Advent Calendar - Dec 13th - Together @QRistmas featuring Steve Brookstein and Eileen Hunter - Don't Give Up

The wait is over and Don't Give Up is finally out and available to download. OK, it's not an 'advent calendar' entry in the same way as some of our others, but it's an important one for a couple of reasons. First, it's the best way to stick two fingers up at Simon Cowell if you're staging a protest against the mass-marketing of The X Factor this year, thanks to it being by the show's first ever winner Steve Brookstein and his wonderful wife Eileen Hunter. But more importantly - most importantly - it's a chance to give to the people who really need help in these colder months by supporting some of the nation's homelessness charities and getting an excellent song to listen to as well.

There's a preview below and please get behind this - StreetSmart and the Together @QRistmas campaign are well deserving of support. Our own QR code above links to iTunes either using your mobile phone's camera or just by clicking on-screen - or you can download Don't Give Up here.

You can keep up to date with our Advent Calendar posts via RSS here.

2010 Christmas Number One: The Race

Okay, 2009 showed us that is doesn't just have to be the newly crowned X Factor winner at number one every Christmas. The race for Christmas number one in 2010 is therefore well and truly wide open. So who's your favourite?

Me and Bobble run the rule over the hopefuls in this special 2010 Christmas Number One round-up.

The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80's

Dan: I just love the Futureheads, and this is no exception. Good nostalgic lyrics, and hallelujahs...what more do you want? I might just go buy it now...

Bobble: It's nice to hear a Christmas song that's a proper song. This one could hold it's own in the charts any week.

Buy Here

Matt Cardle - When We Collide

Bobble: Matt Cardle was the X Factor 2010 winner from his first audition, but he's a worthy winner and it's a decent song. Buy the Biffy Clyro original instead though, it's better.

Dan: I like the song, and Matt is a decent, down-to-earth guy. I hope he does well, but I don't want to see X Factor at number one again. Sorry.

Buy Here

Arbelour Choir feat. Gamu Nhengu - Where Will You Sleep This Christmas?

Bobble: Not as bad as I expected, and it's for a good cause so I'll put aside my feelings about Gamu and say good luck to her.

Dan: Yeah, Gamu is releasing this for Aberlour, Scotland's Children's Charity, so fair play for that. Let's just say she isn't one of my favourite artists though. It's a no from me.

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Together @QRistmas feat. Steve Brookstein & Eileen Hunter - Don't Give Up

Dan: Ah, the ghost of X Factors past. Can't say I was familiar with the song, but Steve has a great voice, and singing with his wife Eileen Hunter this is a really nice duet.

Bobble: If an X Factor winner deserves to be at number one this Christmas Steve Brookstein probably does. Plus @QRistmas is all about helping StreetSmart, a homelessness charity helping people this Christmas.

Buy Here

Xander Rawlins - 1000 Miles Apart

Dan: Part of me recoils against this sort of mawkish sentimentality, but then again he has an interesting voice, and a good song.

Bobble: It's a nice sentiment, but it's nothing special.

Buy Here

The Killers - Boots

Dan: Again, I have a bit of a personal, and irrational, grudge against the Killers, so I can't bring myself to fully endorse this. Quite palatable though.

Bobble: Boots lacks the anthemic qualities of Human and All These Things That I've Done, so although there's nothing wrong with it, it's a bit of a disappointment from the Killers.

Buy Here

Miley Cyrus - Who Owns My Heart

Bobble: I don't even think that was a Christmas song.

Dan: It wasn't, but it's being released anyway.

Buy Here

Gio Compario - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Dan: Is there anything more hateful than these adverts? Who thought this was a good idea?

Bobble: I hate Gio Compario, and I wish he hadn't released this song.

Buy Here

George Michael - December Song 2010 (I Dreamed of Christmas)

Bobble A little generic, but there's something about the chorus that I like.

Dan: It's is quite nice. Nothing more, nothing less, and yet it feels like it could live on to be a classic.

Buy Here

The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird

Dan: I know this is meant to be some sort of ironic "protest". I just think it's a great song, albeit a fairly silly novelty one.

Bobble: I won't have anything to do with these protests. If you must protest against the X Factor, buy Don't Give Up instead.

Buy Here

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So there it is, The Futureheads, QRistmas, even Matt Cardle for Christmas number one. Anyone but Gio Campario, oh or Gamu. Whoever you want to come out on top next Sunday, make sure you have your say.

Steve Brookstein and Eileen Hunter - Don't Give Up

I admit I didn't know that much about Steve Brookstein before this year's The X Factor - obviously I knew he was the first winner of the show back in 2004, but I couldn't even have told you that his winning song was Against All Odds. It's a fitting title six years on, however, as Steve and partner Eileen Hunter have paired up on a cover of the Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet Don't Give Up that is vying with the PR machine of The X Factor Series 7 for the Christmas number one spot.

Or should that be QRistmas rather than Christmas? That is the charity initiative Steve and Eileen are supporting - a campaign that could only work in this age of smartphones and social networking which asks people to use a Quick Response code - one of those funny square barcodes you see on all sorts of products - by taking a photo with their camera phone and allowing themselves to be redirected to more information about homelessness charity StreetSmart and the QRistmas initiative. It is this uniquely 21st century technology that puts the 'QR' in QRistmas.

Download link: Don't Give Up is out on December 13th and available for download on Amazon UK.