This is the bit I don't understand? Who is dictating it to you? The 450,000 members of the public who bought Joe's single? It seems to me that that campaign is against the other members of the British public who buy the X-Factor single. It is them which decide the number 1, nobody else.

Quote ComeOnYouWolves="ComeOnYouWolves"I just have to laugh at these people, why buy mutiple copies of a song that they already own, just to prove a point? FFS there are plenty of needy causes locally and worldwide where people need help and any little would help. Then again lining fat cats pockets helps..... I applaud the sheep.... Only in Britain...'" If my understanding is correct the proceeds of the RATM sales go to the charity Shelter. This would probably fit under your "local cause" nomenclature and ergo defeat your argument, and silence your poorly researched tirade, quite readily. Baa Baa You can read about how grateful Shelter are here england.shelter.org.uk/news/dece ... e_campaign!

Quote ComeOnYouWolves="ComeOnYouWolves"I just have to laugh at these people, why buy mutiple copies of a song that they already own, just to prove a point? FFS there are plenty of needy causes locally and worldwide where people need help and any little would help. Then again lining fat cats pockets helps..... I applaud the sheep.... Only in Britain...'" If my understanding is correct the proceeds of the RATM sales go to the charity Shelter. This would probably fit under your "local cause" nomenclature and ergo defeat your argument, and silence your poorly researched tirade, quite readily. Baa Baa You can read about how grateful Shelter are here england.shelter.org.uk/news/dece ... e_campaign!

I think it is all about the rediculous exposure that the XFactor artists get over a pro-longed period which, people like I believe, distorts the charts and stifles creativity.

Quote Wires71="Wires71"If my understanding is correct the proceeds of the RATM sales go to the charity Shelter. This would probably fit under your "local cause" nomenclature and ergo defeat your argument, and silence your poorly researched tirade, quite readily. Baa Baa You can read about how grateful Shelter are here england.shelter.org.uk/news/dece ... e_campaign!'" If thats the case then fair play to them... i bow my head, still believe its a pointless idea. 20 million people watched the XFactor final (may i add not me). Secondly apparently 10 million of them switched over for the last 15 mins (source of Galaxy FM). Therefore if there are 20 million "fans" of XFactor then i would say if they want to buy the single then this would reflect the true opinions of the British people. They arent brain washed into buying or watching the program. They arent mine, but to the masses it would reflect it.

Quote Wires71="Wires71"If my understanding is correct the proceeds of the RATM sales go to the charity Shelter. This would probably fit under your "local cause" nomenclature and ergo defeat your argument, and silence your poorly researched tirade, quite readily. Baa Baa You can read about how grateful Shelter are here england.shelter.org.uk/news/dece ... e_campaign!'" If thats the case then fair play to them... i bow my head, still believe its a pointless idea. 20 million people watched the XFactor final (may i add not me). Secondly apparently 10 million of them switched over for the last 15 mins (source of Galaxy FM). Therefore if there are 20 million "fans" of XFactor then i would say if they want to buy the single then this would reflect the true opinions of the British people. They arent brain washed into buying or watching the program. They arent mine, but to the masses it would reflect it.

Thank you! Finally a bit of sense. The song chosen was totally irrelevant. It could have been three minutes of silence, but the fact was there was a choice to be had. Something that has been missing for the past few years.

Rubbish. There are dozens of new "singles" released in this week.

Really? And where has been the airplay to give them reasonable exposure to give the public a fair chance of hearing, enabling them to purchase?

I know of two, one by the Petshop Boys and another, whom I can't remember both of which I have heard once. I would consider myself above the norm when it come to radio listening.

A [irealistic [/ichoice though? RATM had to compete against huge media coverage of the X Factor manufacturerd pap, including but not limited to 3 months of ITV primetime coverage.

Other singles don't stand a chance sadly.

Absolutely.

If this campaign had championed a song by a new or new-ish artist, then I would have been much more able to understand the point of it. That a 17-year old song by a mediocre American band was chosen completely destroys this variously posited claptrap that 'this is all to save British music'.

Moreover, that they picked this one with its 'F-you I won't do what you tell me' refrain makes the whole thing even more pathetic - look at us, we're rock and roll rebels, and we've made Simon Cowell a little bit annoyed. As someone wrote somewhere in the press today, it's rather reminiscent of the 'Yes, we are all individuals' bit in Life of Brian.

I wonder whether all these people who have participated in this could be bothered to mobilise themselves in such a way for something slightly more important than the Xmas Number One single.

The X Factor thing will be Number One next Sunday anyway.

Even if Joe was played every hour, there's still time for 7 or 8 more songs per hour.

What were the Christmas 1s in the ten years before X Factor? I think I remember one good contest - Gary Jules vs The Darkness. The rest of time it was Westlife, Spice Girls or Take that's latest.