Christmas songs

Commuters at London's St Pancras International witnessed a rare lunchtime spectacle when The Darkness arrived unannounced for a stripped back performance that marked a milestone week for the band. The British rock favourites, led by the Hawkins brothers Justin and Dan, performed beside the station's famed piano as crowds gathered in the main Arcade, a location that has grown into one of London's busiest cultural hubs. The performance aligned with the twentieth anniversary of One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back, the band's 2005 album that featured a steam train on its memorable cover, a fitting link to one of the country's most iconic rail stations.

PPL, the organisation responsible for licensing recorded music played in public (shops, nightclubs, pubs, offices etc.) and broadcast (TV, radio and online) across the UK, can reveal for the first time what the nation was tuning into this time last year, in the exclusive PPL Most Played Christmas Tracks chart.

The 1980s has been voted as the best decade for producing Christmas hits according to a new study commission by blinkbox.