Liverpool: Hillsborough Single Is Xmas No.1!

Charity song 'He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother' by The Justice Collective has secured top spot in this year's Christmas singles chart...

The track, raising money for the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, features famous names such as Robbie Williams, Sir Paul McCartney and Mel C.

A cover of The Hollies' 1969 hit, the single sold 269,000 copies during the past seven days, 45,000 more than X Factor winner James Arthur's single Impossible which dropped to number two.

The news tops off a memorable week for campaigners, friends and family of the 96 after the announcement on Wednesday that the original inquest's verdicts into the disaster had been quashed at the High Court and new investigations ordered.

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, described the achievement as 'truly amazing'.

"The families will be delighted. We haven't had very good Christmases for a long time so this is an extra gift," she said.

"It's obvious that it's got a lot of support and they've got the message across to everybody. It's truly amazing."

Many customers bought multiple copies, including some who bought 96 copies - one for each of the supporters who died in the tragedy.

Music retailer HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo revealed: "We haven't seen anything like that since Band Aid."

The single is still available to buy and is also helping to bring together football supporters of different clubs and backgrounds with many supporting and promoting the campaign via social media.

In addition to buying the physical copy in your local music store or supermarket, a digital version can be downloaded via iTunes, HMV, 7 Digital and Amazon.

You can also purchase the track by texting the word 'Justice' to 80010 from your mobile phone in the UK (£1 + standard network rate). From the Republic of Ireland, text 'Justice' to 53600 if you would like to order a copy (€1.50 + standard network rate). Please note that due to the very high demand, texts to download may suffer a delay of a few hours.

Follow me on Twitter @superbag

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.