The Saw Doctors Go 'Downtown' For a Christmas Number One

Published on Campus.ie on 6 Dec 2011.

After filming the video for their new single, Downtown, the Saw Doctors had a new destination to aim for - the Christmas number one.

The campaign to make The Saw Doctors ft. Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ a Christmas Number One was started by Ray Foley who championed the single on his lunchtime show on Today FM.

Last year, we almost had an Irish song for the Christmas number one, when the Rubberbandits had the whole country insulting each other’s cars, and bragging about the ‘horse outside’.

This year Ireland is back with a bang, now that the popular Irish group have teamed up with renowned artist, Petula Clark, to do a take on her 1965 hit, Downtown.

Pic: Google Images

The video for this song was filmed in our very own Galway city. If anyone was around on the 9 and 10 November, you may have seen the Saw Doctors running around Shop Street, High Street and Quay Street.

The video is produced and directed by Eugene O’ Connor, who also directed Irish classics, Father Ted, and Kilnascully. The video can currently be seen on The Saw Doctors’ Youtube channel, and after a week on the internet, it has already clocked up over 35,000 views.

The song has been a favourite of the band’s for a long time now, and has received such a great response from their audiences that they decided to record it.

On approaching Petula Clark, they found that she would be more than delighted to record a duet with them, and she has also recently filmed her own part of the video in the city of Paris.

The Saw Doctors’ will have a difficult journey to the top, with contenders such as Nirvana’s ‘Teen Spirit’ to compete with, not to mention the X-Factor winner, but if more people join the campaign, Ireland may stand a chance of getting the most coveted number one spot of the year.

The X-Factor winners have been ruling the Christmas charts in Ireland and Britain since 2005 - with the exception of 2009 when Rage Against the Machine beat Joe McEldery to the top with ‘Killing in the Name’. Perhaps its time for a change.

The song will be available for download on 9 December, so get behind The Saw Doctors and let’s get Ireland a Christmas number one.

6 Dec 2011

by Jessica Thompson