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!

Ok, I’m a huge radio fan. You might have guessed that by now! I’m constantly listening to the radio, talking about radio, chatting with other people about radio, – I study radio in college, I’m making contacts in the industry, etc. etc. – so it’s hardly surprising that I’ve got a big interest in the history of radio and the stations & people that got it where it is today.

45 years ago, one station that made a huge contribution to doing just that – in fact, one of the most ground-breaking, important and bleeding-edge radio stations of modern times – took to the airwaves – bucking the trend, challenging the norm and flying in the face of authority!

That station was Radio Caroline, and it was the literal definition of a ‘pirate station’, broadcasting from a ship anchored in international waters, garnering a regular listenership of over 20 million, and providing a very pointy and painful thorn in the side of the established media and the British government. If you’ve seen the (entertaining but sadly quite inaccurate) movie “The Boat That Rocked”, you’ve some small idea of what went on.

The story of life on board and on air is told brilliantly in new book, “Shiprocked” by Phantom 105.2 DJ, Steve Conway – a book which I highly recommend. It charts his own history with the station from his shaky and nerve-wracking start as a radio fan who is given the chance as a newsreader to filling the position of Head of News and Programme Controller as well as documenting the dangers and challenges of keeping the station both on the air and afloat.

Livepool F.C. slipped up lately – especially over the Christmas period, drawing games they should really have won, not beating teams they should really have trounced, and, as a result, falling back to second place behind Manchester (”The Scum”) United.

All they need is a little… inspiration. Something to put the ummph back, to energise them and give them purpose and meaning again… Yeah!

Enter… the Hoff!… (yes, David Hasselhoff, the man so awesome he has his own social networking site!)… singing their anthem.

That’ll do it.

Certainly for the first time at Christmas (and possibly for the first time EVER, – not sure), the same song by two different artists sits at No. 1 and No. 2 in the UK charts. The song is Hallelujah – the No. 1 spot is held (predictably enough) by Alexandra Burke’s high-octane choir-supported commercialised X-Factor winning version and No. 2 is Jeff Buckley’s sweet heart-wrenching poetic masterpiece.

Here’s the video of Alexandra Burke delivering the song for the first time, live:

I still prefer Buckley’s version of course, but there’s no denying that – while I may not agree completely with their choice of what song to cover here – Alexandra is an excellent singer. It’s nice that the radio stations will now have to play Jeff again

The Jeff fans who were trying to get him to No. 1 are delighted with themselves – and sure, why not? It’s extremely cool for him – and for this wonderful song – to get exposure like this over a decade after his death.

I’ve been listening to classic episodes of the ground-breaking BBC comedy radio show from the 50’s and 60’s, The Goon Show – and, while I’m not old enough to have heard it the first time around, I remembered listening to it back in the early 90’s when it was played again on RTÉ Radio… and I was a huge fan of it (along with Scrap Saturday).

A lot of people don’t seem to realise the absolute importance of a show like this – the Goons (Spike Milligan – the man who looks a lot like my uncle, and who threw himself so much into creating and writing the show, he had a nervous breakdown, Peter Sellers – the man for whom the words ‘versatile comedy genius’ were first strung together, and the literally irrepressible shouty little man, Harry Secombe) having been one of the first and greatest radio comedies of all time (still!) and one of the biggest influences on more modern comedians such as the Monty Python crew, Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly.

More about the Goons can be read here. Here’s how they ended it… The Last Goon show of all (in a trilogy of five wonderful YouTubey parts), recorded as part of the BBC’s 50th anniversary celebrations: