Rage invite Cowell to host free 2010 show
Rage Against the Machine invite Cowell to host free 2010 show
Also In The News
|
By Adam Leveridge
Formula one commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone has given the green light to plans to host a grand prix on the streets of Rome in 2012 or 2013, according to race organizer Maurizio Falmmini. |  |
Tuesday, 22, Dec 2009 01:32
By Lewis Bazley.
US rock band Rage Against the Machine have invited X Factor judge Simon Cowell to host a planned free concert next year after they beat the ITV1 reality show to the Christmas number one spot.
The politically-minded band's 1992 single Killing In The Name is the 2009 Christmas number one single after an internet campaign sparked a chart battle by encouraging fans to buy the song to prevent the debut track by the X Factor winner topping the charts for the fifth Christmas in a row.
The scheme proved successful, with Killing In The Name selling around 50,000 more copies than Joe McElderry's single The Climb and Rage have announced they will play a free gig in the UK next year to celebrate the victory, though a date and venue has not yet been decided.
"We've invited [Cowell] to be the presenter of our free show so we have to see how he responds," guitarist Tom Morello told NME.com.
"I will say I heard Simon Cowell graciously called [campaign founder] Jon [Morter] to congratulate him. Rage Against the Machine is waiting for our congratulatory call because we're number one."
Morello said the band were "thrilled" to have won the Christmas number one race.
"If Killing In The Name is the song that liberated the UK charts, we are planning to go there and make it as big and as free as can be," he explained.
"The band is going to have a victory celebration here [in Los Angeles] at a local UK-style fish'n'chips pub on Tuesday night and we'll probably be clinking glasses and drinking a toast to our great fans and comrades in the UK, but we may start getting some ideas together of when this is going to happen."
Morello said the campaign should be viewed as a "political act" and showed "people uniting in solidarity can do anything".
"It went from being 'let's kick The X Factor off the top of the charts' to a real people's movement and, in the future, the energy behind it can be used for other social justice causes and not just chart-topping," he remarked.
According to the Sun newspaper, McElderry's single is now outselling Killing In The Name by two copies to one and is expected to be number one next week.