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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!

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.

Here’s some photos I took with my phone in London the weekend before last… Click any thumbnail to see the full picture…