Watch The Darkness’ festive performance of ‘Don’t Let The Bells End’ with 12-piece choir

The Darkness has performed their version of ‘Don’t Let The Bells End’ with a 12-piece choir – watch the footage below.

‘Don’t Let The Bells End’ was The Darkness’ bid at the 2003 Christmas Number One (sadly Gary Jules beat them to the top spot with ‘Mad World’).

Originally recorded at Abbey Road studios as an epic rock ballad complete with jingle bells and a children’s choir, The Darkness have honoured the track for its 20th birthday with a particularly festive performance.

Playing the track on the Jo Whiley BBC Radio 2 show at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, frontman Justin Hawkins appeared with an appropriately glittery red guitar and a 12-piece choir to perform the song.

“Thank you so much to the wonderful Jo Whiley and her fantastic BBC Radio 2 team for having us and of course to Mark Delisser’s angelic sounding 12 piece choir,” wrote the band on social media. “Beautiful.” Take a look below:

Recently, Justin Hawkins has opened up about his regret over The Darkness’ split. The band initially parted ways in 2005 as Hawkins was battling his addiction; they later reformed in 2011.

At a gig in Manchester, he admitted he felt bad for his brother Dan, calling him the “brains” of the operation before adding: “Silly old Justin took all the drugs and [messed] it up”.

He said he “had to live with the consequences of that”, referring to the split.

Hawkins has also spoke about how he may have soured his relationship with Robbie Williams. In a recent episode of his podcast, Hawkins reminisced about an encounter he had while the pop star was in the catering area with friends.

“I was in the habit in those days of just running up and smacking people on the arse,” he said, adding: “Not the sort of thing you can get away with nowadays, but I did it on that day, he turned around like he wanted to punch whoever it was, and then he realised it was me and backed down a little bit.”

In other news, Ed Sheeran played a surprise opening set for The Darkness at their London show.