10 December, 1988.

Well, despite nobody driving anywhere for Christmas, it’s nice to see that Mr Rea kept our annual date. Today would have been the day to pack up the car and head north, but I’m afraid Christmas in Yorkshire will just have to wait another year.

This was actually written whilst stuck in heavy traffic, driving home for Christmas. In 1978 Rea was recording in Abbey Road Studios and needed to get home to Middlesborough but the record company wouldn’t pay for the rail fare as Rea’s contract had just ended. To save money his wife drove to London to pick him up and they drove back, in a Mini and the snow, to Middlesborough. All the while Rea was writing the lyrics to this song as he watched the miserable faces of drivers around them.

Although this has never been a huge chart hit, reaching number fifty-three in 1988, number thirty-three in 2007 and, as of this morning, number thirteen in 2020, it has made a brief appearance in the UK Top 40 every year since its release.