Fish seller's "Come on ladies, one pound fish" song is number one in British pop charts

**Jenna** · 12-24-12, 11:09 AM

Which explains why, yesterday evening, there were people in a small town in the Punjab province of Pakistan anxiously waiting to learn whether the Christmas number one in the British pop charts would be claimed by one of their own, whose novelty recording became a viral hit on the internet. How's that for a paradigm of the modern media world? Muhammad Shahid Nazir is an unlikely figure to occupy such an exalted position in the hierarchy of British pop music. A market trader who sells fish from his stall in east London, he has long nurtured dreams of stardom, but failed to make the cut for this season's X Factor. How they must be kicking themselves for failing to see the potential in Nazir's rallying cry to the housewives of West Ham and district: "Come on ladies, Come on ladies, one pound fish," he sings.

"Very, very good/ One pound fish/Very, very cheap/ One pound fish" is the extent of the lyrical invention, but worse efforts have made it to the top of the Christmas charts - Bob the Builder and Mr Blobby to name but two - so we shouldn't be too sniffy.

'One pound fish' is the anthem for an austerity Christmas - Comment - Voices - The Independent