Merry Christmas to the Military Wives

THE MILITARY Wives comfortably sealed the coveted Christmas number one spot, the Official Charts Company announced yesterday.

Victory for the wives became inevitable after their charity record 'Wherever You Are' became the fastest-selling single in six years.

Indeed, after two days of last week, it had outsold its nearest rival - 'Cannonball' by X Factor winners Little Mix - by a margin of six to one.

And, in the end, it sold 556,000 copies, which was more than the rest of the top 12 combined.

Little Mix, who were the first ever group to win the ITV competition and who were number one last week, sold 117,000 records in the run-up to Christmas Day.

But the result means for the second time in three years that the X Factor winner has failed to reach number one at Christmas after Joe McElderry finished behind Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' in 2009.

In an unfortunate geographical coincidence, the beaten McElderry is from South Shields in Tyne & Wear, and so are two of the four members of Little Mix.

There was nothing more in it than that, though. Indeed, the Military Wives are fully deserving of their number one spot as their record struck the right note with the country at large.

Even the Treasury - at the request of Oliver Colvile, Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport - felt compelled to waive VAT on the sale of the record.

Announcing the decision, Chancellor George Osborne said: "Our armed forces demonstrate incredible commitment to the nation and make sacrifices for all of us.

"The Military Wives Choir is doing a great job of raising money for this hugely worthy cause."

As Mr Osborne notes, proceeds from Wherever You Are were split between two charities, the Royal British Legion and the SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association).

And the fact is that the 100-strong choir had a more interesting back-story than, with respect to Little Mix, just another reality television show winner.

Their appearance on the BBC programme The Choir with Gareth Malone culminated in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, and the lyrics of Wherever You Are were taken from love poems, written between the women and their absent husbands.

Meanwhile, the Little Mix record producers hardly help themselves, releasing 'Cannonball' a week too early with this year's number one actually announced on Christmas Day itself.

But while that at least allowed the Little Mix girls to wake up on Christmas morning in the number one slot, it will be the Military Wives who will deservedly go into the record books.

A Merry Christmas to them, and indeed to all of my readers. More from me in 2012!

RATM campaign shows that public no longer cower from Cowell

THE ANNUAL battle for Christmas number one produced a shock of epic proportions as American rap metal act Rage Against The Machine beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry.

RATM's 1992 single 'Killing In The Name' became the first ever download-only Christmas number one, selling over 500,000 copies after an internet campaign.

Joe's song 'The Climb' shifted 50,000 fewer units to leave X Factor creator Simon Cowell feeling "gutted".

By contrast, the leaders of the Facebook campaign, Jon and Tracy Morter, were astounded by their success.

And, after four successive X Factor Christmas number ones, it does indeed make a refreshing change.

In fact, it is more than that.

The success of 'Killing In The Name' means 2009 will be remembered as the year that the Christmas number one race was reclaimed by the public, rather than being predetermined by Mr Cowell and his faceless executives.

It is not as if he could not have seen it coming.

Last year, a similar campaign tried to get Jeff Buckley's version of 'Hallelujah' to the coveted top spot, only for it to lose to Alexandra Burke.

This time, the internet campaign generated more publicity, including a rather controversial airing of the single when RATM appeared on BBC Five Live Breakfast.

Mr Cowell's choice of a little-known song for 18-year-old Joe to sing also appears to have done no favours for the South Shields lad.

But while Joe seemed to accept that he lost a fair fight, Mr Cowell laughably accused the campaigners of acting like a "hate mob" and even compared it to bullying.

Such an evil campaign was this that it raised £65,000 for homeless charity Shelter!

Personally, I bought neither. I was too busy listening to Brit pop when RATM were at their peak in the mid-1990s.

Meanwhile, I have never made a habit of buying the X Factor winner's single.

But, simply for the fact that this was a victory for the 'little man', I was glad of the result. I only wished it had featured Noddy Holder or someone equally as festive instead.

I imagine Mr Cowell will get over his disappointment quickly enough.

Like him, both acts are attached to Sony and, with combined sales of almost one million copies, he will have earned a nice Christmas bonus.

He must also consider that any damage to the X Factor's dominance will have been negligible.

Just last week, the show pulled in more than 19 million viewers, almost unheard of figures outside of England football matches and the occasional soap opera episode.

Make no doubt about it - the X Factor will be back next year and probably stronger than ever.

But the campaigners will also be back to ensure that the Christmas number one is never again a shoo-in for the X Factor winner.