Like with Wham! I have the same problem with Slade. This is their pinnacle. This is the one song where they got everything right. Sure, they were very close on several songs that would be released the following couple of years (none of them hitting UK #1), but they were never as great as this.

Surely, the lyrics are Christmasy enough and sort of only annoys you because it means this song may only be played at that particular time of year. But the rest is oh so perfect, with a great tune, there greatest ever chorus, and one of the best middle-eights ever written The harmonies at the end of the chorus were even remiscent of The Beatles at their best.

One of my all-time-favourite Christmas songs, and surely the best thing Slade ever did.

He should use it as the follow-up to his number one achieved by covering Never Loved As A Child from the 1998/2000 Wah! elpee though.

I hated that bloody Chill Fac-Torr single, as championed by dear old Dale “Godfather of Hip Hop” Winton on his Monday night Soul Show at Radio Trent.

Wah! - Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me) (this SHOULD have been number one for 98 weeks, especially the full-length 12″ version with acoustic “Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” prelude, and will be a number one for Robbie if he’s got enough sense to cover it)
Chill Fac-Torr - Twist (Round ‘N’ Round) (Mike A is hating me already for reminding him of this)
Toto - I Won’t Hold You Back (exquisite and the foundation of a future number one)
Level 42 - Micro-Kid (Adornoite jazz-funkers identify contemporary isolationist consumerist entrapment A GENERATION AHEAD OF THEIR TIME)
AC/DC - Guns For Hire (big 1973 shoutout for Geordie btw, esp. “All Because Of You” with scary sped-up vocal intro)
Hot Chocolate - Tears On The Telephone (rather boring)
Jingle Belles - Christmas Spectre (guess)

But it’s not Christmas until they play Slade!!!

The song is so happy and good natured, it’s impossible not to like it. The lyric throughout is a charming family overview of the festive season and it bounces along up to it’s delirious conclusion when Noddy screams out at the top of his lungs a reminder of what it’s all about. A heart-warming offering. Eternally may it remain included amongst our annual Christmas fare.

And there’s NO FVCKING SLEIGH BELLS.

(nb: direct Mott/PiL link - “‘ullo” at the beginning of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” -> “‘ullo” at the beginning of “Public Image”)

(i am honestly staggered by this tidbit of info — i never heard it before, possibly bcz as a longtime long-ago zigzag reader i developed severe needs allergy so did not choose to read his book)

And a quick nod to the massive glam hit of 1973 that never was but should have been: “Sebastian” by Cockney Rebel, number one everywhere else in Europe, number bubbling under here.

Also, the best contemporary Slade ripoff was “Kick Your Boots Off” by a group calling themselves Sisters - it appears on the Velvet Tinmine compilation and it’s a bit like Bernie Clifton on Seaside Special (or a young Redcoated Barrymore?) trying to do Slade. “But we’re gonna keep it clean!” Aw, bless!

(The same sleeve carried the Mott fan club address, c/o one Kris “ZigZag” Needs, who presumably had taken over from Benazir Bhutto by that stage, or was it t’other way round?)

(a few years later we were on holiday in Blackpool, and therefore within the Granada TV catchment area, so were able to catch So It Goes. The first item on the first episode I remember watching was Mott - without the Hoople or Hunter - doing “Shouting And Pointing” with my dad shouting and pointing at the screen: “for fuck’s sake is that the best you can do?” We caught the Pistols one as well. My dad reckoned they were like Gong trying to be the Sweet)

fun fact: dr vick is related to escher! (this will mean little to some of you but !!)