Pogues Score Britain’s Most Played Christmas Song

The Pogues’ raucous Christmas classic, “Fairytale of New York” has been officially declared the most played holiday song of the century in Britain.

The Daily Expressreports that the Shane McGowan/Kirsty MacColl duet has had more plays on radio, TV and the web since 2000 than any other Christmas track. Ironically, the song didn’t make it to #1 when first released, because the Pet Shop Boys’ “Always on My Mind” took the Christmas top slot in 1987.

Also in the Top 5, as compiled by music licensing organization PPL, were Wham!’s “Last Christmas” in second place, Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas is You” at #3, Wizzards’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” at #4 and Band Aid's “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” at #5.

You can have your say in Gibson.com’s Christmas song poll here.

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Rage Against the Machine Played ‘Competitive Gigs’ with Tool

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is posting a series of “Guerrilla Videos” leading up to the band’s July 30 show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In the latest video, he talks about the humble genesis of Rage Against the Machine 20 years ago in a “hot and grubby” rehearsal space that was “about 110 degrees” in San Fernando Valley, in August 1991.

He went on to talk about playing “very competitive gigs early on with Tool.”

“When we got that first batch of 15 songs, everything changed,” he said. “We started playing gigs opening for Tool, who was a local band at the time who had been the subject of a bidding war, and they were good friends of ours, and so we played some very competitive gigs early on with Tool, which were pretty exciting. I think it sharpened both bands’ edges.”

When it came to making the first Rage record, grunge and rap of the ’90s were at the forefront of band members’ minds.

“I remember the jams that were coming out of Zack [de la Rocha]’s truck at the time and my band at the time were Nirvana’s first record; Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger; the first Cypress Hill record,” he said.

“And then I remember very clearly having the conversation and we were talking about what we wanted the first Rage record to sound like sonically, in terms of other bands, and we were looking for somewhere between Nirvana’s Bleach and Ice Cube’s most murderous track… [Laughs] I think we got pretty close to that.”

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