Latest Site News

[Suedehead2]

Chico stays at the top of the singles chart for a a second week. David Gilmour celewbrates his sixtieth birthday with his first number one album.

Failed X Factor contestant Chico Slimani gets a second week at number one with the mind-bogglingly awful It’s Chico Time. In the eleventh chart week of 2006, the number of weeks with a decent number one remains stubbornly stuck on one.

Orson climb three places to number two with No Tomorrow, knocking Pussycat Dolls and will.i.am’s Beep down one place to number three. BBC Sound Of 2006 winner Corinne Bailey Rae falls two places to number five with Put Your Records On, a title being made even more old-fashioned by the day as downloads increase in popularity.

Sugababes had their first hit single in 2000, and have had two or three hits each year since then. In that time they have managed to lose two-thirds of their original members and have replaced them with two equally talentless young women. This week they get their first hit of 2006 as Red Dress enters at number four. Other charting songs to refer to red items of clothing have included another Red Dress (by Alvin Stardust), The Red Shoes (Kate Bush) and the infamously appalling Lady In Red (Chris de Burgh).

Kanye West gets his second top forty hit of the year with Touch The Sky at number six. It features Wasalu Jaco, recording under the name Lupe Fiasco, who gets his first UK hit. It is West’s sixth top ten hit.

Anglo-Swedish production duo The Shapeshifters have a new entry at number twelve with Incredible, taking their number of hits up to three. After many decades when hit singles were all circular, we had a period when some of them were roughly rectangular as the cassette single became popular. Now they are increasingly becoming shapeless.

There is also a Swedish flavour to another band with a new entry this week. Placebo are a real mix of nationalities with singer Brian Molko, a dual British and Belgian national, joining two Swedes. Nevertheless, the band formed in London so can be regarded, in some respects at least, as British. They get their first hit single for nearly 18 months with Because I Want You at number thirteen.

As well as featuring on the Pussycat Dolls’ top five single, will.i.am also has a new entry at number sixteen with his band, Black Eyed Peas. Last year, in chart terms, the Peas had a bit of a fixation with the number three. They had three hits, two of them reaching number three and the other number two times three. Pump It is the Peas’ ninth top forty hit.

After having a top ten hit in 2001 under the name of Lil Bow Wow with a song called Bow Wow (That’s My Name), Shad Moss (to give him his real name) was blissfully absent from the top forty for three-and-a-half years before returning with Baby It’s You, by which time he had dropped the effeminate Lil part of his name. Rather than giving us all another decent-sized break, he inflicted another “song” on us last year, and now he is back again, at number seventeen with Like You. It features vocals from Ciara, who topped the chart last year with Goodies and went on to have a further three to ten hits before the year was out. It is beginning to looks as if Bow Wow may be around for a while yet.

Craig David enters at number eighteen with Unbelievable, a song which should not be confused with the far superior hit of that name by EMF in 1990. Southampton-based David has now had a top 75 hit every year since 1999. He reached the top forty in each of those years, apart from 2004 when he got no higher than number 43. With luck, his run of success will not last for much longer.

Chingford band The Rifles had two minor hits last year before breaking into the top forty (at number 36) with Local Boy. Their steady improvement, in chart terms, continues as Repeat Offender enters at number 26. At this rate, they cannot be far from having their first top ten hit. Like their previous singles, Repeat Offender is taken from their debut album, due for release later this year.

Although the had a top ten of their own last year, Fightstar still have a lot to do if they are to be known as anything other than former Busted member Charlie Simpson’s new band. That is looking increasingly unlikely as their latest single, Waste A Moment, limps in at number 29.

The campaign supporting the release of a collection of Michael Jackson videos and the accompanying re-release of his number one singles has now reached 1983’s Billie Jean. It returns to the chart at number eleven. Perhaps in part because they are rather more recent songs, these re-releases are not faring as well as the Elvis Presley campaign last year. With an increasing number of songs being available to purchase permanently, the concept of a re-release may eventually be limited to songs which flopped when they were originally released, so these campaigns are likely to become a thing of the past.

Jose Gonzalez re-enters at number 40 with his top ten hit from January, Heartbeats, a cover of a song by The Knife.

While some band members manage to release a steady stream of solo albums, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour has pursued his solo career at a more leisurely pace. His first, eponymous, solo album was released in 1978, over ten years after he joined Pink Floyd. Album number two, About Face, followed six years later. Now, after a twelve year wait, he has released his third solo album to coincide with his 60th birthday. To add to any birthday celebrations he may have enjoyed, On An Island gives him a first number one as a solo artist. It seems reasonable to assume that he may well be some way past normal retirement age before he releases another album.

After a week at number one, Corinne Bailey Rae slips to number two. Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams also falls one place, to number three in its 52nd week in the top 100 but only its sixth in the top ten.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli gets his tenth top forty album with Amore at number four. It matches the peak of his 1999 album Sogno. As well as a version of Can’t Help Falling In Love (a hit for various artists including Elvis Presley and UB40), it also includes Because We Believe, a song he wrote for this year’s Winter Olympics in Turin.

Arctic Monkeys fall two places to number five with Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not.

Acclaimed Irish singer Van Morrison gets his 28th top forty album (including live albums and best of sets) with Pay The Devil, a new entry at number eight. His first hit album came in 1970 with Moondance. Astral Weeks, released the year before, has never reached the charts despite regularly appearing at or near the top of critics’ lists of best albums of all time.

Greatest Hits sets by two singers who had fifteen top ten hits between them in the 1970s have entered the albums chart this week. David Essex, whose image was plastered over many teenage girls’ bedroom walls in that decade, had number one hits with Gonna Make You A Star and Hold Me Close. He was in the original London cast of Evita (giving him a hit with Oh What A Circus, to the same tune as Don’t Cry For Me Argentina) and played the artillery man on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds. His straight acting career has been less successful. All the aforementioned songs are included on his latest Greatest Hits set, as well as Silver Dream Machine (from the film Silver Dream Racer in which he starred) and the Mike Batt / Time Rice-penned A Winter’s Tale. It is a new entry at number fourteen.

Leo Sayer’s hopes of being a heartthrob were thwarted at the very start of his career by his use of a pierrot costume to hide his real identity. When he finally appeared as himself, his poster sales remained unspectacular. He returned to the chart last month with a new version of Thunder In My Heart which was just as awful as the original version. Somehow, it reached number one. Leo Sayer: At His Very Best is a new entry at number 30.

Shakira enters at number 22 with Oral Fixation - Vol 2. It is her seventh studio album, but only the second to be recorded in English. In keeping with the UK’s aversion to music in a foreign language, none of her albums recorded in Spanish have troubles the charts here.

Southampton is not generally considered to be a hotbed of music, so it is something of a novelty to have two acts from that city among this week’s new entries. With Craig David entering the singles chart, the far more listenable band Delays have a new entry in the albums chart. You See Colours, their second album, is at number 24.

Reading band Morning Runner enter at number 25 with their debut album Wilderness Is Paradise Now. The album includes their number 39 smash from last year, Gone Up In Flames.

The weirdest band to have a new entry this week must surely be Mogwai. Their musical style makes them unlikely ever to have a major hit single, although they did sneak into the top forty last month. Maybe they will record the soundtrack to a cult television series one day. In the meantime, Mr Beast lands at number 31 to give them a third top forty album.

If Southampton has under-achieved in the charts, Eel Pie Island can now claim to have over-achieved. Of course, it doesn’t take much success for a small island in the Thames to be able to claim to have punched above its weight. Mystery Jets, from the aforesaid island, had their second top forty hit single last week with The Boy Who Ran Away. This week, they enter at number 32 with their debut album, Making Dens.

Hawaiian singer Jack Johnson enters at number 29 with his soundtrack to the film Curious George. As George Bush is at the start of the last half of the final term of his presidency, it is perhaps worth mentioning a young senator born in Hawaii. Barack Obama is widely expected to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 election and may even get a chance to be the USA’s first black president. You read it here first.

Madonna’s Immaculate Collection re-enters at number 38.