Christmas No.1 dream for The Reytons and Clifton Park album

The Rotherham band's name dramatically appeared amongst the top 10 candidates for the prestigious position, taking on the might of Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Tom Grennan and Sabrina Carpenter amongst others.

It's a long shot – their offering is an album reflecting the Clifton Park homecoming event in July, a tribute to a summer gig fuelled by 20,000 loving fans rather than a reflective Yuletide classic which you'd normally associate with the likes of Michael Bublé.

And, as an independent band, they have few industry contacts helping them promote their work on the traditional stage.

All will be revealed on Thursday morning though – and there's an outside chance that band members Jonny Yerrell, (Kimberworth Park) Joe O'Brien, (Broom) Lee Holland (Edlington) and Jamie Todd (Brampton) can pull it off.

Frontman Yerrell was pragmatic about their chances.

He told the Advertiser the foursome had been concentrating on first finishing the album and then meeting fans at a Meadowhall pop-up shop.

"The main priority was always to get the live album out there so people could have it as a body of work to celebrate the year with," he said.

"It was an amazing achievement what we did in Clifton Park.

"And for people to jump on the album the way they have has really given it a push."

Jonny said competing for the Christmas slot hadn't been something that they'd expected, given the time of the year and the opposition.

So what would it mean to get Christmas number one?

"It is really exciting to see what happens,” he said.

"For me, the event itself was everything, it's that day that goes in the history books.

"Then to have a number one album would be a nice little cherry on the top!

"I am not really looking for anything more than we have achieved – we were so grateful to have had the event, everything else is a bonus."

Jonny isn't overly-optimistic about winning the UK race, but insists: "We have got more of a chance than the industry is making out.

"Look at the (media) articles: we have been overlooked in every single corner of the internet.

"They're talking about Mariah Carey and (Michael) Bublé – he seems to win it every year – and nobody mentions Reytons.

"I believe with all my heart that we will come top five. We are here to fight for it as long as we can!

"But really it is out of our hands it is down to the public to buy it now.

"I don't want to push it too much though, because people have got other things to be buying this Christmas.

"But anybody who can buy a physical copy – anybody buying a CD or a vinyl that is the same value as 1,000 streams – that would go a long way."

The Reytons shop will remain open in Meadowhall until Christmas Eve.