The full club version of Brim Full of Ashes is amazing. 1998 had 3 of my all time favorite number 1s.

1998 is really getting going now, I thoroughly enjoyed these two shows.

Frozen is of course one of the GREAT No.1 singles, and My Heart Will Go On was just so huge and everywhere. Some classic ballads around from LeAnn Rimes and Savage Garden too.

The Space song was their second single I really enjoy in the space of three months, their style was so unique, and the Cerys pairing and subject of the song was inspired.

Robyn <3 Of course she went on to bigger and better things but Show Me Love was a great Cheiron hit and an early sonic template for Britney quite clearly.

That's a great sale for Natalie's second hit, really nothing like Torn so it's impressive she managed another No.2 with it, it's more in Alanis territory.

The Five song was also really solid pop. The less said about Cast from Casualty the better but Rebecca Wheatley could really sing at least so it wasn't completely hopeless.

Shame the remix of Brimful Of Asha wasn't played on these shows, I really far prefer it to the album version.

The Cast of Casualty and no Charlie Fairhead in the performance.

21ST MARCH

Christmas aside there are only a few occasions when what happens in the charts crosses into mainstream news articles but it happened this week. The reason? Well when the first reports came through that the Spice Girls weren’t looking like they would enter at No 1 the press went wild, more on that in a moment but first up the victors.

Pioneers of Hip Hop from their inception in 1981 Run DMC got their mainstream breakthrough in 1986 when they teamed up with Aerosmith to score a top 10 hit with “Walk This Way” but only one UK top 20 single followed (“It’s Tricky” in 1987) and group have not been seen in the charts since 1993. So it remained until DJ Jason Nevis took their 1983 debut single “It’s Like That” and remixed it into a major club hit and subsequent European smash. Demand for this song saw the single break the top 75 on imports alone twice with the US import making No 65 and the German release No 63 in the course of the last month. Both lose their place with the official release which sold a mighty 246,769 last week to cruise to No 1 on the biggest weekly sale of the year so far.

So onto the Spice Girls then and the single in question “Stop”. A third single from “Spiceworld” it seems to have broken the run of chart toppers for the band who placed all 6 of their previous singles at the top, in truth though it did come up against very strong opposition “Stop” opens with a sale of just 115,423, the lowest of all their singles bar debut hit “Wannabe”. It would have been enough to pip (just) Celine Dion last week so could be considered unlucky, at any rate expect hundreds of articles over the demise of the girls in the forthcoming weeks but in reality this had to happen at some point!

Speaking of Dion she slides 1-3 (103,000) and crosses the 750,000 mark- her second million seller seems just weeks away.





The BRITS have a history of creating odd bedfellow collaborations for the show and none more so than last month’s teaming up of Texas and Wu-Tang Clan. The remixed version of “Say What You Want” now with the added parenthesis of “All Day Every Day” was deemed good enough to be cut into a single and paired with “Insane” which features on “White On Blonde”. It becomes their 5th top 10 single in a row at No 4 (77,000).

A little slice of Italian Eurodance slides in at No 10 (31,000) for Alexia. She was previously a backing singer for acts like Double You (whose version of “Please Don’t Go” was pipped to the post by KWS’ version in 1992) but is now a star in her own right with a string of European hits to her credit and finally a UK hit with “Uh La La La”. It has been remixed for the UK market by Almighty.

Madonna retains the best selling album trophy but “Frozen” drops 3-5 (63,000) meanwhile Natalie Imbruglia moves past her 2-6 (52,000). Five can’t keep up and delve 4-7 (41,000), Cornershop languish 6-8 (36,000) and Savage Garden continue their slow decline 8-9 (33,000).


1- IT’S LIKE THAT- Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins (246,769)
2- STOP- Spice Girls (115,423)
3- MY HEART WILL GO ON- Celine Dion (103,000)
4- SAY WHAT YOU WANT/ INSANE- Texas Featuring Wu-Tang Clan (77,000)
5- FROZEN- Madonna (63,000)
6- BIG MISTAKE- Natalie Imbruglia (52,000)
7- WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT- Five (41,000)
8- BRIMFUL OF ASHA- Cornershop (36,000)
9- TRULY MADLY DEEPLY- Savage Garden (33,000)
10- UH LA LA LA- Alexia (31,000)

Who would have thought that of all the acts to stop the Spice Girls chart-topping run, it would've been an American rap outfit who hadn't had a hit for a decade?

28TH MARCH





It suffers a 31% decrease in sales but such was Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins’ lead last week that nothing comes close to unseating it at the top of the charts. The 167,000 it sold last week enables the track to go silver (400,000) after just a fortnight and points to a big seller.

Its nearest challenger was a resurgent Celine Dion who climbed again 3-2 with a 16% sales increase (119,000) thanks mainly to renewed advertising for her album (which itself flies 5-1 this week) but also because it was mother’s day, in doing so it deprives the Titanic soundtrack from a return to the top- we can’t get enough it seems.

Highest new entry of the week goes to a reinvigorated Robbie Williams’ whose last single “Angels” seems to have changed the direction of his career. That single remains top 30 having just topped the 750,000 mark and made “Life Thru A Lens” a regular top 10 attendee, the follow up is no less showy, “Let Me Entertain You” comes with a promo which sees Robbie dressed as a member of rock band Kiss. It crashes straight in at No 3 (72,000) this week, his 5th top 10 single from 6 releases, the album remains top 5.

Currently at No 3 in the US chart, new US RNB sensations Destiny’s Child also strike it big here with their debut single “No No No” which was co-written and features vocals from Wyclef Jean. The track comes in two parts each with its own video and helps the song debut at No 5 (48,000) for the US quartet.

Tin Tin Out are a UK production duo have been released tracks under their own name since 1994 with the biggest hit thus far being “There’s Always Something There To Remind Me” (#14, 1995) a cover of the Sandie Shaw chart topper. Four other minor top 40 singles aside Tin Tin Out now have their biggest hit with another cover, this time of the Sundays “Here’s Where The Story Ends” and have recruited singer Shelly Nelson, it’s new at No 7 (38,000). Nelson incidentally was the vocalist on Treat Infinity’s “Rest Assured” a few months ago. The original Sundays song was never released in the UK and indeed the group themselves only scored their first UK top 20 hit last year with “Summertime”.

Their last single “Fantasy Island” stunned many chart watchers when it flopped at No 33 but fears that that was the end of M People are premature. New single “Angel St” powers in at No 8 (35,000) to become their 10th top 10 single since “How Can I Love You More” became their first in early 1993. The album “Fresco” lifts 41-26 in response but it has underperformed compared to their two previous albums without doubt.

George Michael may be between albums at present but he continues to feature on top 10 singles this time in sampled form. LL Cool J’s “Father” has a nice slice of Michael's “Father Figure” through it and is new at No 10 (27,000) that outpeak’s Michael’s original by a spot. Cool J has now scored five top ten singles in just 18 months which is impressive when you consider that he only managed a solitary top flight in his first 9 years as a chart star. The song incidentally chronicles the singer’s abuse at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend as a child.

The Spice Girls definitely won’t be heading to No 1 with “Stop” which falls 2-4 (64,000), Madonna’s former No 1 dips 5-6 (42,000) and Savage Garden hold at No 9 (31,000).


1- IT’S LIKE THAT- Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins (167,000)
2- MY HEART WILL GO ON- Celine Dion (119,000)
3- LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU- Robbie Williams (72,000)
4- STOP- Spice Girls (64,000)
5- NO NO NO- Destiny’s Child (48,000)
6- FROZEN- Madonna (42,000)
7- HERE’S WHERE THE STORY ENDS- Tin Tin Out Featuring Shelly Nelson (38,000)
8- ANGEL ST- M People (35,000)
9- TRULY MADLY DEEPLY- Savage Garden (31,000)
10- FATHER- LL Cool J (27,000)

I wonder why the Spice Girls' record company put Stop out against It's Like That, surely anyone could see how huge the hype was for that, with it even charting for ages on import. It's one of their great uptempos too, so it's a shame to be the song to end their No.1 streak, but there was only so long that run of theirs could continue. It should have been released a week earlier and with another song as a double a-side to boost sales (maybe a single mix of Never Give Up On The Good Times or something?). It's Like That definitely deserved its long spell at No.1 though, an inspired song and remix.

The Texas/Wu-Tang remix was a bit odd and didn't work that well for me, I do like Insane though. Nice to see they got another top five from a fantastic album.

Uh La La La was good fun by Alexia, still one I listen to now and then. Loved seeing Kylie's Breathe on the first show tonight too, Impossible Princess and its singles were ridiculously underrated, what a throbbing beauty of a song. No recollection of that Bryan Adams song at all - some interesting world music influence to the production but overall fairly dull. I'd also forgotten that the Wombles re-released Remember You're A Womble in 1998!

The second show had some great stuff - Pulp, The All Seeing I, and Destiny's Child's debut (Beyoncé had so much star quality even then, although the song is a bit of a miss for me compared to their later material).

Not fussed on the M People song, it sounds exactly like Search For The Hero with the same melody and chord progression in parts, not sure what the point of it was supposed to be.

Here's Where The Story Ends is one of my all-time favourite cover versions, and maybe the 1998 song I listen to the most today. I love it and adore Shelley Nelson's voice, her live performance was absolutely note perfect. The original is also obviously sublime. This version had weeks at No.1 on airplay so it feels like it peaked way higher than No.7, as it should have done.

Robbie was elevated to the next level by Angels indeed and followed it with another classic in Let Me Entertain You, I still can't ever fathom why you would have these two songs on your album and release South Of The Border first - it was almost self sabotage.