Remember when the charts were awash with comedy songs? The Barron Knights, Fred Wedlock, the Wurzels, songs spun-off from TV shows about hating JR Ewing, etc? We don't get this anymore do we? That goes for novelty songs too. Admittedly, it wasn't always a good thing.

It occurred to me when I heard the new Terry Wogan/Aled Jones Little Drummer Boy single, released for Children In Need. It's not meant to be taken seriously, so could be considered a novelty. I can't think of another novelty/comedy record having been in the charts in recent memory, Ketchup Song aside. Can you?

I love Stop The Cavalry, Fairytale of New York and Silver Bells. I'm a huge fan of Christmas Wrapping, Wonderful Christmas Time and even Wombling Merry Christmas. I love all the classics.

But I want more.

Your interesting Christmas song suggestions please, so I'm nicely in time for the festive season.

Oh those salad days. The pop video explosion meant you'd much rather see the video than the actual band on TOTP?

Like this:

What was your fave?

I know this has been said before, but there really is very little romance in British place names, meaning songs about British towns don't really exist outside of the folk world.

The only romantic parts of our musical landscape I can see are bits of London, Essex (the A13 corridor has a certain something thanks to Billy Bragg), the Mersey and some parts of Manchester. Otherwise, er...

There are no songs about Jersey, Plymouth, Rhyl or Rotherham or their like, and if there are (Rochdale Cowboy, Margate, etc), they're comedy songs.

Whither By The Time I Get To Halifax, Felixstowe, 24 Hours From Telford?

by putting a man with a beard on the cover. Leonard Cohen.

Actually, is there anyone in music who DOESN'T have a beard these days?

The American election is all very exciting. Far more exciting than anything we could ever hope to see over here.

No doubt you've already decided who you're voting for, even though you can't (unless someone's reading this in the US), so go on - who gets your vote?

Me? Obama.

Why? Because I think he's an interesting character, he seems sensible and reasonable and normal, and I'm dying to see what effect his becoming president will have not only on the US but on the world.

Most importantly, however, it's because John McCain is older than my dad, and I wouldn't want my dad becoming president of anything other than the Caravan Club. Plus, when he drops down dead due to the stress of it all, there's the scary thought of Sarah Palin being left in charge. And we wouldn't want that.

When someone piped up with the above comment, a collective groan went up. But of course, we all like different things. From where I'm sitting I can see the Travis fan, a Springsteen maniac, a Wildhearts obsessive and someone who only listens to opera.

What's going on where you are?

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but every gig I go to now seems to be full of families.

There are dads with girls no more than seven, parents and teenagers, old ladies that really look like old ladies whom you would never imagine would be into REM.

When I was a teenager, I'd rather have died than be seen out in public with my parents, groovy as they were, especially if there were going to be other kids my age around. The shame! But these teens don't seem to mind at all. Do parents and children really like the same music now? I thought it was but a myth.

At OMD on Tuesday, it was families galore. Perhaps it was an outing to see Dad's favourite band, so the kids had no choice. Or perhaps they genuinely all like them. The only gig I remember my parents ever going to was The Carpenters at Bournemouth Winter Gardens. There was no way I was going to that. Now might be a different matter.

I'm not saying there's an age limit for gig-going or that it's not nice that families all go to gigs together and can find a common bond in liking the same music. But it does seem that gigs these days are the modern day equivalent of a trip to Windsor Safari Park. Or perhaps it's just the bands I'm seeing. I doubt mums and sons would be going to The Hold Steady together.

Or am I wrong?

I'm not actually, but I do like that song. It's Helen Reddy's finest hour. Unfortunately, however, my neighbour saw me singing it in the garden and gave me a look that said 'I've got your number'. I've only ever seen him twice in five years, so I don't really care, but I was slightly embarrassed to be caught out, as it just had to be something like that and not something a bit more rugged like Highway To Hell.

When has your music choice let you down?

He's gone a bit bonkers, hasn't he? Being followed around by orbs or light and not paying his TV licence.

Oh, he's got a Sky One show to publicise. But that aside, he's no less barking.

Shame, because I used to love him on the Radio 1 breakfast show as a young teen.

I fear for him.

As the nights draw in - and unbelievably they already are - and the days get shorter, music in the F-C house goes all Kate Bush, Pentangle and Northstar Grassman and The Ravens. You know, bucolic, woodsmoke, falling leaves, sinister folk.

But there's still room for some dark Cure or even Tracey Ullman's They Don't Know, cos it reminds me of one autumn many, many years ago.

What's your soundtrack to the season?

He is the weirdest looking man in pop, and he's still plugging away. I see his next single is due to hit the Top Ten on Sunday.

But apart from his fanbase of older women, who's buying Cliff's records?

While I have my favourites (Wired For Sound, Big Ship, In The Country), I've never actually bought one.

Have you? If so, which one(s) and if not, can you own up to liking a Cliff song?

I'm glad to see this is happening on BBC4 this autumn. I enjoyed the folk, jazz and pop Britannias, and I really enjoyed the Folk Hibernia.

There are some great interviewees lined up for this latest foray, like current Word star Rick Wakeman, Phil Collins, the bloke from Egg.

So what next in the Britannia line? Ska Britannia, Punk Britannia - it could run and run.

I went to a funeral on Monday where they carried the coffin out of the 'chapel' (it was a woodland burial) to the strains of Magazine's Shot By Both Sides. I never thought I'd hear that on such an occasion.

Apparently, it was the deceased's request.

Another funeral saw a miserable old bugger dispatched to the sound of Return To Sender. It was an icebreaker, that's for sure.

I think for me it would have to be Fairport's Meet On The Ledge. I want tears at my funeral.

Morbid as it may be, what would you have played at yours?

Whither Mark Ellen on the Word blogs?

Does he not approve?