As reported on these pages last week, the British public were gripped in a interesting (if a little perplexing) battle for the Christmas number 1 spot in the UK pop charts.  As the UK Christmas charts have been dominated by the winner of the yearly Simon Cowell’s X Factor ‘talent show’ winner for the last four years, a British couple set up a Facebook page entitled RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1 in order to try and get the 1992 RATM single Killing in The Name to be this year’s chart topper come December 25. As it turns out, Killing in The Name won by 50,000 copies.

While my initial report on the battle was quite cynical as in my view the UK pop charts have long been irrelevant for providing any sort of quality music, after quiet reflection it was indeed a heart warming gesture to see almost 1 million fans, through the power of social media manage to get a-nearly-20-year-old single (featuring lyrics attacking the KKK infiltrated Los Angeles Police Department, not a Christmas themed track I know) to the top of the British charts, thus bringing back healthy competition to the decaying pop charts. Furthermore, after being aware of the movement, Tom Morello pledged his support towards the cause and will donate all the profits from the single towards the UK based charity Shelter as well as performing a free gig in London. Restores your faith in humanity doesn’t it?