"Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" is a single released by British hard rock band the Darkness. The single was released on 15 December 2003, to fall in with the UK Christmas number one race, ultimately finishing runner-up. The track was later included on a "Christmas edition" of their debut studio album, Permission to Land, issued in some areas of Europe on 22 December 2003.
Background
The song is a take on the usual structure of Christmas songs. It features the usual mention of festivities, Santa Claus and bells, delivered with Justin Hawkins's trademark falsetto. The school choir that provide backing vocals, which can be heard on the song and seen in the video, are from Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College school, in New Cross, London, which Justin and Dan's mother once attended. Following the humour and tone of the Darkness's other work, the song also includes a strong level of parody, most notably the double meaning of the line 'Bells End' (bellend) and 'Ring in peace' (ringpiece). The song appeared as the backing track for the Christmas version of Adult Swim's iOS game, Robot Unicorn Attack, which was released in November 2010.[1]
When asked about the meaning of the song on a television special, Hawkins stated "we managed to get bellend into a Christmas song without it getting banned! (And ringpiece!)"[2]
Music video
The video features the band unwrapping presents. Justin Hawkins thinks of his girlfriend, played by his then-girlfriend and the Darkness's manager, Sue Whitehouse, as pictured in a bauble and in the fire. Justin goes outside and is joined by the rest of the band playing the song. He opens the door to find a choir standing outside singing the song. Justin joins in and invites them inside. Dan Hawkins gives Justin a present; a car key. Justin runs outside and gets into the car while Dan winks to the audience. Inside the car is Justin's girlfriend. They kiss as the spaceship seen in the videos for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" and "Growing on Me", and on the cover of their debut studio album, Permission to Land, flies across the sky, showing some glittery words, which read 'Merry Christmas'.
Race for Christmas number one
The song was the odds-on favourite with the bookmakers to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart,[3] but was beaten by the relatively unknown Gary Jules and Michael Andrews with a cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World", and thus the band had to settle for the number two position, joining a list of acts including Wham!, The Pogues, Mariah Carey and Cliff Richard to miss out on the top spot (though Cliff did make number one with differing releases too). According to sales information from Music Week, the Darkness were at number one all week and lost out on Saturday sales – one of the closest battles for Christmas number one in recent years.[citation needed] The song had first-week sales of 222,561 and sold just under five thousand copies less than "Mad World".[4] According to the Official Charts Company, the song sold 385,000 copies over the Christmas period.[citation needed]
