You may have heard about an online campaign to make Rage Against the Machine's 17-year-old song "Killing in the Name" No. 1 on the U.K. charts for Christmas. Now, if you don't live in the U.K., you may wonder why there's such passion to make this happen, so it's worth going into a little background.

In the time leading up to Christmas in the U.K., the singles chart is a closely-followed competition that pits popular songs against each other. And since the chart is based on sales, fans can vote for their favorites by buying extra copies of the singles they like the most. Sometimes, the No. 1 song is a Christmas-themed track (like the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?"), or it can be a novelty song (like "Can We Fix It?" from the children's TV show Bob the Builder).

But for the last four years, the No. 1 song at Christmastime has been from an artist who won The X Factor, essentially the British equivalent of American Idol. It appeared that it would be five years in a row when this year's winner, Joe McElderry, seemed destined to claim the top spot with his song "The Climb." But then an online Facebook campaign was launched to get Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" picked as the No. 1 song. It's not necessarily that there was a huge clamoring to honor this particular track -- it was more of a protest against The X Factor's monopoly on the top spot of the yearly Christmas chart.

How's the campaign going? Well, the latest figures have "Killing in the Name" leading "The Climb" by less than 9,000 sales. The final results will be released Sunday, and there's been a lot of attention regarding this battle: Even Paul McCartney has weighed in on who he favors in the contest.

But how does Rage Against the Machine, who haven't released a new studio album in a decade, feel about the hoopla? "I think it would be a wonderful statement," frontman Zack de la Rocha told BBC Radio about the grassroots campaign to make "Killing in the Name" No. 1. "I think it says something about the real tensions that people are experiencing all over the U.K. and the United States as well." Guitarist Tom Morello added, "The people in the U.K. are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another ... and we are honored that they have chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to try to topple The X Factor label."

In case you're worried that the band members are doing this for monetary gain, Morello has already announced that he will be donating his proceeds to Youth Music, a U.K. children's music charity. Meanwhile, the Facebook campaign is collecting donations for Shelter, a homeless charity in the U.K.

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Rumors began circulating a few days ago that guitarist John Frusciante had quit Red Hot Chili Peppers, and now Frusciante has taken to his blog to confirm his departure from the Grammy-winning group.

In his post, Frusciante reveals that he had quit the group more than a year ago. "There was no drama or anger involved, and the other guys were very understanding," he writes. "They are supportive of my doing whatever makes me happy and that goes both ways."

His statement certainly goes out of its way to indicate that there's still a lot of mutual respect and love between him and the rest of the Chili Peppers. And he also appreciates how integral he was to the band's makeup in fans' minds as well. "I understand and value that my work with [the band] means a lot to many people," he writes, "but I have to follow my interests. For me, art has never been something done out of a sense of duty. It is something I do because it is really fun, exciting, and interesting."

Frusciante also mentions a desire to make "a different kind of music, alone, and being my own engineer," so it's assumed that he'll keep recording solo albums. He's been very prolific in this department -- he's put out 10 solo discs in the last 15 years, and six since 2004 -- so we might expect more such efforts in the near future. In the meantime, the rest of the Chili Peppers will continue to work on their new record, presumably with replacement guitarist Josh Klinghoffer taking over for Frusciante.

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Liam Gallagher's band, which includes former Oasis bandmates Gem Archer and Andy Bell, will be looking to put out their first record this summer. What they're going to call themselves, however, remains undetermined.

NME obtained audio from an interview Gallagher gave Virgin Radio Italy in which he said, "I'd like to have a record out by July next year. We've already done about three songs and they're [expletive] sounding amazing."

This record would be Gallagher's first since his brother Noel left Oasis over the summer. The assumption was that since Noel was the band's principal songwriter, there couldn't be an Oasis without him. But Liam seems determined to carry on without his brother, hinting previously that he might even keep the Oasis name if he doesn't come up with anything better.

"It ain't a new direction," Liam said about the new songs. "We're not making reggae music or rap music. It might have a bit more energy and be fresher. It's not going to be that different." There will be one difference, though -- there won't be Noel Gallagher songs on this album. And that could end up being quite a crucial difference between Liam's forthcoming record and your typical Oasis disc.

See more anticipated 2010 rock albums

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its list of new inductees today, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, in their first year of eligibility, did not make the cut.

If it's any consolation to the band's fans, the Rock Hall's picks favored artists who have been on the ballot for several years, including Genesis, ABBA and Jimmy Cliff. Bands are eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording, so perhaps Red Hot Chili Peppers will have to wait their turn. (For example, LL Cool J, who came onto the scene about the same time as RHCP, also failed to get enough votes for induction.)

This might be disappointing news for the Chili Peppers, but they may have more important things to worry about this week now that a "source close to the band" has revealed that longtime guitarist John Frusciante has reportedly left the group.

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Nine days ago, Weezer's tour bus crashed outside Albany, New York, forcing frontman Rivers Cuomo to be rushed to the hospital with internal injuries. He's well enough to leave the hospital now, but a posting on the band's website over the weekend indicated that he may need more time to recuperate, which could cause Weezer's January tour dates to be postponed.

Though the post spends most of its time detailing Cuomo's cross-country journey by bus from New York to his home in Los Angeles, it does also mention, "while nothing has been made official yet, it looks like most of the January weezer shows will also have to be rescheduled to give Rivers the full time the docs say he shouldn't be jumping around." Trying to make sense of that run-on sentence, I assume that it means that his doctors want him to rest so as not to upset his injuries, which included a cut on his spleen and a punctured lung. (These precautions were also the reason why Rivers had to drive rather than fly back to Los Angeles.) So while Cuomo is in much better shape than he was a few days ago, he may not be ready for full-on performing quite yet.

Currently, Weezer were set to play four dates in January as part of their Raditude tour. If those shows are rescheduled, the band wouldn't play another date until May 2.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers are working away on their follow-up to 2006's Stadium Arcadium, but the band may have hit a major snag: Guitarist John Frusciante has reportedly left the group.

MusicRadar spoke to "a source close to the band" who indicated that Frusciante hasn't been associated with Red Hot Chili Peppers for a while now. In fact, the source claims that another guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, "has been playing with the group for a couple of months now." That would suggest that since RHCP started work on the new album in October, Klinghoffer has been the band's principal guitarist.

As MusicRadar mentions, Frusciante has exited Red Hot Chili Peppers before. He split after the band's 1991 album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, replaced by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro for One Hot Minute, before returning for Californication. (Ironically, partly because of Frusciante's absence, One Hot Minute is considered one of the band's weaker records of their major-label period.)

If this inside source is correct, Frusciante wants to focus on his solo records -- he's released six in the last five years. "Mentally, John checked out a long time ago," the source said. "He's interested in doing his own thing, his own albums -- the whole big rock band machinery just doesn't appeal to him anymore."

Red Hot Chili Peppers have yet to release any official statement about the matter. But, in a way, they did last month when drummer Chad Smith was asked by Classic Rock about Frusciante's seeming reluctance to start work on the Stadium Arcadium follow-up. Smith supposedly got very uncomfortable and responded, "Well... at this time I can't talk about that. I have been told to stay away from the John questions." Classic Rock didn't press the matter further, but in light of this new information, what Smith's not saying seems to speak volumes.

Update on December 17: Frusciante has confirmed that he's left Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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It's taken a little over 12 months to happen, but Guns N' Roses are finally playing their first show since the release of Chinese Democracy. The concert, happening in Taipei, Taiwan, was held today, and it will begin a four-stop Asian tour for the band. But at a time when the group should be in high spirits, there's a bit of a dark cloud hovering over GNR: Two nights before their Taipei show, frontman Axl Rose was involved in an altercation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the way to the gig.

LiveDaily reported that on Wednesday night, "Rose got into a scuffle with a paparazzo that ended up with a few bloodied participants." According to Rolling Stone, though, LAX police had "no record of the incident." So what happened?

A press release posted on the band's MySpace page yesterday tried to shed light on the situation, saying, "Mr. Rose, who was about to enter a security checkpoint at LAX when the altercation took place, was approached by a group of unchecked and unruly photographers who became aggressive with the singer and female members of the traveling group. Mr. Rose was not injured during the unprovoked attack and was able to board his flight without further incident." (For what it's worth, one of the photographers has told TMZ that "he has footage of Axl Rose punching him in the head.")

At this point, there don't appear to be any charges filed in the matter, but that could certainly change. In the meantime, GNR will continue their Asian tour before heading to Canada and South America in 2010.

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2009 will be remembered (among other things) as the year that Kings of Leon broke through to the mainstream, becoming a household name after years of being a sensation overseas but only a cult band in their home country. Further proof of the band's big year came this week when iTunes released their end-of-the-year rundown of its bestselling songs and albums of 2009. Only by the Night topped the album chart, beating out the Twilight soundtrack. Exact sales figures weren't announced, but it is ironic that the two most popular albums on iTunes this year were actually records that came out in 2008. Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King ended up at No. 5, possibly helped a bit by its recent Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.

The songs chart was largely devoid of rock tracks, but Kings of Leon do put in an appearance at No. 10 with "Use Somebody." Another sign of the band's big year is the company they now find themselves in on the songs chart, which is full of teen-leaning pop acts like Miley Cyrus and the Black Eyed Peas.

As part of this announcement, iTunes also included its picks for the best albums in different genres. The Dead Weather's Horehound was selected as Best Rock Album, while Only by the Night was cited as Album of the Year. I like Only by the Night as much as the next guy but, again, isn't it more accurately the Album of Last Year?

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On Sunday morning, Weezer's tour bus crashed outside of Albany, New York, resulting in frontman Rivers Cuomo needing to be rushed to the hospital because of internal injuries. The news has steadily improved for Cuomo since then, as the band's website has an update this morning that mentions that Cuomo is now up and walking for the first time since the accident.

Despite the good news, though, it appears that he's still a few days away from leaving the hospital. In a previous band post, it was revealed that he had suffered "a small cut on his spleen and a small puncture in his lung." Both his spleen and lung are healing, but he isn't quite ready to fly back to his home in Los Angeles since it's still deemed too risky at this point.

In related news, Cuomo's wife, who had fractured ribs and a fractured lower vertebra, has already been released from the hospital. Clearly Cuomo was the most affected by the crash and is the only passenger from the bus who remains in the hospital -- and hopefully he'll be well enough to leave soon.

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When Creed reunited in April, one of the reasons for the band's reconciliation seemed to be that Alter Bridge, the band that Creed's musicians had formed after they split with frontman Scott Stapp, was folding. And that speculation made sense: After all, Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy was being discussed last year as a possible replacement for Robert Plant in a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, suggesting that Kennedy was looking for more stable employment. But even though Creed are busy promoting their recent album, Full Circle, it appears we haven't heard the last of Alter Bridge.

In an interview in Billboard to discuss Creed's new DVD, Creed Live, guitarist Mark Tremonti (pictured) revealed that he and Kennedy are working on material for the next Alter Bridge record, the band's first since 2007's Blackbird. "Me and Myles need to get on the same page with our ideas," Tremonti said, "and once we're there we'll realize what kind of work load we have." Tremonti's plan is to go into the studio in February to record the Alter Bridge album and then tour Europe in October before heading to North America. But it's not as if Creed are finished with their touring cycle -- they'll be on the road from April to June. (If all that wasn't enough Creed/Alter Bridge activity for 2010, Kennedy has said that he'll be releasing a solo album next year as well.)

So, Creed fans, if you were hoping that Full Circle meant that the guys weren't going to be focusing on any more side projects, it appears that this reunion won't, ahem, "alter" Tremonti's plans for his other band.

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