Captain SKA's anti-cuts song or John Cage - Xmas Number One?

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Of the runners and riders for an alternative Christmas hit, Captain SKA's jolly tune with samples of Osborne, Cameron, Thatcher and Clegg is the latest one to be gathering momentum. The other campaign, already rolling on nicely and more likely to succeed, is the one to get Cage's silent "4'33" to Number One for Christmas - a rather brilliant protest and a perfect present for the conceptualists and anti-consumerists in your life.

Stars like Pete Doherty and Imogen Heap and an orchestra got together to not record that one yesterday with the Facebook page Cage Against the Machine (a reference to last year's Rage Against the Machine hit which managed to keep last year's X Factor winner off the top spot). The bookies have the X Factor winner as favourite at 4/7 and the Cage single at 5/1. A question must be - should the Cage actually make it to the top, will Radio 1 actually play it in its entirety?

A launch event for the Captain SKA single (out on the 12th) and the website "Captain SKA v the cuts" will take place next Monday, 13 December at London's Vibe Bar. Captain SKA and his crew will play a full set and will be joined by comedian Josie Long, the Hackney Colliery Band and DJ Jamie Renton (Chilli-Fried). Here is his tune.

Watch "Captain SKA v the Cuts":

Captain SKA said, "I've never much been into politics before, but the spending cuts are going to really hit millions of people who did nothing to cause this recession, and Ska can be the soundtrack for the campaign, just as two-tone was one of the few good things to come from the 1980s – the last time we had a government that did so much to rip the country apart."

Proceeds from the downloads of "Liar, Liar" will go falseeconomy.co.uk, a new anti-cuts site, and charities like Crisis, Disability Allowance and others.

Oddschecker has the latest Xmas-hit odds:

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1. 4/9: The X Factor winner (Matt Cardle/One Direction/Rebecca Ferguson/Cher Lloyd)

2. 9/4: The Trashmen - "Surfin' Bird Audio"

3. 5/1: John Cage/Cage Against The Machine - "4'33"

4. 17/2: Aberlour Choir feat Gamu Nhengu - "Where Will You Sleep This Christmas?"

5. 20/1: Bryn Terfel and Bing Crosby - "White Christmas"

Finally, it's a rank outsider as far as the Christmas charts are concerned, but currently soothing nerves jangled by seasonal hype at theartsdesk is the following rather lovely reading of "What a Wonderful World", from the recent album by Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stephen, shortly to be released as a Christmas single.

Watch Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen's "What a Wonderful World":

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