Advent song for December 5: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

OK, not all of them are better than the originals. But what this effort lacks in musical brilliance, it makes up for in oddity value. You may remember – I don’t – a reality TV show from about ten years ago which reunited UK (and, I think, B*witched, and incidentally I am a big fan of unexpected punctuation in band names, from Hear’Say to Therapy? to Panic! At The Disco) bands of the nineties and early aughts in an attempt to, I think, record a charity single. But maybe they all had to live in the same house while they did it? It’s hard to work out from the limited accounts that survive, which I have decided is probably for the best.

There is, though, indisputably a single, and this is it. You will want to watch at least up to and including the rap by Abs from 5ive, who by this time should perhaps have been renamed 4our (unless it’s Ritchie, I can’t remember which is which and have not the faintest intention of checking).

Advent Song for December 23: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to spend the year? I love this song and it gets ranked above Slade because the video is so much fun, with its brass band and collection of small children (who must, I suppose, be in their fifties now) with only the very faintest idea what they’re doing there.

There is a prize if you guess tomorrow’s song! In the meantime, enjoy this news about a stick library for dogs. It’s literally as good as that sounds.