Stop the Cavalry

It’s about a bloke fighting in a war, wishing he could be home for Christmas. This song became a Christmas radio standard in the UK. It is set in the Front during the Great War where a soldier in a trench wishes he was home for Christmas. The context in which this anti-war song was written goes back to the time when there was an increase in tension between the American-controlled nuclear cruise missiles being stationed in the UK and the Soviet Union. There was renewed fear of another nuclear war. In an interview with Daily Express in 2005, Jona Lewie explained the meaning of the song, he said: “The soldier in the song is a bit like the eternal soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, but the song actually had nothing to do with Christmas when I wrote it. There is one line about him being on the front and missing his girlfriend: ‘I wish I was at home for Christmas.’ The record company picked up on that from a marketing perspective, and added a tubular bell. The song went to number three in the UK, and topped the charts in several European countries.” Lewie described the soldier in the song as being “a bit like the eternal soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. Cavalry and Churchill are mentioned in the lyrics, Churchill actually served as the First Lord of the Admiralty in the first year of the war before he served in the trenches. The song breaks with the First World War theme with references to nuclear fallout and: “I have had to fight, almost every night, down throughout these centuries”. That’s why the song’s video is set in the trenches of the First World War.

Release Date: December 8, 1980

Songwriter/s: Jona Lewie
Studio: Morgan Studios

Chart Rankings: In the UK, the song peaked t number 3 on the Official Charts Company and in Australia it reached number 2.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Jona Lewie was 33 years old when he released this song.
Cover Versions: Very few Youtubers covered this song.