I spent the last week helping out down in i105-107 as part of my work experience for college. I didn’t really need to do it as I’ve had about 10 weeks experience working in radio stations since September (we’re only required to do 2 for the course) but I reckon the more I get – the better, and… well, I just plain like it there – t’is a great little station, so it is.

The highlights of the week for me included:

Singing and busking in the Big Busk-Off with the “iDrive with Nadia & Phil” team in the Bridge Centre, Tullamore. We were up against “Breakfast with Bernard & Keith”. I played the drums (a.k.a. the empty water cooler bottle). Highlights of our performance included Valerie, Fields of Athenry and Hit Me Baby One More Time. Yes. The crowd loved us. Got plenty of hugs and gave out “Hugs & Handshakes” vouchers while there. Bernard & Keith still won. Foul play was suspected. Great craic, all the same

Well you may know by now that they did it in the UK… In a testament to the power of the Internet, a facebook campaign has succeeded in usurping the X Factor from the Christmas No. 1 slot and installing the most unlikely replacement in the shape of definite song of the moment “Killing in the Name” by Rap metal supremos Rage Against The Machine at the top of the UK “Singles” Chart. Scott Mills announced it just before 7pm on BBC Radio 1’s Chart Show.

The (digital only) sales of the song outstripped second place Joe McElderry’s “The Climb” (which was also available on CD for the last few days) by over 50,000 making it the first download-only Christmas No. 1 and the biggest electronic sale of a song ever in the UK. (David has the figures here).

This isn’t being seen as just a victory for Rage Against the Machine or their song – or even for rock music itself. Moreover, it’s a clear message being sent to Simon Cowell and the whole manufactured TV “talent” competition establishment that has dominated the charts and removed the unpredictability and fun of the pop music charts and the institution that is the Christmas No. 1.

That message seems to have been along the lines of “no thanks, we’d rather have real bands playing real music that they wrote and performed themselves” – and the choice of song to represent that message was a well made one. In other words… “Fuck you, Cowell.. we won’t do what you tell us!”

Here’s the guys in their recent BBC Radio 5 appearance (before the chart was announced) – where they talk about the battle for the No. 1 spot, Simon Cowell & The X Factor, – and play the song itself (featuring various inclusions of the famous “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!” line at the end).

UPDATE: The band are now promising that they WILL come to the UK to play a free gig there to celebrate this No. 1 – and they are giving a huge chunk of the proceeds from the downloads of the song directly to the charity “Shelter”.

Meanwhile, the race is still on for the Christmas Number One spot here in Ireland – the chart here being announced on Thursdays – so that’ll be Christmas Eve, this year.

You can do your bit by downloading it on iTunes (as I have done) or eircom music store. The X Factor single’s chances are possibly stronger over here than they were in the UK, unfortunately, as it will have been available on CD for longer than it was there – but you never know!

Larry Gogan – the legend of Irish radio – now confined to the weekends on RTÉ 2fm – is well known for the “Just-A-Minute Quiz”… a quickfire general knowlege quiz that, as the title suggests, takes just a minute to complete.

Today’s contestant, Ryan Kinealy from Galway, was clearly taking the piss out of Larry – pretending not to know any of the answers, repeatedly asking the veteran broadcaster for the next question, really pushing it at one point by asking “can I go on to Google for a sec?” (with Larry somewhat angrily replying “No, you can’t!”) and even looking for a third option in a “true or false” question.

This made for very uncomfortable (but pretty bloody funny) radio. I think Larry handled it as well as could be expected! Check it out:

Aside… What was the contestant saying at the end there before he got cut off? Sounded like “Cock balls! Cock balls! Cock balls! Ha ha ha ha …” to me… (!)

Watched “W.” recently – the Oliver Stone biopic of George W. Bush.

I thought Josh Brolin was excellent in it, taking on Bush’s mannerisms and foibles brilliantly, but I thought the film overall, while good, was a little too sympathetic to the ex-president and could have taken a tougher line.

Powell came out of it well, Rumsfeld came across badly, while Cheney seemed to be quite the conniving little shit…

I was also slightly surprised that the film didn’t really deal much with 9/11… but anyway…

Moving on – today I saw this photo on the New York Times web site (linked with a story about a bit of a falling out between the boss and his ‘vice’)… and one thing struck me…

… and that was that it has to be the oddest and freakiest photo of Dick Cheney I’ve ever seen!… and most unlikely photos to be taken, in fairness… so I’ve asked on twitpic for some good captions… and so far so good Keep ‘em coming! (and yes, you’ll need to be logged in to twitter to comment there)