Fairytale of New York Christmas number one by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan was reported to have said "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine". MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music. The song was re-released by the Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005, reaching number three in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of
Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) UK singles chart, 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 The Pogues, Mariah Carey and Cliff Richard to miss out on the top spot (though Cliff did make number 1 with differing releases too). According to sales information from Music Week, The Darkness were at #1 all week and lost out on Saturday sales - one of the closest battles for Christmas number one in recent years. According