There are three things you can rely on in life: Death, taxes and the Christmas Number One being by the new "X-Factor" winner. Yawn. Because Simon Cowell's android pop stars have marched their way to the summit of the festive chart tree for the last four years running. But it seems his spell could be about to end, after a group emerged from the dark corners of the internet in a bid to jeopardise the pop mogul's domination and, in short, tell him where to stick it.
Tens of thousands of people have signed-up to a campaign organised online by Jon Morter, which calls on people to buy Rage Against The Machine's infamous, insurrectionary 1992 track "Killing In The Name" and send that to the top of the singles chart on December 25 instead of whichever contestant wins the 2009 competition. "Fed up of Simon Cowell's latest karaoke act being Christmas Number One? Me too... So who's up for a mass-purchase of the track ‘Killing In The Name'...as a protest to the ‘X-Factor' b******s?", explain the Facebook and Twitter groups.
The most memorable line in arguably Rage's greatest moment is probably "******* you, I won't do what you tell me", which Morter describes as being "very apt". He says the Christmas Number One is a "great tradition", which the "X-Factor" has "taken all the fun out of". Last year, he unsuccessfully pitched Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" against Alexandra Burke's cover of "Hallelujah". But this fight is not over and the battle lines have clearly been drawn once again. To succeed this year music fans would need to buy the single in the week of 13th - 19th of December from either 7Digital, iTunes or Play.com to ensure the track was No.1 on the big day.