Rage Against The Machine has donated £62,000 to housing charity Shelter following the band’s concert in London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday 6 June to celebrate the success of their Christmas number one campaign.
The band won the coveted Christmas Number 1 spot in the UK last year with a re-release of their 1992 song Killing In The Name Of, with proceeds going to Shelter and Youth Music – the UK’s largest children’s music charity, set up in 1999 to promote and support music making opportunities and to provide advice to children from birth–18 with the least access, including some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people .
The campaign was the brainchild of Jon and Tracy Morter from Essex who set up the fan powered page on the social networking site calling on people to download the song to stop the X Factor single reaching the festive number one spot.
The couple also appealed for people to make a donation to Shelter following advice they received from the charities’ free helpline which had been crucial in helping them resolve their housing problem.
The campaign was a huge success with the single selling an amazing 500,000 copies, beating the X Factor rival to number one and raising over £100,000 for Shelter.
During the set, attended by over 40,000 rock fans, the band presented Shelter with a cheque for £162,000 after generously donating all profits from the single download.
This money, combined with funds raised through the Facebook campaign and gift aid, has totaled at an overwhelming £185,000 for housing and homelessness charity, Shelter.
Campbell Robb, Chief Executive of Shelter said: "This whole campaign has been hugely important for Shelter, both to raise awareness of homelessness and bad housing and raising vital funds for Shelter’s work.
“The charity would like to say a huge thank you to the Facebook organizers Jon and Tracy Morter for choosing to support Shelter and Rage Against the Machine for the overwhelming donation of 100% profits of the single download.
“With more than one million children in overcrowded accommodation, tens of thousands of families homeless in temporary accommodation and many more facing repossession, our support and advice services are needed more than ever.
“The money raised through this campaign will go a long way to fund the work that Shelter does every day to help people find and keep a home.”
