Rage Against The Machine still at the top of the charts!

According to figures released this morning by the Official Charts Company, Rage Against The Machine are still on course to bag the Christmas Number One.

The band’s track, Killing In The Name, has sold a grand total of 253,476 copies this week, where as X Factor winner Joe McElderry has only sold 216,795, despite his single being released on CD yesterday.

"We've got half a million singles going out [to shops],” X Factor head honcho Simon Cowell told the Daily Star yesterday. “Joe will be Number One."

However given McElderry's poor performance at retail yesterday, we doubt it Simon.

In related news, Rage Against The Machine performed Killing In The Name live on BBC 5live this morning. But, despite being asked to play a radio friendly version of the track, the band insisted on running through the song’s ‘Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’ refrain.

Frontman Zack de la Rocha also used the opportunity to savage Simon Cowell.

“Simon seems to have profited greatly off humiliating people on live television and has a unique position of capturing the attention of people on television, but also the airwaves,” he said. “We see this as a necessary break of that control."

"People are tired of being spoon fed one schmaltzy ballad after another," added Tom Morello. "They want to take back their own charts.

“We're honoured they've chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to topple The X Factor monopoly,” added guitarist Tom Morello. "We wrote Killing In The Name in a small industrial slum in Los Angeles. The X Factor song is written by a cabal of overpaid songwriters to shove the schmaltzy business down your throats.”

You can listen to the full interview below:

Tags: Rage Against The Machine

Posted by Dan at 01:01PM | December 17, 2009

That interview is amazing. And I'm so gld they're still beating that pug faced Geordie twat!

xox

Posted by Sarah | December 17, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply to this

I'm buying my copy. Really pleased RATM stayed in the lead even with Joe's CD out yesterday.

Posted by Gary | December 17, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply to this

Screw you BBC! Embrace the anger!

Posted by KimmiKub | December 17, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply to this

BBC are a bunch of plonkers.

Rage getting number 1 would be the best Christmas present ever!

Posted by Matty | December 17, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply to this

for me, it's not the fact that the x factor songs are worse than anything else that may go 4 the xmas single, its the...inevitability of it. like, every year, no contest, the x factor single win be the number 1. boring! i love that there is actual competition this year! specially such a brilliant song too :)
cmon ratm!

Posted by Mel | December 17, 2009 3:04 PM | Reply to this

For me its the fact that the money made is going to a PROPER cause, i.e a proper charity rather than simon cowels back pocket, RATM MUST! get number 1!!!

Come on guys, you have my vote.

Posted by Phil | December 17, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply to this

ha ha ha ha the ending to that is epic! 'sorry we asked them not to do that but they did it anyway buy joes record' lol legends

Posted by stsve | December 17, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply to this

I love how 5 Live knew they were going to do that. I mean, come on! Thats the whole point of the song! "Fuck you, I wont do what you tell me!" kind of sums up the fact that they won't be censored! There isn't any other way they could have played that. By censoring it, they're going against the ideas portrayed in their song!

Posted by Richard | December 17, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply to this

haha today joe was supposed to get no1 according to 'experts'

Posted by fitzy | December 17, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply to this

what a bitch, what did she expect. :P I like how she got mad about it pshh.

BTW 700,000 group members 250,000 sales. So many people joined without actually buying it... ridiculous

Posted by leroy | December 17, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply to this

Geordie twat? :| Seriously, there is no need to say that.

Posted by Mel | December 17, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply to this

Almost my whole school is supporting RATM including the teachers. I think it would be awesome if it got the Christmas #1 spot, I'd love to hear this played on the radio :)
x

Posted by Danny | December 17, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply to this

Danny it was played in full unedited on Radio 1 last night ( 16th ) about 10.30pm ish

Posted by Anthony | December 17, 2009 7:58 PM | Reply to this

I thought it was funny the way it ended, made me laugh...

"let's be good guys, good, good, good... aw, fuck it..."

I don't really agree with the sentence "Frontman Zack de la Rocha also used the opportunity to savage Simon Cowell." In fact, I thought both Zack and Tom were very polite in their responses, but hey...

I read on the discussion thread on the group someone saying they didn't want their child to hear the word 'fuck' on the radio... but as another fan so rightly pointed out, that child probably hears swrearing every day at school, and the song itself was followed by talks on the rise in teenage binge drinking and the rape of an 8 year od girl by two 10 year old boys... I don't think a few little curse words in a song are what the nation should be focusing on...

Posted by Pipparatm | December 17, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply to this

I thought it was funny the way it ended, made me laugh...

"let's be good guys, good, good, good... aw, fuck it..."

Posted by Pipparatm | December 17, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply to this

After listening to their interview/performance earlier on, the BBC brought the whole swearing issue on themselves.

Seriously, did they ever expect an anti-polictical group like RATM to really listen to their request not to swear???

And haven't they already been banned from American airwaves for doing the same thing.

Brilliant publicity though, if anything, Bad publicity is always good publicity. People do not realise they have just been exposed in the media even more.

Rage against the Christmas Crap roll on!

Posted by Neil | December 17, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply to this

So, the BBC have had to apoligise because Rage Against The Machine didn't do what they told them? What part of 'Fuck You I Won't Do What You Tell Me' do the BBC not understand? There was no way this wouldn't happen tbh.

And both Zach and Tom made some very good points about how the music industry is going to shit, and I thought they were both very civil with their comments. Nothing too immature or personal, just facts. I have a lot of respect for those guys.

Posted by Rachel | December 17, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply to this

Haha, this interview comapred with the one of Joe saying he'd never heard of RATM and only listens to 'Chart stuff', it's just a great interview from RATM. Tom Morello and Zac DLR speak PERFECT sense. We're making a stand against the media juggernaut! CMON!!

Posted by HollowNightmares | December 18, 2009 12:06 AM | Reply to this

why do u care wot song gets number 1?

This whole thig seems pointless.

Posted by paul | December 18, 2009 12:21 AM | Reply to this

why do you care who gets number 1. This whole thing seems pointless. Getting RATM to number 1 will prove nothing...im not going to waste my time.

Posted by Paul | December 18, 2009 12:25 AM | Reply to this

RAGE FOR SONISPHERE PLEZ.

Posted by kingkill | December 18, 2009 2:04 AM | Reply to this

...Joe! ;)

Strange how RATM are still around and making money 19 years after Killing In The Name was released.

In 19 years time Joe McElldrey will be doing panto in Grimsby - as the rear-end of the panto horse!

Posted by MPD | December 18, 2009 2:06 AM | Reply to this

Acvtually, its been played almost every day on the radio in the last week

Posted by Lee | December 18, 2009 8:48 AM | Reply to this

...the campaign has forced a humiliating climbdown. Not from Simon Cowell, though. The climbdown was from a mainstream entertainment media who have happily gone about their business for years pretending rock, punk and metal are irrelevant. We pissed on their bonfires!

Posted by Ryan | December 18, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply to this