners, some new faces and some old faces, but all of it adds up to an evening of fast moving Bethlemayhem!This year, alongside your compère for the evening Alex Hale, and DJ Paul Wright of Track & Field fame on the wheels of steel, we are THRILLED to welcome:BINFIRESouth-East London’s Binfire have the advantage of regularly including covers in their sets of sassy-punky-ska-ee rock, as well as being big fans of Christmas in general, but Nat, Franny, Jeremy and John tell us they’re preparing some extra special for this show.CHARLEY STONELocal legend, creator of a fantastic solo album and player with Salad, Sleeper, Desperate Journalist, Keith TOTP plus countless more, Charley's got form for covers as part of The Fallen Women and Joanne Joanne (look them up); you should be excited - we definitely are! ALEX HALE & THE PRIVATE SECTORAlex Hale & the Private Sector come to us as ambassadors from the distant north (aka the East Midlands) but they are no strangers to the world of Christmas Covers - regularly appearing as the de facto house band at the Nottingham incarnation. Comprised of 38-year-old child prodigy Alex Hale and a selection of more competent musicians who he was able to trick into backing him, AH&tPS are weird, wacky, and ready to rock your socks off.MJ HIBBETTMJ Hibbett has performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day on 6Music, released one of the first ever viral videos, written and performed in five musicals, produced a podcasts about kids' comics, and is the world's leading (and only) academic expert on Doctor Doom. Next year he's doing a book about Judge Dredd and an album with his new band Hibbett & Christopher, after which he plans to have a bit of a sit down.CHANDLER D OBELISKChandler D Obelisk took his name from a spam email while writing his first album for the RPM Challenge, early in 2007. For a dozen more Februarys he did likewise, aside from his bands the Bronx Hats, the Gresham Flyers, Telford Mining Disaster, the Horses of Instruction, and the BMJ house band. He's now a regular at East Grinstead open mics, trawling a back catalogue written largely in his teens.THE UNDERSTUDIES AND FRIENDSLondon's greatest lovers The Understudies return for their fourth go at Christmas Covers, and are ready to once again prove their point that the hits are what people want to hear. What's more, they're bringing some friends to help out. Their declared intention is to cover enough songs well enough that they can make a really good covers album. PINK OPAQUEFormed in 2024 in Sheffield, Pink Opaque comprise Danielle Cope (vocals) and Pete Green (all the other stuff). After kicking around the indiepop scene for years in The Sweet Nothings, the duo caved in to their lifelong love of electro pop and set out to combine the processes of writing, recording, producing and releasing music using a single laptop, while having as much fun as possible playing live. SIMON LOVE & THE NEW ROMANTICSImagine Randy Newman’s epic storytelling filtered through the Britishness of Ray Davies, with music that veers from mid-60s pop and country to ELO, served up in a style that bears similarities with a sardonic post Britpop Jarvis Cocker. After imagining all that, please lower your expectations and you won’t be disappointed by Simon Love. Simon Love plays songs about love, hate, death and chopping off his penis.You know the rules; eight bands are on the bill, each of which will perform three SUPER SECRET cover versions, each set more party than the last. All you have to do is show up and have a good time. If you want to dress for Christmas, you should. As always, all proceeds will be donated to charity, with the RNLI being the charity of choice for 2026. It's two Saturdays before Christmas, enough time to get merry and recover to do the big shop, so you'd have to be a Scrooge to miss it!