6 Music - Music News

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has spoken exclusively to 6 Music about a campaign to beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to Christmas number one this week.

Nearly 800,000 people have joined the Facebook group to get the American rock giants’ 1992 hit Killing In The Name to the top of the festive chart.

Speaking to Matt Everitt on Shaun Keaveny’s Breakfast Show, the singer revealed he initially heard about the campaign through some of his British friends.

And his reaction was; "A little dose of anarchy for the Christmas holidays is good for the soul."

"I love the independent spirit of the British rock fans," he explained. "Your country has a great rich history of cutting-edge, exciting rebel music.

"Whether it’s the early Stones and The Who, or The Clash and The Sex Pistols, or Prodigy and The Muse, I think that people are just fed up with being represented every Christmas holiday, being spoon fed some overblown, sugary ballad that sits at the top of the charts."

"The one thing about the X Factor show, much like American Idol, if you're a viewer of the show, you get to vote for one candidate or the other but you don’t really get to vote against the show itself... Until now!"

The Facebook page includes a link to the Shelter site, which has raised nearly £30,000 in donations for the homeless, and Morello revealed the charity effort does not stop there.

"Me personally, I am going to donate part of my proceeds from the sales to an organisation in the UK called Youth Music, which is the UK’s largest children’s music charity. My hope is that one of the results of this whole thing is that there will be a new generation of rockers who will take on the establishment with the music they write."

Physical sales boost

According to the latest Official Charts Company figures, Killing In The Name has now extended the lead to around 60%, selling a further 92,000 copies yesterday (15 Dec).

This brings its total for the week to more than 175,000 units.

However, from today (16) the physical version of Joe McElderry's debut single The Climb is available to buy, which experts admit is likely to boost the talent show singer’s sales significantly.

Official Charts Company spokesman Martin Talbot explained: "Joe McElderry’s single will do disproportionately well physically. The single’s market now is 98-plus percent digital.

"The physical market doesn’t really exist for most releases, but for releases of this status and ones that are going to cross over to the gift purchase market as well, is going to sell significantly on CD."

If Joe McElderry wins the race, it will be the fifth year in a row an X Factor winner has reached Christmas number one.

As for Morello’s message to the people behind the Facebook group, he said: "Well done".

And to music mogul Simon Cowell, he laughed: "I bear him no ill will. He’s going to be fine either way."