A selection of celebrity musicians have formed a group in order to to record a single, with the aim of keeping the X-Factor winners single from the Christmas number one spot.
On Monday a group of musicians including Pete Doherty, Orbital, Billy Bragg, John McClure, Coldcut, Imogen Heap, The Big Pink, Heaven 17 and The Kooks will be meeting up in the Dean Studios in Soho, London, to record nothing. They will be copying the work of John Cage who recorded an orchestra doing nothing and called it 4’3”.
The single has been dubbed Cage Against the Machine because last year a single by Rage Against the Machine beat that years X-Factor winner, Joe McElderry to number One.
They plan to gather the group together and plug everyone in to a microphone and they will have their instruments there as well, but will do nothing. This means that the track will not actually be completely silent but will feature maybe coughs and sneezes, fidgeting feet or even giggles.
The single will be a charity one supporting five different charities including Calm, the British Tinnitus Association and Youth Music.
Bookmakers have given it fairly good odds, but still predict that the eventual X-Factor winner will be number one.
Temple Morris, who is the DJ that helped organise this has explained that he objects to the X-Factor because of the way it humiliates the unsuccessful people who audition. Many of them are laughed at and then further ridiculed if they try to defend their poor performances. He also explained that they chose this piece of music because it was the most avant-garde piece ever made. This is not the first silent piece to be released this year with a two minute silence reaching number twenty in November in aid of the Royal British Legion. That starred the Prime Minister, Radiohead singer Thom Yorke and David Tennant.