talkmagic.co.uk

It looks like Tim Minchin has decided to throw his (Santa) hat into the xmas No.1 ring by releasing his fantastic tune "White Wine In The Sun". Not only is it a lovely xmas song but it's also about how even godless heathens have a good time during the festive months. It's also one of the few songs that melts the lump of ice that is my heart and makes me have a little bit of a cry whilst pretending that I've actually just got something in my eye.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=192054253371&ref=nf

But I loved Bob the Builder!

A_n_t wrote:

daleshrimpton wrote:I cant help but think, that this Campaign would of got much better public support, if something else... Say Peter Kays wonderfull Children in need single, was the song people were getting behind.
That way, at the very least, more money would be going to a good cause, rather than into peoples pockets.

I would agree, however it does not make the same statement.

I the whole point of Rage Against The Machine being chosen is because the people that are not X Factor sheep are raging against the machine that is Cowell. It may also have raised some cynical eyebrows as it was already done previously when Kaye beat the other one in the charts (Leon something?).

I would have preferred a christmas song personally, possibly one of Slade's or that one the Darkness did.

So, assuming everybody joining in on this are doing so, because they hate Cowell, I would of thought a more practical solution would be for them all to donate one pound into a fund to hire a hit man, and cure the problem for good!.

( This was only a joke by the way.. should this actually happen, it really has nothing to do with me)

AND FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK WOULD BE A BETTER CHOICE.

daleshrimpton wrote:AND FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK WOULD BE A BETTER CHOICE.

Ooooooh! Good choice!

Well, the original Facebook page and all the associated charity links seem to have vanished.

High traffic?

Or something more insidious???

Pete

pcwells wrote:Well, the original Facebook page and all the associated charity links seem to have vanished.

High traffic?

Or something more insidious???

Pete

Cockup on the bandwidth front most probably.

It's back, intermittently. 704,000 members now and rising by the second. Well done Joe on your forthcoming Xmas number 2!

Though it was tempting to think it was some kind of order from the powers that be, it appears that the facebook page was just experiencing high traffic. Its back now, with instructions on what to do for the terminally bewildered.

I sincerely hope this is something people do, not just sign up for on faceache to look cool.

I will be buying it, even though i have it already. It needs everyone to put a fraction of their money where their mouths are.

PLUS, apparently Steve Brookstein is a member of the group.

Lots of LOLs to be had there.

i don't quite understand this...

you all want RATM to be number 1, (good song) - but the money will still go to Cowell and company?

And, in fact, it will not stop people buying the X-craptor stuff...so really, you're giving Cowell double his money...over music, that you can easily ignore and just...well...listen to something else...

maybe, if the 704,000 all gave two or three quid instead to the same charity (NSPCC for example) - instead of buying the cd, would that not be a nicer gesture over the pagan...sorry...christmas period?

hey look, I'm tired and grumpy...go and enjoy yourselves - but in my mind...meh....

Much as I'd be inclined to agree with your grumpy outlook Iain, I do feel like making some kind of revolt, however half-baked or flawed.

Chances are whatever is in the charts at Christmas or frankly any time of year, I'm not going to like. And I don't watch weekend "prime time", X-Factor, "Strictly" or any such mindrot. But the casual assumption made by Cowell et al. that they can year after year effectively fix the Christmas number 1 with their current bewildered puppet just sticks in my craw.

Especially when they are getting hours of advertising dressed up as "entertainment"... it's amazing what that word lets you get away with, isn't it? Is anyone else starting to feel that just because the British general public find something entertaining, it doesn't necessarily mean it should automatically be given the green light? Sorry, I digress...

What was hilarious was to hear Cowell on the radio complaining that this campaign was cruelly targeted at him and ignored "the poor wee kiddies who have worked so hard to blah blah blah, " and also made out that it makes "the fans" out there to be stupid... "and I don't like that", he defiantly says. As if! As if for a fraction of a microsecond he doesn't see X-Factor consumers as a manipulatable blob of cash-putty ready to be pumped and squeezed as hard as possible as he wrings their purses into his pocket. A veritable herd of Shmoos...

So yes; in terms of fiancial result perhaps this mini-revolution needs to be planned a little better next year, but in strikes me that in music there's always going to be a fatcat pocketing the majority unless your local pub R&B band get to number one. But if we can get up Mr. Cowell's nose even just a little bit and at least try to suggest there are a significant number of people who don't want to just bend over and take it every time his commercial behemoth comes to town, I say we give it a go.

I'm all for people protesting if they feel strongly about something...

its knowing when to pick your battles though - for this, its just a record, people will buy it cos they like X Factor...those that hate it, won't...no more, no less...

its not a fix, its a choice...

What HASN'T been mentioned yet is that this is a two-step campaign...

They're asking us to:

1. Buy the Rage Against The Machine song
2. Go here and donate some money to their chosen charity (in this case, Shelter).

So far, they've raised £21,290.78 and counting.

Most people are donating between £2 and £5.

I have to wonder how much money would have been raised if the organisers had simply promoted a charity single instead. Much less, I'd wager!

Pete

I've managed to completely ignore X Factor, BGT, Dancing on Celebrities on Ice in the Big Brother Jungle House etc so S.Cowell Esq and contemporaries get nothing out of me anyway. Sadly, on the radio about 5 minutes ago I heard the 'winning artist' from this year and until they said who it was I thought it was Will Young - again. Nothing changes much, does it?

pcwells wrote:What HASN'T been mentioned yet is that this is a two-step campaign...

They're asking us to:

1. Buy the Rage Against The Machine song
2. Go here and donate some money to their chosen charity (in this case, Shelter).

So far, they've raised £21,290.78 and counting.

Most people are donating between £2 and £5.

I have to wonder how much money would have been raised if the organisers had simply promoted a charity single instead. Much less, I'd wager!

Pete

considerably less than would of been raised, if Cowell donated 100% sales from the winners record, Thats for sure.
and the stupid thing is, If he had done this, then it's unlikely that any campaign would of started in the first place.

This isn't so much a correction as something i heard a while ago and can't be bothered to look up, but the money from the Rage record won't go to Cowell as such, it will go to Epic Records who are a subsidiary of Sony. I think Cowell either runs or has a huge stake in BMG, who are also owned by Sony.

So the cash will go to Cowell's bosses, if that's the right word to use there.

My own opinions will probably sound like a Daily Mail letter so i won't go on and on. I know people really shouldn't let something like The X Factor ruin your day, and normally i'd be happy to let them get on with it.
I despise reality shows though, and instead of sitting there watching them and moaning, i do the right thing and ignore both them, and the articles about them in the newspaper.

Someone was moaning on the Park and Ride Bus this morning that more people voted in the X Factor final than voted in the last general election.
This person is missing the point of course, as the X Factor's target audience are pre-or-just-about-pubescent, fame hungry, empty headed girls who see Jordan as a role model and probably think Eastenders is a documentary. Plus you can vote for the X Factor via text message. Sorted!

I'm a musician, its how i earn my living. I'm (obviously) not rich or famous which is fine. It does irk me sometimes when gigs are thin on the ground, how someone who doesnt write their own material and has a mediocre voice but looks pretty is earning shed loads, while my band write our own stuff and sometimes struggle to make ends meet.

Of course, it could mean I'm an idiot and they're smart and life isn't fair but it's never going to be.
I always say my favourite musicians would never make it on X Factor. Shane MacGowan; awesome lyrics, wouldn't get passed the auditions. Joe Strummer; same applies. The X Factor has had Xmas number ones for the last....what? 4 or 5 years? I can't name you one of them, let alone who sung the f-in thing.

If Rage get to number one it won't herald the death of the X Factor, nor will it make Simon Cowell start a show called Britain's Got Real Musicians. I just think that the facebook campaign is an illustration of people power. I know we're not smashing the state, feeding the hungry or declaring world peace, but in this day and age the idea that a bunch of people are pulling together for a purpose is refreshing. It's not motivated by money, which is another refresher. If anything it's having a go at the people who, as Farlsy says, are just seeing a group of a certain age and persuasion as a source of revenue.