It’s started… Stepping into my local supermarket this Tuesday, I was greeted by the unmistakable brass tones of Jona Lewie’s ‘Stop The Cavalry’. Christmas tunes blaring on November 18. The world’s gone nuts…

Ok, ‘nuts’ may be a little over the top; at least we’re closer to this Christmas than the last one. And, indeed, this weekend many towns around the region will be enjoying light switch-on events, with some having already got stuck in with them days ago.

Still, I can’t help but feel that outside of the pantheon of special events, Roy Wood, Noddy and Mariah would do well to hang back until December – and Bublé certainly shouldn’t be emerging from his cave until that first Advent calendar window goes ‘pop’.

The look on the till assistant’s face was a picture. Clearly Lewie’s anti-war festive smasher and other Yuletide hits had been doing the rounds for some time already that morning. Rather than spurring said store worker into an........

© Shropshire Star