Sam Fender on Winter Song cover: "I didn't want to do something crass and cr*p"

29 November 2020, 13:00 | Updated: 7 December 2020, 18:10

Sam Fender's debut album Hypersonic Missiles artwork — Sam Fender talks to Radio X about his emotional cover of Lindisfarne's Winter Song. Picture: Press

The Geordie singer-songwriter has talked about his cover of the Lindisfarne song, which he believes captures the unique message of Christmas this year.

Sam Fender has talked about his festive new track, which is a cover of Lindisfarne's Winter Song.

The singer-songwriter delighted his fans with the moving rendition of the song this week, which was written by the Geordie folk group's lead singer and songwriter, the late Alan Hull.

Asked what drove him to record the song, which features on the band's Nicely Out Of Tune album, he told Radio X's George Godfrey: "I wanted to do a Christmas song, but I didn't want to do something that was crass and cr*p.

"Winter Song is one of my favourite Christmas tunes and Alan Hall is one of my heroes [...] so I just wanted to do something that was close to home and close to my heart and that's why I picked it".

"If you listen to the song and the original track the lyrics are actually really poignant and relevant for the time," added the Play God singer. "It's basically a Christmas message of trying to be more empathetic about people who are worse off than you."

Watch the lyric video for the song below:

Sam Fender - Winter Song (Lyric video) | Collaboration with People Of The Streets

On the song's lyric video - which is a collaboration with homelessness charity, People Of The Streets, and incorporates photographs taken by the homeless - Fender revealed: "Obviously, homelessness is something that's gotten terrible over the last 20 years in this country and people who are going to be hit the worst over these lockdowns are the people on the streets and the homeless.

"So we got together with People Of The Streets [...] and I think it's sort of the first time you get to see the perspective of homeless people. You hear stats and statistics and you see the figures and it's horrible, but you don't actually see the human side of it.

"When you watch the video it's stunning and I was choking up the first time that I watched it. It's human and it makes it a lot more personal and a lot more close to home".

In tandem with the People of the Streets collaboration, Sam is also selling The Big Issue via his official webstore at www.samfender.com, on which he will appear on the cover.

All profits will go straight back to the magazine to be split between them and the vendors.