2016 – officially declared the Chinese year of the bloody nightmare – may well produce the saddest Christmas Number One in history too.
‘The Last Holiday’ by Alfie Jackson, one-time frontman of The Holloways, is a brilliant and frankly devastating tune inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis and the harrowing photograph of the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey in 2015. Released in association with War Child, Aylan’s family and their Kurdi Foundation, it’s best tackled with a hefty box of Kleenex and a charity donation close at hand.
It’s already been Radio X’s Song Of The Week, now let’s make it Christmas Number One – it’s certainly a whole lot better (and worthier) than Vaults whimpering ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’ or James Corden’s godawful Sainsbury’s wage slave ditty, right?