Clash interviewed ‘Rage Against The Machine for Christmas number 1’ (or Ratm4Xmas) Facebook campaign founder John Morter as the band’s ‘Killing In The Name’ beat X Factor winner’s Joe McElderry single ‘The Climb’ to the Christmas number one spot (read ClashMusic’s full news story HERE).
Clash spoke to campaign organiser: Jon Morter ahead of the chart announcement: “I found out when my phone went mental, it hasn’t stopped. I also got a text from Simon Cowell saying ‘Well done you’ve done it. Congratulations’. He rang me on Saturday night and we spoke. He was very nice really. He just said ‘You fought a great campaign, it’s been really interesting. It’s been the most interesting race in years and your win has been richly deserved.”
Rage Against the Machine have achieved both the largest ever one week sales in UK chart history and are the first ever number one garnered through downloads alone in the UK also.
Jon Morter was humble with his win telling Simon Cowell back: “Great to have competed against you, and send our regards to Joe. He’s a great singer and deserves much success. Say hi to Cheryl too.”
Never before have social networks such as Facebook and Twittter been so united. There are nearly 1.5 million member across the three affiliated groups on Facebook whose pages have been alive with passion and ideas as the silent majority of Britian rebelled against the dull and predictable nature of the December charts running into Christmas.
Speaking about the instruments which won this historic battle Jon continued: “Twitter and Facebook have just exploded but we aren’t saying anything on there till 7 pm. We are still really enjoying the hype we’ve built up.”
The Facebook group also crucially raised £60,000 for homeless charity Shelter making a further mockery of the profit orientated X Factor monolith who give no money to charity despite raising millions upon millions over the last five years.
We asked Jon Morter if he’d be repeating the campaign in 2010 to further drive nails into the coffin of bloated TV talent shows, though the guerrilla campaigner was unsure: “We might not do this again. I’m not sure. How do you top this? How can we beat that really? It’ll be so hard to top.”
Clash were slightly concerned that Cowell may enjoy a resurgence and suggested Jon would be the best person to continue to lead the next generation of anti-pop piffle. He kept his options open: “We might. We’re not sure. We are just enjoying this moment. It’d have to be done differently. People are suggesting we do something around the world cup, I few people have been calling to talk about that but i am not sure.”
Many fence sitters were confused about the fact that both songs: both Joe’s ‘Climb’ and Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ were on the Sony label. An early rumour pervaded that Cowell actually owned the rights to the song and it was a clever marketing ploy.
Thankfully this wasn’t true and though such a spectre was frustrating, Jon has no regrets over the choice of song at all: “Who was selling the record was never the point. It was simply about NOT having the X Factor at number one. I wouldn’t have even minded if Simon Cowell had written the lyrics. i would have still picked that song. It was purely about the message.”
The silent majority of Britain refused to say silent and through joining forces made chart and cultural history. Ahead of being driven to the BBC studios Jon Morter was sounding thrilled: “We are all feeling more than a little historic!”
Words by Matthew Bennett
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Following the display of people power mobilised by the victory, Clash asks “Why the hell has that not happened over slightly more vital issues?”. Read our comment HERE.
