Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor Joe to No 1

They did it. In one of the most extraordinary upsets in recent pop history, the LA-based rock band Rage Against The Machine has won the competition for Britain's Christmas Number One with an expletive-laden track from the Nineties, beating off the dead-cert middle-of-the-road contender Joe McElderry, winner of The X Factor, with his cover version of The Climb.

Rage (above) sold 500,000 downloads of their re-released 1992 number Killing In The Name to beat McElderry by 50,000 copies. A spokesman for the retailer HMV called it "possibly the greatest chart upset ever".

Eighteen-year-old McElderry, who won this winter's X Factor final only a week ago, was - possibly under instructions from the talent show boss Simon Cowell - magnanimous in defeat. "It's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle," he said, "and they [Rage] definitely deserve congratulations."

The campaign to make Rage the Christmas Number One was started on Facebook by a husband and wife team, Jon and Tracy Morter, determined to stop what they saw as yet another mediocre talent show winner taking the lucrative Christmas spot for the fifth year running.

Despite calling the campaign "stupid" last week, Cowell yesterday accepted the campaigners' victory in the Christmas spirit. "I am gutted for Joe," he said, "because a number one single meant a lot to him but I have to congratulate Jon and Tracy, who started the Facebook campaign.

Cowell later told the Daily Mirror that he had offered the Morters a job with his record company - which they refused. "I am genuinely impressed by the campaign they have run," said Cowell. "It has been a good campaign with no dirty tricks and without any funding. They have been passionate and worked hard.

"I offered them jobs at my record company. It could be in marketing or perhaps even running the company... I was deadly serious but they haven't taken me up on the offer."

The Rage track, which contains 17 uses of the F-word, is hardly Christmassy and is very likely to be knocked off the number one spot as soon as Christmas is over. Only last week, the band had to be faded out by the Radio 5 breakfast show after ignoring an appeal from producers not to sing the final refrain "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!"

Rage guitarist Tom Morello (above right) said the number had "tapped into the silent majority of the people in the UK who are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another".

Gennaro Castaldo of HMV said: "Joe... shouldn't take this personally. This is all about the stunning impact of the Rage Against The Machine internet campaign in galvanising music fans to protest against the dominance of the reality show in recent years."

He added: "Rage may not be the ideal expression of the Christmas spirit - and many people will have preferred a more appropriate song to top the festive charts - but their anti-corporate message proved a perfect vehicle through which to register such a powerful protest."

The big winner is Shelter: Rage have announced that all proceeds from Killing In The Name will go to the homeless charity. ·