UNITED KINGDOM: From four minutes of silence, to a thong-wearing santa, to the latest X-factor winner - the race for UK's Christmas no. 1 single is on

Record ID: 751386

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: From four minutes of silence, to a thong-wearing santa, to the latest X-factor winner - the race for UK's Christmas no. 1 single is on
  • Date: 20th December 2010
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (DECEMBER 16, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) HMV HEAD OF PRESS AND PUBLICITY GENNARO CASTALDO, SAYING: "Already having looked at our midweek sales over the last few days, it (Matt Cardle, When We Collide) has a massive lead over all its rivals. I think after the first couple days, it was nearly 200,000 lead over Rihanna and The Trashmen (Surfin' Bird) and loads of other songs that tried to get the Christmas number one so I think it's fair to say it's business as usual, we're going to see the winner of the X-Factor get the Christmas number one again this year, probably with 500-600,000 sales through a combination of CD sales and downloads."
  • Embargoed: 4th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA83MRYRSTECOT11908ZQSYMADJ
  • Story Text: Britain's coveted Christmas number one is heating up in the final days before the winner is announced on Sunday (December 19).
    This year's artists range from a bikini-clad male Santa Clause dancing through the streets of Brighton, just south of London, to four minutes of complete silence by a campaign group calling itself Cage Against The Machine. It is a play on words of Rage Against The Machine, the alternative rock group from California who last year unseated the X-Factor winner to the top spot.
    Gennaro Castaldo, the head of press and publicity for HMV music chain, explained the Christmas number one phenomena.
    "Very often we'd all sit down in our front rooms. We'd watch the Top of the Pop Christmas special. Not just to see who was number one but to see the whole countdown of how the charts were made up. And then afterwards, the Queen would make her Christmas broadcast. So it's very much a part of our culture and it's still a part of our culture today because obviously singles are a key way to help promote album sales as well. But it's probably also fair to say that the excitement around it has diminished a little bit because the last ten years or so was dominated by whoever won the X-Factor was a shoo in and last year, there was a bit of a reaction against the X-Factor and there was a social media campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to the top of the charts," he said.
    A campaign on Facebook brought the U.S. rockers to the Christmas number one spot and as a thank you to fans, Rage Against The Machine put on a free concert for fans in London's Finsbury Park with proceeds from all single sales going to a homeless charity.
    On Thursday (December 16) Matt Cardle had his first organised event since being crowned the X-Factor winner as hordes of fans crowded a shopping centre in west London.
    The Essex-born former painter and decorator performed his song which currently is number one on the charts, "When We Collide", a cover of Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro.
    "I know there's some campaigns out there. There's one to get the original track to number one and I'd be chuffed for Biffy (Clyro) if they got to number one for their actual track because I didn't switch it up that much, I just did a cover of it," Cardle told Reuters Television, adding, "For four years at least, it was a given, you'd have a Christmas number one and people were like 'bollocks, no!' but if enough people are buying it to make it go number one, then it's wicked," talking about his single.
    Currently standing at number three is a bespectacled, cross-dressing Santa Claus dancing through the snow-covered English city of Brighton. The music video shows the man waving his arms like a chicken and hopping his way in and out of stores, with people, unaware of what was going on, standing and watching in open-mouthed amusement.
    Artist Dave Hilliard, the man behind the remake of "4"33'" which features four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, a remake of U.S. composer John Cage's controversial piece from 1952, said he started the "Cage Against The Machine" idea as a joke.
    Like the 2009 Christmas number one, this campaign was started on Facebook, with support pouring in from radio stations and British musicians such as The Kooks, Imogen Heap and Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. At first Hilliard said he was averse to having well-known artists on the track as it went against the idea of not having celebrities associated with the track, then realised they could help bring the track to a wider audience.
    But he said the song was up to an individual's interpretation.
    "Like I said, one of the things I really like is that people can get their own meanings out of what we do. Some people like the idea of peace and quiet over Christmas. It's almost making people more excited about the Christmas number one. We've gone from this period of years where it was just a shoo-in where it was X-Factor who was going to get the Christmas number one and people got fed up with that with the Rage Against The Machine thing and now it's really exciting, the people are playing with culture and participating in culture in a way that's not prescribed to them," he said, with the song featured at number 18 on Friday (December 17).
    The music video shows a number of artists in a recording studio in central London with the producer giving the signal to "go" and utter silence is performed. Some of the musicians sway back and forth as if to mimic a real audio recording while others pretend to play their instruments.
    Besides the unusual Christmas offerings this year, there are the real recording artists such as Rihanna and Black Eyed Peas also in the race for pole position.
    But Castaldo says judging by sales halfway through the week, it seems Simon Cowell will get his way -- again.
    "Already having looked at our midweek sales over the last few days, it (Matt Cardle, When We Collide) has a massive lead over all its rivals. I think after the first couple days, it was nearly 200,000 lead over Rihanna and The Trashmen (Surfin' Bird) and loads of other songs that tried to get the Christmas number one so I think it's fair to say it's business as usual, we're going to see the winner of the X-Factor get the Christmas number one again this year, probably with 500-600,000 sales through a combination of CD sales and downloads," he said.
    The X-Factor has plans to bring the show to a U.S. audience in 2011, replacing the current American Idol.

    The official midweek charts on Wednesday (December 15) shows:
    1. Matt Cardle - When We Collide
    2. Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name?
    3. The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
    4. Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)
    5. Ellie Goulding - Your Song
    6. Take That - The Flood
    7. Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror
    8. Rihanna - Only Girl In The World
    9. Willow Smith - Whip My Hair
    10. Michael Jackson - Hold My Hand
    18. John Cage - 4'33"
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