Watch Jon McClure recreate ‘Love Actually’ cards sequence in Reverend and the Makers Christmas Number One bid

The band recently released 'Late Night Phone Call' to raise money for Samaritans

Reverend and the Makers‘ Jon McClure has recreated the famous Love Actually card sequence in a push to get their charity Christmas single ‘Late Night Phone Call’ to the top of the charts in time for the festive season.

The song has been released to raise money for Samaritans. It is their first new material in over a year, although McClure recently appeared on Lottery Winners‘ recent single ‘You Again’ back in September.

Now, they’ve promoted their bid for Christmas Number One with a Love Actually parody. Between shots of Keira Knightly from the film, McClure holds up signs reading “Shall we try for Xmas No 1′, ‘We’ve no chance tbh’, ‘Worst case we raise £ for Samaritans’.

“Given how streaming favours the pop Goliaths, indie Davids like us have next to no chance. But we are the 6th favourite across all bookmakers,” they said on X/Twitter.

Speaking about the track, McClure said via a press release: “‘Late Night Phone Call’ is a weird one in that it isn’t a Christmas song and doesn’t really have a chorus, yet it totally felt like a Christmas pop song from the very beginning.

He continued: “It’s also based loosely on a true story where I went out and had a gallon of Guinness and rang [wife] Laura [McClure] up on the way home drunkenly telling her that I love her. As you can see in the video, she wasn’t initially too impressed given the hour but obviously I won her round with a bit of the old Northern charm and apple crumble.

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“My mum and friends all cried when they heard the song. My dad was a big fan of it before he passed away so there’s a lot of emotion wrapped up in it too as it’s our first Xmas without him.”

Since 2020, McClure has been offering private one-on-one online shows on Christmas Day for fans spending the day alone. By lending support to the Samaritans he said he hopes to draw attention to the issue and the support that is available.

McClure added: “I wanted to get Samaritans involved as people being alone and in a bad place at Christmas time is something that has always really bothered me.

“Every year on Christmas day I Zoom a bunch of people who are alone and struggling and play them a song to cheer them up a little. I kinda thought we could go one step further with that this year and direct them towards a charity that is there to help with this. Times are tough for a lot of people and it’s not hard as an artist to help people in this way.”

The band have also announced a one-off show in Sheffield next August. They will play their biggest headline show to date at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus at Don Valley Bowl in the city on August 30. You can purchase tickets here.

It is Reverend & The Makers’ first show since the band cancelled their 2024 UK headline tour, after the death of McClure’s father.