Blog On The Motorway Swan diving off the tongues of crippled giants

Rage against mediocrity

The current war in the charts for the Christmas number one spot has me conflicted. For those of you who don't know (in my last post I left out one American in particular and I don't want to do the same again) in the UK we have a show called X Factor, much the same as American Idol but with just enough format tweaks for it to justify its relabeling. Every year I watch it, for the same reasons that I watch American Idol, because not everything has to be cerebral, sometimes I like to watch dumb shit.  During the show I pick the one contestant who seems to be marginally talented, and then they either win or lose and I never think of them again. It's just not my cup of tea, music wise, but as an entertainment show it's gloriously awful and entertaining to watch.

But then the show ends, and the winner releases their single, just in time to trample all over the competition for the Christmas number one. The X factor winner's single has been Christmas number one for the last five years, all but destroying what used to be an entertaining British pastime, namely talking down the pub with each other who was going to be Christmas number one. It used to be a big deal. I remember being a kid and suddenly the charts seemed quite important around Christmas.. But that's no longer the case.

Until this year. Sick of the situation, a groundswell movement has to try and get 'Killing In The Name' by Rage Against The Machine to be Christmas number one instead.  A ridiculous idea, doomed to failure, except that with over half the week gone, Rage are beating the X factor single by about 40,000 copies. So there's a very real chance that this could happen.

But enough background, most of you will be going, 'yes Paul, we know this.' But anyway, my initial thoughts about this were pretty much against it. For one thing, this is mainly gonna benefit Sony, of whom one of the main people is...Simon Cowell. Both singles are on the same label. Second of all, there is something to be said for the idea that everyone buying the single are behaving with the same sheep-like mentality that the people buying the X factor single are exhibiting, especially given the song's 'Fuck you I won't do what you tell me' message. And so at first I dismissed it.

But then the other night I was sat on Twitter that all of a sudden it occurred to me that I was looking at it all wrong.  I then considered the situation again.

• Do I love Rage? Yes, unreservedly, they are one of my favourite childhood bands, and they introduced me to both metal and hip hop.
• Would I like them to be number one at Christmas? Totally.
• Do I like the idea of Simon Cowell in a strop? Indeed I do.
• So why don't you buy the download then? I dunno, how much is it?
• 65p from play.com......

And so I made up my mind, and downloaded a song that I have previously bought three times on CD, once on single, and once on tape.  And now I am hooked, scanning the news hourly for fresh sales figures.  But now, as if to confirm that I made the right decision, Rage appeared on Radio 5 live at 8.50 this morning.  So, just as people were pulling into work, they were greeted with this:

Now I should point out this is decidedly NSFW. But the fact that Rage are back, playing together, and getting to do that on Radio 5 with Nicky Campbell (a horrible little turd if ever there was one) is surely cause for celebration.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy the single!