If you were Christmas shopping in the south of England in 2014 you may have stumbled across three animatronic bears singing Christmas songs. Without realising, you would have been listening to the voices of Phoenix Studios.

Working in association with KD Decoratives, Shelley Aldred and Stuart Comins spent the summer of 2014 in a windowless studio creating the sounds of Mummy, Daddy and baby bear going through their repertoire of Christmas Classics.

The tracks produced were then used as the sound track and the movements of the animatronic bears were sequenced to make it appear that the bears were singing. This was used as a Christmas performance installation displayed in the Bentalls Centre, Kingston.

Here is an example of the results of those sessions “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”.

‘The Pirate Song’, below, was written, recorded and produced, in a week, by Phoenix Studios, as part of the contract negotiations with KD Decoratives as Pirate Songs suitable for children are hard to find.