Paramore

That is a chicken/egg scenario. Christmas songs are beaten by x factor covers constantly, why put money into great christmas tracks? No great christmas tracks, no chance at beating Cowell. Its not just christmas songs either its big ballads like Stay another Day, Heartbeat and The Power of Love, put some bells on it, some snow and presents in the vid and put it out Christmas week. You get media exposure as a contender in the battle for the big number 1 and big play in the 4 weeks previous.Its a marketing move in the short term.

Looking like Ben will be off the top by Thursday at this rate!

It was ruined when it became a talent show victory parade, he couldn't set the final back to the Saturday before Christmas and get the slot after Christmas? No one bothers to release because of it. 15 years ago we'd have 6-8 new entries, you'd have joke entries, you'd have the biggest bands releasing something. Not anymore.

I'm glad her health concerns were unfounded and wish her well.

Songwriters probably should get more credit. A lot of the time its the sold that sells and not the singer.

But Uptown Funk is really, really, quite crap, really. I'm usually really accommodating to different tastes as long as they are good examples of their genre but Uptown Funk is just a crap pop song. But at least their fear of the XFactor leeching all their sales lets them burn off sales in a less than full sales week. Bring on Gorgon City. I'm going to push GC and JHud. Its perfect. :wub: :heart-old:

Surely BMTH can't stay up that long. I didn't even know there was a YM@6 type fanbase for them. I'd love it if that got to number 1 though. We need that kind of variety in the chart. BMTH this week and Gorgon City next would be stunning.

Union J have a TV ad campaign for a CD single. I thought I was hearing things. Is this 1998? I'd be Ok with that if its pre-Titanic. :P Next it will be 'Get your Union J Polyphonic Ringtone!'

I'm just playing with you. I'm not shouting at you. Ipods/phones didn't exist in the 90s so there was no need for an Itunes. All Apple had was a funky looking desktop computer barely anyone bought.

iTunes didn't exist in 1997 you silly moo! ;) Cassette tapes were still on the shelves of WHSmith in 1997, there is some perspective for you

BBC News is promoing it every hour today

That is a hell of a Kworb gap between 1 and 2. Clean Bandit on 0.0781.

In the Grand tradition of Smash Hits Bastille is now the surname of the entire band

Its OK, my only problem is that the big chorus doesn't really build properly

Band Aid 2004 was quite good in terms of star power but the music business was different back then. The mainstream British industry was on the wane, bubblegum pop had just died, they didnt know what to do next. So you have artists that would be on a downward trajectory in their career up front. All the heavy hitters didn't sing, Damon Albarn produced, Thom Yorke and Paul McCartney were on instruments. Some of the faces of Band Aid 20 were the Bedingfields, the Sugababes, Jamelia, Will Young and Busted. Out of them I think only the Sugababes and Will had a hit after BandAid20 and neither were the force they were in music before it. In 2004/2005 record industries really started to push 'legit' acts like Razorlight, Snow Patrol and Keane to push back at the previous 6 years of pop music but it rarely worked and in the end American R&B just dominated and we got rubbish like Crazy Frog and Babycakes getting to number 1! This was the mid 00s in British pop music, transitional is the nicest way to describe it. (2004 has some great Rock music though, MTV2 Txt, Vids and Rock and Roll after school those were the days!)

Its such a pity for the Foos but as an international band and with their HBO/BBC documentary advertising they really had no flexibility with the pre-decided release date.

Ah, the rush to avoid Band Aid, poor Ed. At least he got one week

That is not what I mean. Cowell wants the Christmas #1 for X Factor, has he leveraged availability of 1D? Has he said that 1D can do it but only if its brought out early freeing up the Christmas #1 for the X Factor winner Funny listening to Bob though, he's so out of touch. He thinks you can get a number 1 on 20,000 sales. Not in the singles chart in Q4 Bob.

More names from Radio 1 Jessie Ware Paloma Faith Roger Taylor fro Queen Underworld Daft Punk will be involved in the recording process in some capacity. Unclear if this is for the French version or the UK version. Germany and the US will have their own. No names for the US version yet.

Midge Ure said that they get so little from it that its not worth it, they want to encourage downloads.

It would have to be a 5 week number one to get Christmas and its a charity song with massive hype, its going to be front loaded.

There wont be a full line up until Saturday/Sunday. Waiting to see who turns up apparently.

I wonder if the release is so early because they wanted to secure 1D from Syco?

No full list announced yet, its trickling out based on Bob and Midge's interview comments

Press conference taking place now, will update post above as it happens :cheer: