The US rock veterans Rage Against The Machine are planning a big thank you celebration concert for UK fans if they pull off the big upset and beat X Factor singer McElderry in the UK Xmas single charts next week. In order to do that though they need to gather their forces and pull from behind again as they trailed by 11 000 sales on Saturday. If they win they are planning to invite X Factor judge Simon Cowell to MC at the show.
The ‘Killing in the Name‘ of’ track is putting up a surprising fight with the heavy favorited song ‘The Climb‘ and has caused Cowell some heartburn over the past weeks after a RATM fan organized the campaign on Facebook to break the ‘boring’ mold of X Factor contestants owning the important Christmas singles chart.
Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said: “Attention Freedom Fighters! Rage Vs X Factor will be decided by Saturday’s sales. Spread the word! Knock on doors! Host downloading parties! Knock over ladies buying X-Factor! The clock is ticking. And if ‘Killing In The Name’ is number one we are coming. And it will be the victory party to end all victory parties.”
RATM, uncensored footage from BBC Radio 5Live, NSFW
The BBC was forced to apologise recently when Rage Against The Machine played an expletive-ridden version of the song live on BBC Radio 5live, (did they really think they could get the LA bad boys to stick to a PG rated version, perhaps on the Disney channel….)
McElderry, revealed that he has never heard of the band or the song before; well nobody ever expected him to, he’s on the X Factor.
He told The Sun: “They can’t be serious! I had no idea what it sounded like. It’s dreadful and I hate it. How can anyone enjoy this?
“Can you imagine the grandma’s hearing this over Christmas lunch?”
Paul McCartney and NME magazine recently hopped on board the Rage campaign backing the rock song after Simon Cowell slammed the Facebook campaign calling it “stupid”, “cynical” and “very Scrooge”.
Let’s all cross are fingers and hope for a little Christmas miracle next week.
C’mon, guys! It’s a scam! If you are truly RATM fans, you certainly must know their other track “No Shelter” :
“…
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin’
…”
This together with the Facebook campaign saying that the money would go to Shelter, you must have guessed the joke!
Just because “No Shelter” was used as a song title doesn’t mean the band is not going to help the charity ‘Shelter’. That has been said publically.
Get real! RATM is one of the most politically aware and socially motivated bands I can name, and they regularly support charities in a big way. From this standpoint, RATM is one of the most appropriate contenders possible for Christmas number 1.