The custom began after I was at college, now far too a few years in the past for my liking, as a method of fueling the lengthy, traffic-filled drive from Keele in Staffordshire to the West Nation within the pre-Christmas gloom.

Given the time of yr, the journey was livened up with a CD of Christmas music. Nicely, I say enlivened, however as somebody whose musical tastes have by no means been fairly mainstream, I am usually outraged by the small handful of clichéd, sawn-off competition songs you hear advert nauseam this time of yr.

Sorry, Mariah, however All I Need For Christmas is much less of your boring sleigh bells and somewhat extra musical selection.

However I digress, as a result of that Christmas compilation CD was there for one objective solely: the ceremonial rendition of Chris Rea’s Driving Dwelling For Christmas.

Due to course I drove dwelling for Christmas. Nonetheless, timing was every thing. My dwelling city of Clevedon is positioned at junction 20 of the M5, simply after the split-level Wynhol viaduct.

Maintain the primary few piano notes on the climb out of Portishead, and the center instrumental will finish simply as I crest the hill and Clevedon comes into view. Magical.

It is a custom I nonetheless partake in after I head west for Christmas, though the compilation CD has been changed by Spotify, which mercifully permits the remainder of the journey to be accompanied by Christmas music extra to my doubtful style. (I will take The Killers and Fountains of Wayne over your Slade and Shakin’ Stevens.)

It is clearly a ridiculous custom, however I am certain I am not alone in bringing dwelling a soundtrack for Christmas with a spot of Chris Rea.

To be honest, his cry of ‘high to toe in tail’ in some way resonates much more than the visitors as garbage (which, to be honest, it normally is). Positive, it is tacky as hell and filled with the inevitable jingling bells, however there is a grounded actuality to it.

Rea wrote it within the Seventies, when he was recording in London, however his document firm was too low cost to purchase a practice ticket again to Middlesbrough for Christmas, so his spouse drove down and picked him up in a Rover Metro.

Given the royalty checks he is prone to pay every December, Rea has most likely forgiven his document label: it is little question paid for a very good chunk of his Ferrari assortment.