Buy Journey South- What I Love About Home (Help For Heroes)

Ok times up! Unfortunately we only had 2 band submissions for an alternative to the Christmas No. 1 but to be honest that doesn't really matter. Based on all of the emails we’ve had and the comments posted on the site we’ve decided to push the Journey South- What I Love About Home (Help For Heroes) as it’s for a great cause and all profits go to the Help For Heroes Charity. Buy it now, show your support!!!!! There's still time to really put the C back into the Christmas No. 1!!!

Thank you again for all your support!

This is a great cause and by spending less than £1 on a download you can make a difference.

The Rage Against The Machine anti X factor Facebook has apparently over 700,000 members, sadly 10 more (ok a lot more) than our campaign has to put a charity single at the No. 1 spot this Christmas. 

After a tiny bit of research we worked out that there is a slight flaw in the Facebook campaign:

 

The record label behind The Rage Against The Machine is Epic Records

 

Epic Record is part of Sony Entertainment

 

Sony Entertainment is a parent company of SyCo

 

SyCo’s founder is some chap called … Simon Cowell

 

Perhaps Sony are behind the campaign .. who knows  …

Well Joe's won and good for him as he's a great singer and seems like a decent lad. The C Factor wish him all the best with his singing career but should his single get to Christmas No.1 this year? Well the answer is NO. There's still time to make a difference, let's get a non X Factor winner to the No. 1 slot this year. Many thanks to all of you who have registered with us and we'll be in contact this week on how you can vote for a real Christmas no.1 this year. If you have registered please do it now!

 

This is an interesting and a very worthwhile song submission.  X X Factor (XX I guess makes them bigger and stronger?) group Journey South are to release an album where all profits are to go to charity, the Armed Forces.  We've seen the YouTube video and we have to say that we're impressed and the best thing is that all profits go to charity and we've been told that there is NO X Factor involvement.  Since leaving the X Factor the brothers have gone it alone and it seems their hard work has paid off.  Nice job and an excellent charitable cause lads .. and good luck!

The Press Release: 

In 2009, in response to the current situation in Afghanistan and worldwide, Andy and Carl Pemberton (Journey South) decided to re-write their song ‘WHAT I LOVE ABOUT HOME’ specifically for the Armed Forces, their families, their friends and the UK based charity ‘Help For Heroes’

Help for Heroes (H4H) was founded by Bryn and Emma Parry in October 2007 out of a desire to help wounded members of the Armed Forces returning from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The charity provides direct, practical support by raising funds for the most needed areas both directly and through its support of other service charities.Back in 2007, with the release of their 2nd album, Journey South and their song ‘What I Love About Home’ were championed by BFBS Radio worldwide. Dave Simons, from BFBS Afghanistan said, “when we played (What I Love About Home) on our Access All Areas programme, (sequential successor to the Old Forces Families Favourites programme) the listeners loved it and it immediately struck a chord with the men and women who are away from home. What a great song, it even made me think about home whilst I’m here in Afghanistan, and now its even more relevant and for such a fantastic cause.”

The beautiful melody and emotive lyrics were felt again when Journey South went to Tidworth, Hampshire to perform at the Help for Heroes headquarters. After this performance, Help for Heroes were overjoyed that Journey South had decided to support the charity, with all profits going to the charity. Bryn Parry, CEO and co-founder of Help for Heroes said “We are extremely fortunate to have the support of Journey South who have offered to help fund-raise for Help for Heroes, and I would like to personally thank Journey South for "doing their bit" to raise money for our wounded Servicemenand women by releasing this fantastic song."

Andy Pemberton from the band says, “Its an amazing honour for us to be working closely with Help for Heroes, for us as songwriters, it is hard to put across the feeling you get from your lyrics meaning something special to people in all different situations” He says further, “We are lucky to be in this position and are determined to make as much money as possible for Help for Heroes, we want this single to be number one for Christmas, meaning we will have made a lot of money for a fantastic cause and are dedicating this song to all the heroes that sacrifice so much for our country and their families who all know what it is like to not have your loved ones altogether at Christmas. At a difficult time, we hope this will be something that our brave men and women along with their families can find a little comfort in and enjoy listening to.’

The single will be released on 00:01hrs on Sunday 13th December 2009 with all profits going to Help for Heroes.

As we all know the X Factor is about making money and last Saturday’s (7th November) was a prime example.  For those of you who don’t watch the show Simon Cowell had the opportunity to dump a band that he’s said, on numerous occasions, he doesn’t like, the twin act John and Edward Grimes. In current weeks John and Edward or Jedward as they are sometimes called, have bought a lot of attention to the show. In our view the only reason Simon has started to like John and Edward is because of the attention to the show.  So we guess his thought pattern was along the lines of “mmmmm, shall I vote out a girl [Lucie Jones] who is clearly more talented (after all this is a talent show) but I don’t think she’ll make me any money or shall I vote off a good marketing stream in Jedward”.   Jedward stayed, Lucie went. We’ve nothing against the lads, they take it on the chin each week and they’re just having fun and good luck to them but in doing this Simon exposed the show for what it really is and most people have known all along, the show’s fixed and a joke.  It’s killed off the challenge of the Christmas No. 1 and it’s made the British public look like a bunch of lemmings by letting the show control the UK charts over the end half of the year.  

Come on guys, make a difference this year.  Let’s get a non X Factor record to the Christmas No. 1 slot.  Don’t waste your money on voting or buying any of the X Factor merchandise and there is a lot out there, give it to charity this Christmas and along the way knock X Factor off the no.1 slot! Find out how

 

Please give your support to the Poppy Appeal this year and visit http://www.poppy.org.uk

Here we go again …

We must stress that we have nothing against the artists or the show.  The whole point to this site is to not allow X Factor to dictate the Christmas No. 1 this year.  Unfortunately it seems that a lot of XFactor viewers (I do watch the show by the way) can’t seem to make their own choice when it comes to music. Last nights UK Chart was a prime example of how X Factor are now not only dictating the Christmas No.1 but also influencing the normal UK Single & Album Chart in a BIG way.  As soon as an artist is on X Factor the viewers go out and by the song, sad but true. 

Cheryl’s song sold over 290,000 sales .. now if she’d tried to market the soung outside the realm of X Factor do you think she would still be no. 1?  Michael Buble, Alexandra Burke and Whitney Houston have all benefited from being on the show. more 

We can make a difference if everyone pulls together.  Please contact this site, submit some alternatives and let’s get a non X Factor single to the No. 1 slot this Christmas!

LONDON(Reuters) - Singer Cheryl Cole knocked out her rivals to take the top spot on the British singles charts with her debut solo, "Fight for This Love," the Official Charts Company said on Sunday.

The single by the Girls Aloud singer and judge on the television hit show"X-Factor" was the fastest-selling of the year so far with more than290,000 sales.

"I have this permanent smile on my face," she said in a statement.

"I'm just getting over the fact I have recorded my solo record and now it's No. 1. I can't take this all in."

The previous fastest-selling single of the year was last week's No. 1, Alexandra Burke's "Bad Boys," which had sold more than 185,000 in its firstweek. She dropped to No. 2.

English singer Burke, an X-Factor winner, had success in the albums chart, where her debut,"Overcome," bowed at No. 1.

Singer and actor Michael Buble was another new entrant, going in at No. 2 with"Crazy Love."

They fought off American soul icon Whitney Houston, whose album "I Look to You" debuted at No. 3, and American bluesman Steven Gene Wold, known as Seasick Steve, who was a new entrant at fourth place with "Man from Another Time."

The Library Suits - Christmas Retreat

Ok the race is on, I know we can make a difference this year if we all pull together.  I’ve had a lot of emails complaining about how the X Factor can easily determine the number 1 slot and to be honest they can.  If Simon Cowell thinks it’s good then sadly it seems that most of the viewers agree,  ‘Well if Simon backs it, it must be good’ .. well, it is for his pockets!  To quote from one of our readers:

“It's a real shame that Simon Cowell has basically created an elite sector of the music market that no-one else can penetrate. Two weeks ago for example, the fact the Robbie Williams performed on X Factor resulted in him subsequently getting 90,000 downloads, which would have been enough for a number one spot, except Alexandra Burke performed afterwards. And I will honestly be shocked if Cheryl Cole doesn't become number one on Sunday.[October 25th]”

.. anyway enough of the ranting take a look at our first entry for the Christmas no. 1 slot this year.  The Library Suits - Christmas Retreat, a cool unsigned band have recorded a Christmas single, bells, cornet, choir and all, ready for release later this year! (We will keep you posted if you register).  The last time this really occurred was when Darkness released Don't Let The Bells End.
Have a look for yourself ..

We’re nearly at the end of January, the first month of our campaign and things are slowly starting to hot up.   Strangely enough when we posted a nice “let’s make a change this year” message on http://xfactorblog.co.uk it didn’t last very long.    Our Search Engine Campaign is also slowly starting to take shape, open up Google and type in  anti x factor 2009  or x factor Christmas 2009 and we should now be on page 1 and we’re only in January. 

Please register your support as I know we can do it, it’s just up to us all to make it happen. 

 What's this campaign about?  To find out more please click here.

Putting the C back into the Christmas No. 1

Christmas 2008 is now over and the Christmas No. 1 slot was taken yet again by an X Factor winner. So who will take the No. 1 slot for 2009? 2008 gave us a number of excellent alternatives and even a number of internet campaigns to stop Alexandra Burke taking the Christmas number one slot with Hallelujah but we all failed. I’ve nothing against Alexandra or her version of Hallelujah, I’m just fed up with yet another X Factor winner taking the No.1 Christmas slot. The media moguls have probably already decided the chosen song for yet another easy win for 2009. I don't believe this is right and I know a lot of you feel the same way I do and it’s time for a change.

I know Christmas has only just finished but if we start a new focused campaign now we can put a real Christmas song at the number 1 slot for 2009.

The Aim:

• The Christmas 2009 No. 1 Single will be one where by all the profits will go to charity (it’s a shame Geraldine McQueen didn’t make it)
• The Christmas 2009 No. 1 Single will not be sung by an X Factor winner
• To break the European record for the most copies sold on one day – current record is 105,000 copies from 2008’s X Factor Winner and then in 2nd place is 82,000 by X Factor winner Lewis with her debut release A Moment Like This.

 

The Plan:

The plan is actually very simple but it needs commitment from us all. To get to Number 1 for Christmas 2008 , 576,000 copies of Alexandra Burke's debut single Hallelujah where sold. If we can get 600,000 + people to buy the same charity single then I’m sure we’d get the single to the Christmas Number One slot and raise a lot of money for charity (and also feel smug that we managed to knock X Factor from the top slot.)

Obviously, at this point we’ve got no idea who the contenders are for the Christmas 2009 No. 1 but we need to get the ball rolling now rather than a last minute dash, just before Christmas. The idea is that you register with this site (just a valid email address) so we’ll know roughly the number of people that may be willing to buy the single. Ideally you then pass the word (or email) on to family and friends. Over the next few months hopefully the numbers will grow and we’ll post the numbers as we get them so you can see how we’re doing.

Hopefully (and perhaps this site will help to show that there is interest out there) a number of Christmas charity singles will start to appear, which we’ll then post on this site. We’ll then set up a voting system so you can vote for The C Factor Christmas Charity single. The winning single will be the one that all registered users must purchase. Even if you don’t like it at least the money will go to charity and not someone’s ever growing pockets! To kick off we’ll try and get as many registered users as possible (and non-registered of course) to all buy the single on the same day and hopefully we can break the European Single Sales record of 105,000 copies.

This has got to be achievable, don’t you think?  

We'll post a date on this site and then provide links to sites where you can pay and download the single, I guess for around 60-80p but we’ll know more nearer the date. On that note, we’re not after your money we’ll just provide links to the popular music sites where the sale counts towards the singles chart. 

The site is pretty rough and ready at the moment as we just wanted to get a site out there so it can start attracting interest. Please spread the word, we’re not asking anything from you other than your commitment to buy the chosen (as voted by as all) charity single. Also, please don’t abuse our registration process, it’s only a bit of fun but we believe we can make a difference for the 2009 Christmas No.1 Slot!

Please register your support and help get a non X Factor Winner to the No.1 position in the singles chart this Christmas!