Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)

Album: Permission to Land (Christmas Edition) (2003)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • The Darkness released this special novelty cut on December 15, 2003, to fall in with the UK Christmas Number One Race. Despite being the favorite with the bookmakers to top the official UK singles chart for the Xmas week, the track was beaten into the runners-up spot by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World."
  • Frontman Justin Hawkins' lyrics are based around spending Christmas with a loved one who is distant during the rest of the year. He explained to Kerrang:

    "I thought about what it's like to be emotionally and geographically detached from somebody who was throwing themselves into their work for 51 weeks of the year. And what it's like to have only a few family days, and how the idea of filling those days with meaningful quality time activities keep you going whilst absent."
  • The Darkness worked on the song with legendary producer Bob Ezrin. The track features a school choir from Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College school, in New Cross, London, which was the educational establishment that Justin and Dan Hawkins' mother once attended.
  • The video finds the band unwrapping presents in a Christmassy log cabin. Justin Hawkins' love interest is played by his then-girlfriend and band manager, Sue Whitehouse. The clip was actually filmed in the height of the UK summer on the hottest day of the year.

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