US band Rage Against the Machine's song Killing in the Name remains ahead of X-Factor winner Joe McElderry's The Climb in the race to be the UK number 1 for Christmas although just 4,000 sales separated the two acts this morning.
The internet campaign launched to get the rap-metal's song – which includes the refrain: "F**k you, I won't do what you tell me" – to number 1 is an effort to break a sequence of X-Factor Christmas number 1s stretching back to 2005.
It has garnered huge support on Facebook in particular over the last 10 days with over 750,000 people signing up in less than a week.
Official chart data released this morning showed that the two artists – who share the same record label, Sony – had sold around 300,000 copies of their singles by last night. The tracks could sell up to half a million copies by Sunday when the final chart positions are announced.
“The momentum now appears to be firmly with Joe, although the unexpected snowfalls could count disproportionately against him if it stops Christmas shoppers from hitting the nation’s high streets this weekend,” HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo said.
“The internet protest campaign behind Rage Against the Machine is still going strong, though is showing signs of slowing a little, and the band’s expletive-ridden outburst on the BBC yesterday doesn’t appear to have generated much of an extra boost for them.”
Rage Against the Machine yesterday performed "Killing in the Name" live on BBC Radio 5 Live and had to be faded out after they launched into the expletive-heavy chorus, despite being warned by producers, to tone it down.
"We had spoken to the band repeatedly beforehand and they had agreed not to swear," a BBC spokesman said. "When they did, we faded the band out and said sorry immediately. We apologise again to anyone who was offended."
Rage Against The Machine's guitarist Tom Morello said the internet campaign "tapped into the silent majority of the people in the UK who are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another".
The campaign has been condemned by the show's chief judge Simon Cowell and McElderry's X-Factor mentor Cheryl Cole as unfair and speaking on the BBC this morning McElderry said he would be "disappointed" if he failed to top the charts..
"I'm not really seeing it as a personal attack, because I think if any other person would have won it would have been the same case. And it's more against The X Factor than the actual winner.
“I would be disappointed if it’s not number one — but it’s out of my hands and there’s nothing I can do about it and I just hope people get behind us and support us and buy the single.”
Cole said she would be "gutted" if McElderry lost out to a "mean" internet campaign. "He put his heart and soul into every single week of The X Factor and I cannot bear to see him lose out to a mean campaign that has nothing to do with his efforts. If that song, or should I say campaign, by an American group is our Christmas number one I'll be gutted for him and our charts."
Cowell said “Joe doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the middle of this. A campaign aimed at harming his chart position is unnecessary.”
Fellow judge Louis Walsh was equally dismissive of the campaign. "This is taking the fun out of the race for Christmas number one," he said.
Paul McCartney disagreed. "I like the idea of this Rage Against The Machine thing that's happening," he told Sky News. "I think that's kind of interesting."
He said he would be pleased to see the band make it to Number 1 "because it's out of leftfield you know. Everyone expects Joe to do it, and he certainly will sell a lot of records. And if he gets to Number One, good luck to him. But it would be kind of funny if a band like Rage Against The Machine got it, because it would prove a point."