Nick Pickles’s blog

so, today the battle of the X factor landed - and the X factor won.

essentially the X factor winner’s version of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah was a near shoe-in for christmas number one, and a campaign had been mounted to stop it getting there - with Jeff Buckley’s version the vehicle  for the anti-X factor vote. Buckley got number two in the chart.

and to top it off, Cohen’s origional made it to number 36.

the sad thing is - while i fully support efforts to end the proliferation of shit music and “i want to be a celebrity without needing talent” that the x factor encourages, people have somewhat missed the point.

the person who owns the publishing rights to the song - and thus gets paid every time someone buys any version - is Simon Cowell.

so, by buying the jeff buckley version, you are funding the man who has done more to damage the british music industry than anyone since mick hucknall.

what should people have done? well, last year malcom middleton released the splendid “we’re all going to die” in a bid to get to christmas number one. he didn’t quite make it, but fellow scots glasvegas had a go with “please come back home” - sadly, the anti-X factor vote missed this gem.

what do i want for christmas? well, its a long list but if someone can put an end to the jumped up karaoke cowell pedals, that would be awfully nice.