The British Legion's silent single, with Thom Yorke, goes in at 20

“2 Minute Silence”, the Royal British Legion's single for Remembrance Day, entered the UK singles chart at number 20 on Sunday 14 November, Remembrance Sunday. The track is two minutes with no music and no voices on it, and Thom Yorke is one of the public figures standing silent through its video. It also went in at number three on the independent singles chart.

Yorke was the name the music papers led with when the Legion announced the single on 18 October. The producer Mark Ronson, the Prime Minister David Cameron, the actor Bob Hoskins, the tennis player Andy Murray and Bryan Ferry are in it too. Rather than record a song, we felt the UK public would recognise the poignancy of silence and its clear association with remembrance², says Chris Simpkins, the Legion's Director General.

The single went on sale as a download on 7 November, with a Facebook campaign trying to take it to number one, and the money goes to serving and former members of the armed forces and their families. Every pound from “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”, the £1 download Radiohead put out in August 2009, went to the Legion too.

On 4 November Yorke put a post on Dead Air Space, the band's blog, under the title “2 minutes silence”, with a link to the single's site, a kiss and one line, wouldn't it be great if it was number one⁴.