It’s time to ring in the New Year and there’s no better place than celebrating with Jools Holland, Mirror man Mark Jefferies can now reveal the secrets behind the celebrations
It’s 8.47pm and I’ve only had two bottles of beer but I am on my feet singing and dancing along without a care in the world. Others are arm-in-arm or hugging and a few people look a bit teary. In this make-believe world I have entered, it’s New Year’s Eve, and it’s midnight.
I celebrated 2026 before all of you, thanks to Jools Holland and a magical night in a dazzling West London TV studio on December 10. Jools Holland’s Hootenanny is as much part of the festive calendar as soaps and the monarch’s Christmas Day speech. Tonight is the 33rd time Jools will bring in the new year for millions.
Comedian Peter Kay even wrote about it in his latest book, saying that his mum still thinks it is live. My big question before going to Versa Studios was how do they create the party atmosphere which, it turns out, is as authentic as it looks on TV.
Guests are offered drinks at a free bar (rare for the BBC) and take their seats. Later, they are given glasses of prosecco to help celebrate “midnight” – about 30 minutes after the music starts.
Jools asks us to be quiet when the artists sing and cheer as loud as possible at the end. “If you feel the urge to dance and physically move, that is marvellous. Everyone is looking very beautiful and we’ve some incredible musical guests.”
This year’s bill includes Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood, Olivia Dean, Craig David, Lulu, Jessie J, The Kooks, Heather Small, Imelda May and the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.
Executive Producer Alison Howe says the mix of musicians is important and there are several versions of the running order and set list, which change before the final version on the day.
The other key thing is people who go along let themselves believe it is New Year’s Eve. She says: “You kind of enter into a magical world where you forget about what’s happening outside the doors.”
The show is also a big deal for lots of the musicians. Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard says: “It’s quite nerve-racking but in the best way. Hootenanny’s not just another gig, it’s THE New Year’s show. Everyone’s watching, hopefully everyone’s in a good mood, and you’re part of this moment that only happens once. It’s a proper privilege to be fair.
“And knowing you’re the soundtrack to someone’s night, maybe the song they’re kissing to at midnight or dancing round the kitchen with their nan and that means a lot to me. It’s quite touching when you think about it.”
After posing for a photo with me, Jools is off and doesn’t stop for the next three hours, greeting and chatting to A-list stars. Once the recording starts, he is introducing music, playing it himself on the piano and with his band or interviewing famous faces in the crowd. The only help he gets is from whiteboards with names or directions on, so that he can navigate a giant circle of bands, singers and guests.
When the recording is over, Jools tells me: “It’s a bit like a swimming pool you just throw yourself in and it’s all right, really, once the water’s OK and you start swimming, you keep the momentum going.
“You’re trying to remember what you’re playing on piano. When that finishes, you think what happens now? That’s why they’ve got a board, so I can remember where I’ve got to go to for the next bit.”
The aim is to film it without any breaks or stops and, aside from a couple of brief moments when production requests a pause which is necessary, filming is non-stop. Jools explains: “You want the energy to keep going. So if we record it in one and then it’s like real. It was all just, bang, bang, bang.
“There’s a few little mistakes in there, but who cares? It is what it is.” A definite highlight is singing sensation Olivia Dean, who performs hits and joins Jools in a version of Natalie Cole’s 1975 debut hit This Will Be (An Everlasting Love).
He says: “Olivia Dean has gone ballistic this year. When she was on the show a couple of years ago she was playing clubs. Now she is selling out stadiums around the world, from Rio to Munich to London’s O2, and adding on nights.
“She’s a remarkable, unbelievable person. She likes doing stuff with us, or doing stuff for me, because she goes back to what she used to listen to when she was a kid, things like Carole King, and in this case, doing that Natalie Cole song.
“I thought it was great. The sort of thing someone might do at a Christmas party. When I was little my nan would have a Christmas party and all my uncles and aunts would sing their favourite songs, which were often the musical songs. And it’s a bit like that.”
Jools’ band is the other key element, playing with many of the artists, including new songs and cover versions they don’t usually perform when on the road.
They get a day’s rehearsal in the studios and then the other bands join them on the afternoon of the recording day, so everyone gets to soundcheck and practise their tracks.
Jools says: “There’s a lot for my band to learn, lots of music to learn, and lots of things to arrange for the horns. That’s the bit the general public doesn’t see.
“Listening to stuff in their hotel rooms, making notes, so when we go into rehearsal, and the first time it’s counted in and we play, it sounds all right. And I’m not just saying this, the band has never sounded better.”
Jools’ Annual Hootenanny, BBC2 and BBC iPlayer, tonight, 11.30pm.
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