Watch: The Futureheads - 'Christmas Was Better In The '80s'

(from their Facebook campaign page) "Just like last year with Rage Against The Machine. Let's take UK's Christmas Number 1 into the people's hands so that the predictable X Factor winner won't get the Christmas 2010 Number 1 single.

No offense against Simon and his minions but Rebecca, Cheryl, Matt, No Direction all deserve great things in their life. A manufactured single by one of the above is just so dull..."

>>Is surely missing the point of trying to get Rage Against the Machine to no.1 (and apologies for stating the obvious (to everyone except the Futureheads)) it wasn't that 'Killing In The Name Of' was an alternative Christmas tune people wanted at the top of the charts, it was meant to send the message that the record buying public wouldn't simply 'do what [Simon Cowell] tell me'. Even with the contradictions regarding pack mentality record buying and giving money to Sony, it made for an interesting chart battle.

Similarly the John Cage campaign this year works in that it promotes the idea that the time spent listening to an X Factor Christmas no.1 would be better spent quietly reflecting, or simply listening to nothing.

The Futureheads single on the other hand was, like X Factor, manufactured for the Christmas market. It sounds hurriedly put together for that purpose and it's based on the insultingly stupid premise 'Christmas Was Better In The 80s' (you enjoyed Christmas more when you were a kid shocker(!))

This is presumably intended to get people in their early-mid 30s grumpy-old-men-style nattering about all the cliched 80s things they liked when they were younger ('remember Thundercats?!'), thereby carrying a so-so tune to chart success on a wave of 'it wasn't like this in my day'.

When in fact it'd be amazing to be a kid at Christmas now. I'd rather get a Wii than a Spectrum.