In the past, Weeks said he also used the excuse that you shouldn’t question life’s joys as a way to avoid writing happier songs. “That’s just lazy, though,” he said. By allowing himself to now do just that and delve deeper into joyful experiences, he added he had learned that they are just as complicated as darker emotions. “And you don’t tarnish the joy by thinking about the joy – you just balloon it up. It’s given me an appreciation and love for music that I think I’d always known was great, but I just felt was outside of my jurisdiction.”

As the former Maccabees frontman releases his second solo album ‘Hop Up’, Orlando Weeks has spoken to NME about the making of the joyful new record. Grandad would make his own bolts because no one else made them big enough. There were constantly these enormous greasy cogs on the kitchen table, even though he had a workshop in his shed. It was chaos in there, and it was incredibly cool. I remember it smelt like an engine, of grease. Everything you touched never came off you.”

Weeks says the project was partly inspired by the similarity between his own circumstances and his father’s retirement. “I didn’t see my dad retire and think: right, I’m going to write an illustrated book. But I think it definitely played a part, along with beginning to question my own purpose and where my passions lie; thinking about how I fill my time, and seeing how he does. It’s very difficult, if you’ve invested in what you do, to allow yourself the freedom of not doing it any more, of not working all the hours that God sends.” In his own lifetime, Bill’s work became obsolete, rather like the Gritterman’s job in the story. “Got a letter from the council: Dear Sir... your services are no longer required,” the Gritterman recounts, adding: “I read somewhere that there’s a tarmac now that can de-ice itself. I’m not sure I want to live in a world where the B2116 doesn’t need gritting.” For Weeks, a huge fan of the Fast Show star, the chance to work alongside one of his all-time comedy heroes has been a dream come true.

It’s something I wish I’d done sooner,” he says. “For the last three, four years of touring with The Maccabees, during downtime, I’d write little stories and poems, and work on sketches. The Gritterman basically came out of that. I wanted to tell a seasonal story, but on a small scale. The main character in the story is an old man who goes out to grit roads in winter; it’s pretty unremarkable and unromantic. But there’s a beauty, a real humanity in those small stories. They’re my favourite sort of Christmas stories.” Orlando Weeks’ (The Maccabees) heartbreakingly poetic 2017 original score for his book ‘The Gritterman’ becomes our first ever Christmas drop; exclusively pressed to vinyl for the first time and limited to 1,000 copies. Orlando Weeks: That’s the traction engine my grandad restored. He was the inspiration for The Gritterman , and I like how the drawing was done by someone called Wheeler. Something about that felt fitting. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial?This tale of wonder is a beloved story from most people’s childhoods, remembered for its beautiful magic and a familiar nostalgia that will restore every reader’s childish and nostalgic excitement for festivity and Christmas. E.T.A. Hoffman really created a must-read for the festive season to get absorbed into the Christmas spirit.