True to their word, Rage Against The Machine played their ‘thank you gig’ in North London’s Finsbury Park last night to thank fans for the Facebook campaign which saw them take out the Christmas Number One spot, beating the pop pap of X-Factor winner Joe McElderry and breaking Simon Cowell’s vice like grip on the Christmas Number one.
The band powered through a typically incendiary set in front of 40,000 fans, before introducing Jon and Tracy Morter, the couple who had come up with the idea for the campaign. Frontman Zach de la Rocha told the crowd “I want to introduce you to two people who had an idea, an idea that spread through the grass roots.”
Giving big ups to the couple for urging people to make donations to the charity for the homeless, Shelter, guitarist Tom Morello said “not only are they great political strategists, they’re humanitarians, and they inspired Rage Against The Machine to donate 100% of the profit from your downloads to Shelter.” As they handed over a novelty sized cheque for the profits to a representative of the charity, Morello told an appreciative crowd “f*cking up the system never felt so good!”
The band then closed their set with a barnstorming cove of The Clash’s ‘White Riot’, then McElderry’s losing cover of ‘The Climb’ was blared over the PA into the park, with quotes from newspapers, McElderry and Cowell recounting the strange story of the campaign, then flashing up the words ‘YOU Made History’. Naturally, the band then returned to the stage and sent the crowd into delirium with ‘Killing In The Name’.
