Count on the annual Christmas Covers Party at The Wedgewood Rooms to banish the post-25th blues

Now in its ​13th year, this local music institution sees bands line up to tear through classic tunes in their own inimitable style in the name of charity.

“We'll never get bored of it”, says founder Rusty Sheriff, “but I'm amazed that bands still want to take time out of writing their own music to come and be an idiot on stage for a quarter of an hour.

“The months of practice that people put into it just for 15 minutes, or three songs, it's incredible. And even now I'm turning bands away because we have a 10-band limit. We can't do more than 10 – we already open early to fit everyone in, plus the raffle!”

The lineup features bands old and new to the night, including The Glorious Bulletheads and Halliwell in the former category.

There’s also The Hoochawakes: “They’re the cerebral mix of Hooch and The Stayawakes but I'd already done the poster when they told me they wanted to be known as Geezer, which is written in the Weezer font, so make of that what you will. I'm keen for bands to adopt a persona – a bit like Stars in Their Eyes! And we've got an incarnation of Bitterman and their extended family, but it's a bit mysterious...”

Rusty’s own band Friday Night Weird Dreams will be Piggy Flop. “It won't take you too long to work out who we'll be doing numbers by,” he laughs.

Of the other acts, he continues: “Last year, one of the big hits was Shrekultura,” who combined thrash-metal and the animated film favourite, “they're back this year as Slavril Lavigne. Body Crisis are going to be Andrew WK, so I don't know what they're doing beyond Party Hard – that's going to be interesting. Megadrive are kind of ringers, they play quite a bit around here, so they should be nice and rehearsed unlike some of the others! Capsized are a four-piece punk band from about 10-15 years ago who are back, and there’s Waif and Stray who are a great band.”

Rusty and his wife recently became parents for a second time, and he adds: “With our new arrival our stage manager Ben Drew has been a legend with helping to get everything ready this year. He's been absolutely amazing where me and Emma haven't always been as present as we'd like to be – he's steered the ship when we couldn't.”

And of course, the night will finish with the infamous mega-raffle, which features dozens of top prizes.

“We've always got lots of great stuff to win, and it's the usual wide range of donors,” says Rusty. “We're always really lucky that people in the city want to give stuff for free, whether it's a service, products, or a bit of art. We're mighty, mighty happy that people want to do that.”

All money raised from the night will go to the charities Music Fusion and Rowans Hospice.

It takes place on Wednesday, December 27, doors 7pm. Tickets £10. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.