Jon Morter | |
---|---|
Born | Chelmsford, England | 4 October 1974
Occupation | DJ |
Spouse | Tracy Hayden (m. 2004–2013) |
Jonathan Morter (born 4 October 1974) is an English radio DJ, social media pioneer and campaigner. He helped launch various internet campaigns. He launched the Condescending Corporate Brand Page, [1] a page that harshly ridicules corporate social media techniques.
In 2002, an early internet fan campaign to get John Otway another chart hit in time for his 50th birthday, saw Otway's single "Bunsen Burner" [2] reach number 9 in 2002 without being stocked by Entertainment UK-associated retailers like Woolworths. In the 2013 documentary Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure: Otway the Movie , Morter said that the Otway campaign had influenced him to create his own, with the added benefit that by 2008 people did not have to go to the shops to physically buy the records. [3]
In 2023, Morter was one of the original team behind the StopTheTories.Vote tactical voting website later fronted by Carol Vorderman [4] [5]
In 2008, Morter launched a campaign to make Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" reach the top of the British Christmas chart. [6] Also known as the "Ultimate Rickroll" (in reference to Rickrolling), the campaign was started on Facebook on 1 December 2008, in an attempt to make the song the 2008 Christmas number one in the UK. The campaign's purpose was to stop the winner of The X Factor from gaining the Christmas number one spot, thereby ending the show's chain of success. The year's X Factor winner at the time was Alexandra Burke with her winning song being a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".
The group attracted nearly 30,000 people in its first week. Campaigners were encouraged to get as many people as possible to download the song from iTunes between 15 and 20 December 2008. The song peaked at number 73 however this was later found to be a deliberate lowering of the song's place (having reached number three a week before it came to its finish) due to the company's [Sony] belief that "the songs [sic] ranking was ridiculous and rigging a contest was unfair on other artists".[ citation needed ]
In 2009, The Morters tried on a bigger scale, launching a campaign to prevent that year's X Factor winner Joe McElderry from becoming the Christmas number one with his cover of the song "The Climb". They proposed instead the Rage Against the Machine song "Killing in the Name" by establishing a Facebook account named "Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No 1". Jon Morter told London Metro that he had learned how the system worked through Rick Astley's bid. He said: "What I learned from that was how the charts work a little bit really, and what you can get away with. So when this year came around I just thought 'let's have another go'. If anything, last year was fun, it was just a good bit of fun I think. This year it has gone stratospheric". [6]
The grassroots movement was successful in preventing McElderry attaining the top spot on Christmas week as Rage Against the Machine outsold McElderry, and became the UK Christmas number one. [7] [8]
In January 2010, Morter, after hearing about news that the demise of the music station BBC 6 Music was near, and that the station was being scrapped by BBC management, successfully campaigned against its imminent closure by kickstarting the 'Save 6 Music' Facebook group networking with over 180,000 members subscribing.[ citation needed ]
In May 2010, he contributed to the success of the re-issue of the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main St. , collecting more than a million members. On 23 May 2010, Exile went straight to the top of the UK Albums Chart.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, Morter helped the campaign against X Factor winners Little Mix and their cover of "Cannonball" from becoming Christmas number one by supporting Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". [9] [10]
The Nirvana song made it to No. 11 on the 2011 UK Christmas Singles Chart. However, Little Mix themselves were beaten by another song, "Wherever You Are" by the Military Wives (which had the support of British broadcaster Chris Evans), although Little Mix's single was released a week earlier than usual and had already been number one the week before. Nirvana was also beaten by two rival campaigns; "Dominick the Donkey", a 1960 novelty single by Lou Monte which was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, and "Forever Yours" by unsigned YouTube artist Alex Day.[ citation needed ]
In October 2012, Morter was invited by Peter Hooton of the Farm to join the Justice Collective, a fund-raising record raising money for the various charities associated with the Hillsborough disaster. [11] The song took the Christmas number 1 position for 2012 in the UK, [12] beating 2012 X Factor winner James Arthur, who was number one the previous week, and a host of novelty songs from acts including the £1 Fish Man, and the Eddie Stobart Truckers.
Morter initiated a campaign hoping to aid "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC to reach number one on the 2013 UK Christmas Singles Chart, as a tribute to the band's 40th anniversary, as the band has never ever topped the British chart. The single made it to number 4 on the UK Christmas chart, the band's highest-ever UK singles chart placing, but could not prevent The X Factor-related single "Skyscraper" by tenth season winner Sam Bailey from making it to number one. Alongside the campaign, funds were raised from donations to a JustGiving page which went to the charity Feel Yourself, to raise awareness about the importance of self-checking for breast and testicular cancer. [13]
Prior to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Jon's then-wife Tracy was asked to take promotional photos for the forthcoming football song "Noble England" by Rik Mayall. This was Tracy's first job as a professional photographer, and alongside Morter spent the day working with Mayall on location at Leeds Castle in Kent. On Mayall's death just prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Morter began a campaign to chart the song in time for the tournament. "Noble England" peaked at number 7 on the UK chart, making it the highest charting football song in the UK during the 2014 World Cup. Profits from the sales of the song were donated to charities dedicated to head injuries. [14]
In October 2014, many members of the Justice Collective (including Morter) reconvened as 'The Peace Collective', to record the Farm's 1990 hit "All Together Now" in aid of the British Red Cross and the Shorncliffe Trust. The new track featured a backing choir of schoolboy footballers from the Premier League and German Bundesliga plus a number of music acts including Clean Bandit, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Proclaimers, Gorgon City, Suzi Quatro, Jona Lewie, Alexandra Burke, Julian Lennon, Paul Potts, Jane McDonald, David Gray, Gabrielle, Mick Jones, Holly Johnson, and many more. The track was released 14 December 2014 and reached number 70 on the UK Singles Chart. [15] [16]
Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, a campaign was created by Morter with the intention of getting the band's cover of the Duran Duran song "Save a Prayer" to number one on the UK Singles Chart. [17] [18] [19] The campaign was endorsed by Duran Duran, who promised to donate their proceeds from the sale to charity. [20] The song ultimately peaked at number 53 on the chart dated the week after the attack. [21] It peaked at number 1 on the iTunes Rock Chart in 11 countries including the UK and France. [22]
Upon hearing of the death of George Michael, Morter created a campaign on Boxing Day 2016 to chart the Wham! song "Last Christmas" aiming for the 2017 Christmas No. 1 single. [23] The Facebook page amassed 34,000 fans, with the song peaking at No. 1 on the iTunes, Amazon, 7Digital, and Google Play download charts, yet the song ultimately peaked at No. 2, beaten to the top position by multiple versions of Ed Sheeran's "Perfect". [24] The Facebook campaign page remained open and active with the song peaking at No. 3 in December 2018, No. 3 again in December 2019, then finally at No. 1 in January 2021, December 2022, then Christmas No.1 in 2023. [25]
In December 2020, Morter was approached by his comedy act friend Kunt on behalf of his newly formed punk band, the Kunts, to assist with their attempt for the Christmas number one single with a short song about Prime Minister Boris Johnson called "Boris Johnson Is a Fucking Cunt". The band were backed in the race by Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker, [26] the Wonder Stuff's Miles Hunt, [27] Ginger Wildheart, [27] as well as Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. [28]
The song about Boris Johnson was revealed on BBC Radio 1 by Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton on 20 December 2020. [29]
During the show, the presenters did not mention the song's title or play it on air because of the offensive language in it, stating: "Now at 19 we've got a track about Boris Johnson that has so many bad words in it we can't play it on daytime Radio 1." [30] The record was a new entry at number 19, with LadBaby at number 1, [31] climbing to number 8 the next day. [32] On 23 December 2020, it was reported that a number of bookmakers had put odds on the record being the Christmas number one at 8/1, after it had become the second most downloaded song on iTunes and Amazon. [33] [34] [28] The song ultimately reached number 5 on the Christmas chart, after accumulating 45,119 sales, [35] [36] [37] and unlike many of the other Christmas campaign singles (such as rivals LadBaby) made the Official Audio Streaming Chart, [38] and number 1 on the Spotify UK Viral Chart as well. [39]
In September 2020, Asian Dub Foundation (a political band from London who had a top 40 hit with "Buzzin'" in 1998) [40] released a song called "Comin' Over Here", which was based on a sketch from Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle about the then UKIP party leader Paul Nuttall. In December 2020, Morter teamed up with Lee and Asian Dub Foundation to campaign to chart the song in time for the chart published by the Official Charts Company on 31 December 2020, thereby making the record the 'Brexit Day Number One'. [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] On 1 January 2021, Asian Dub Foundation and Stewart Lee charted on the Official Chart Company's Top 100 singles chart, when "Comin' Over Here" debuted at No. 65, the week's highest new entry and No. 1 on the Official Sales Chart. [46] [47] [48] [49] The accompanying video achieved over 1 million views.
In October 2021, Morter and friend Kunt met up at The Norton public house in Cold Norton, Essex, to discuss the possibility of writing a book on their previous chart campaigns. This meeting ended up with an entirely different outcome, to release another Christmas single by following the rules of a 1989 book called The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) by the KLF. The song was inspired by the 'novelty' pop single "Doctorin' the Tardis" by the Timelords (a pseudonym of the KLF), with one of the accompanying videos being a pastiche of the said Timelords video. The Kunts released numerous videos for the project, one portraying a 1970s Top of the Pops performance where Morter appears as an extra. The song reached No. 5 on the Official Chart Company's Top 100 singles chart, and No. 1 on the Official Rock & Metal Singles Chart. [46]
In 2009, Morter was picked by the BBC in their list of nominations for "Men of the Year" Awards from December 2009 for his Rage Against the Machine vs Joe McElderry campaign. [50]
In 2010, he won the 'Defender of the Faith Award' at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods. He also won the 3 Mobile Award for 'Social Media High of the Year', [51] and was nominated for the 2010 Revolution "Marketer of the Year" award. [52]
Wired magazine included Morter and his wife Tracy in their "Top 100 Influencers", placing at #85 on the Wired list. [53]
Morter married Tracy Hayden in 2004. The couple divorced in 2013.[ citation needed ]
John Otway is an English singer-songwriter who has built a cult audience through extensive touring.
"The Power of Love" is a song originally recorded and released by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It was written by Holly Johnson, Peter Gill, Mark O'Toole and Brian Nash, four of the five members of the band. It was released by the group as their third single.
"Killing in the Name" is a song by the American band Rage Against the Machine, and appears on their 1992 self-titled debut album. It features heavy drop-D guitar riffs. The lyrics protest police brutality, inspired by the beating of Rodney King and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The UK singles chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and formerly MTV, is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the OCC as either a "single bundle" having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, with digital downloads being incorporated in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.
"Search for the Hero" is a song by British dance music band M People, released in June 1995 by Sony BMG and RCA as the third single (remixed) from their third album, Bizarre Fruit (1994). The song was written by bandmembers Mike Pickering and Paul Heard, and produced by the band. It peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart, number 13 on the UK Dance Singles Chart and number three on the UK R&B Singles Chart. Its accompanying music video was directed by Matthew Amos.
"Cannonball" is a song written and performed by Irish folk singer Damien Rice. It was released on 1 February 2002, as the second single from his debut album O. It was later re-released in 2003, 2004 and 2011.
British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general
Kunt and the Gang is a British dark musical comedy songwriter and performer from Basildon, Essex. Despite the "and the Gang" in the stage name, the act comprises a single performer, whose real name is Wayne Clements.
"A Bridge over You" is a charity single recorded and released independently by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, the choir of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust located in south-east London. It is a mashup of "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel and Coldplay's 2005 single "Fix You", with additional arrangement by the choir's conductor, Peter Mitchell. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart at Christmas 2015.
Mark Ian Hoyle, better known by his online pseudonym LadBaby, is an English YouTuber, musician, and blogger. His content focuses on his experiences as a father and is usually filmed in collaboration with his wife, Roxanne. The couple have had the Christmas No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart every year from 2018 to 2022 with the novelty songs "We Built This City", "I Love Sausage Rolls", "Don't Stop Me Eatin'", "Sausage Rolls for Everyone" and "Food Aid". This made them the first musical act in British history to secure five Christmas No. 1 hits, surpassing the record set by the Beatles, who had four Christmas No. 1 songs in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967.
"Boris Johnson Is a Fucking Cunt" is a single by the Kunts, a band created by Kunt and the Gang. The song is directed at the then prime minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and consists of the words "Boris Johnson is a fucking cunt" being repeated. Originally released on the 2020 album Kunts Punk in Your Face, the track was later released as a single, and Kunt campaigned to make the single the 2020 UK Christmas number one. The song reached number five, although the BBC refused to name either the song or the artist due to the very strong language in both. In November 2021, the band announced a sequel, "Boris Johnson Is Still a Fucking Cunt", once again campaigning to top the Christmas chart. It also reached number five.
The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir is made up of a wide range of NHS workers, including doctors, nurses, therapists and many other staff from across the NHS workforce. In 2015, they achieved the UK Christmas number 1, with their single "A Bridge over You", a mash up of Bridge over Troubled Water and Fix You. They released an album the following year, and recorded a version of Justin Bieber's Holy in December 2020. They also were seen performing Joy to the World after the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day 2020.
"Prince Andrew Is a Sweaty Nonce" is a 2022 punk rock single by The Kunts, a band created by the dark comedy singer Kunt and the Gang. The song is directed at Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and references his relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; the word "nonce" is British prison slang referring to child molesters or, more generally, pedophiles. The song reached No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and No. 1 in the UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Singles Sales Chart. The song is a follow-up to the band's previous tracks "Boris Johnson Is a Fucking Cunt" from 2020, and "Boris Johnson Is Still a Fucking Cunt" from 2021.
"Fuck the Tories" is a single by the Kunts, a band created by Kunt and the Gang, released in 2022. It is a satirical protest song attacking the Conservative Party, known colloquially as the Tories, who formed the government of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2024. The song was released in an attempt to be the UK Singles Chart Christmas number one.
"Scrap the Monarchy" is a single by the Krown Jewelz, a band created by Kunt and the Gang, who had previously released songs as the Kunts. The song, aimed at the British monarchy, serves as a follow-up to the Kunts' 2022 single "Prince Andrew Is a Sweaty Nonce"; the track attacks Prince Andrew, Duke of York, William, Prince of Wales and King Charles III. The single was released on 5 May 2023, the day before the King Charles III's coronation, reaching No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 1 in the UK Independent Singles Chart.
"Proper Christmas" is the latest single by the Krackpots, a band created by Kunt and the Gang, released on 8th December 2023. It is a follow-up to three previous singles released by the group under the name the Kunts, with which they attempted to make the UK Singles Chart Christmas number one, a trio of swear-word-laden satirical punk rock songs entitled "Boris Johnson Is a Fucking Cunt" from 2020, "Boris Johnson Is Still a Fucking Cunt" from 2021, and "Fuck the Tories" from 2022.