HOW did political impressionist Jon Culshaw end up recording a festive pop stomp with the former Texas member and a radio presenter?

It was all down to a vocal recorded on a mobile phone.

Made under the name Turk E Curry, This Time In Between sees Culshaw on vocals in a tinsel-tinged cracker about the period that runs between the 25th and Hogmanay.

"What day is it?" Culshaw asks, singing about the "sea of wrapping paper all over the floor", leftover turkey and sales shoppers on the news.

Culshaw, known for his parodies of Tony Blair, Boris Johnson, George W Bush and others, came up with the idea for the track in 1987 while working on local radio in Preston as a teenager.

He finally recorded the track thanks to former Texas keyboard player and drummer Michael Bannister and his partner Josie Smith of Nation Radio Scotland, a long-time friend of Culshaw's.

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The Glasgow couple teamed up to form a trio with Culshaw after he sent Bannister a voice note in which he'd sung the catchy chorus.

With Smith on drums, Bannister, praised by Culshaw as a "brilliant musician", played all the other parts and rerecorded the vocals at the comic's home in Lancashire.

They'd hoped for a Christmas 2020 release, but delayed this due to the severity of the pandemic at the time. This year, they hope the words "what a lovely Christmas it's been" will ring true for many.

Smith said: "We couldn't honestly have said those lyrics last year. This year is a bit different and we think people do need something that'll bring them that bit ofcheer."

The trio hope the video for the track, which uses doppleganger puppets made by Glasgow's Kaiser George Marionettes, will help to do just that.

Culshaw says it looks like "a cross between Thunderbirds and Coronation Street" and Bannister, who left the Scots hitmakers last year, told The National: "The puppets are uncanny.

"When Jon sent me the voice note, it was really good. In the end, I was able to put it together in about a day. Everything just worked.

"We hope it'll go out year after year."

Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube and more, the three minute track has the same feel as Christmas classics from the 70s.

But, Culshaw says, noone's written about the time in-between before: "When I was 19 doing Christmas cover on Red Rose Radio in Preston, I noticed that there were loads of festive tunes that were played right up until Christmas, but then from Boxing Day to New Year's Eve all those Christmassy songs just stopped in their tracks – there seemed to be nothing appropriate to cover that funny week from the 25th of December until the 31st of December.

"It needed a song all of its own. Now I think we finally have a fitting tune.

"Hopefully this This Time In Between is something that people can relate to year after year, a time during which we can stop, re-set and reflect for a while, and relax and indulge wherever we can.

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"It's a reverential look at a traditional Christmas, one where you've made good progress through your tins of Quality Street and Roses and are fully indulging in your new Badedas bubble bath set.

"On the run-up to Christmas Day we have the likes of Mariah, Slade and Band-Aid classics to usher us into a festive frame of mind. With This Time In Between we now finally have a song that captures the mood of the days that follow; that funny, sometimes chaotic, sometimes contented, period of time where we're more than likely to be eating turkey curry."

Meanwhile, Bannister is waiting for his "time in between": "I was going to travel up to Kinlochleven this Christmas, but now we'll probably be Glasgow-bound with everything that's going on. In the time in-between I'll be driving my kids to Islay to see their grandparents."