Chartfridays

Russia announced it will sanction UK interests in Russia. Looks like we're headed for economic warfare.

That's squarely aimed at his internal audience. The invasion of Ukraine is failing, the economic sanctions are hitting his people, and the perfect scapegoat is the west for that rather than him - it's classic deflection. The reality is the economic impact of sanctions, whilst hopefully bad for Russia is nowhere near as bad as full on war would be.

Oh yeah I'm sure Radio 2's core audience would be over the moon to hear Pushin P and Come & Go. I think optically moving the chart show to Radio 2 would be a very bad move, signalling it as a bit irrelevant to modern pop music - which yes it is but admitting that could damage the OCC brand. I'd imagine there's a commitment to it being on R1.

I get this falls slightly outside the demographics here but seriously nobody's got anything to say on it? Here's the lead singles.... Finished up at No 18 on the albums chart, which is a bit disappointing to be honest. TllvFtkXMBE syNDdIfKbkw

Anyone else starting to get a bit concerned that the changes made to the chart show over the past few years are going to stick - but also that the presenting pool for replacing Scott is becoming increasingly poor. I grew up with the chart show playing the Top 40 in full - to me this was always a pretty big deal with the show and the way it should. Yes some of the songs are utter crap but they're clearly popular so they should be played - the 3 hour version of the show has always been the way it should be to me. The 1 hr 45 version is a lackluster replacement and while Scott's presenting stint has improved things a lot since Greg's it's still a halfhearted way of treating a great institution. Obviously international release co-ordination makes returning to the charts natural Sunday night home - when more people are likely to be able to listen to it - but surely it could be done more justice on a Friday night - I appreciate moving it later also causes a few issues with people being out and about, and moving it to Saturday afternoon would be the best bet - but obviously with it being published on Friday that would require negotiation with OCC to not publish / be open to guessing the No 1 off spotify. 4pm - 7pm would surely be okay, with a break at the 20 mark to allow Newsbeat to be played (and account for generally shorter songs these days). It would give more time for interviews and features with the artists featured in the chart and perhaps could even give time to give the album chart more prominence. It would also still allow dance anthems etc to start early-ish in the evening. Lastly, Scott's been presenting for nearly 4 years now - whilst I'd hope he'd do it for another 4 as he's one of the best modern chart show hosts - it's obvious that at some point producers will want to replace him. His increasing prominence as a Radio 2 spare-hand also suggests to me that he's been gently prepared for a move over to R2 at some point, hopefully they'd leave him on the chart show if that happened - but if Radio 1 starts getting it's jizz on over youth appeal again, it might not like the optics of the chart being presented by a R2 Presenter. The pool of potential replacements is bad - Greg James has been tried and didn't do that good a job of, Jordan North is far too bombastic for the show, Vic and Katie are dreadful when they do cover (missing numbers, asking audience stuff that has nout to do with the chart). Some of the perhaps obvious contenders have left R1 - such as Grimmy. Jack Saunders is probably the most promising DJ on R1 at the minute - but that's mainly for his playlisting skill so the chart might be an odd fit for him. I honestly find it quite hard to see who the next chart show host would be, without them being truly dreadful - co-hosting has never worked (I remember Reggie and Fearn and JK and Joel).

Yup, hopefully setting a trend for decent streams for upcoming releases as well.

New / Re-Entries top 50 1. Starlight - Dave 31. Come & Go - ArrDee 39. Night Away (Dance) ft Tion Wayne - A1 x J1, Tion Wayne 41. G Lock - Digga D, Moneybag Yo 48. Thiago Silva - Dave, AJ Tracey 49. Verdansk - Dave

Well deserved, rap's not really my thing but Dave is clearly talented and lyrically exceptional - would have thought he was a lot older than 23. Obviously this is a bit more commercial than the album tracks of his last album as well, so should work well for him. Whilst I'd obviously except him to decline over the week, I'd hope he can maintain some momentum.

Obviously were in the midst of a war, so claims need to be taken with a pinch of salt but Zelensky claiming 10,000 Russian soldiers have died.

It's not reckless or stupid when you remember why they're doing it. It's calculates and evil. Maximum damage

Avoided thankfully

@https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1498023555975450626? Holy f***.... https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1498023555975450626?

I get the point, not sure it's the time for it - especially as it seems actions are now being taken to undo any of that support.

Obviously the government are only going to support those going to fight for Ukraine... it was in the context of the Ukranian request for foreigners to join the International Territorial Defence of Ukraine Legion. It's important because in most wars it's illegal for Brits to travel and fight for a foreign country, i.e - for both sides in ISIS. Although I can't imagine at the moment there'll be hoardes of young Brits flying to Ukraine to sign up, if this war escalates that statement of support might become important.

https://sync-tube.de/rooms/OH0IdoxeX Synctube link

16 November 1974 - starting with the song that closed last week 'Gonna Make You A Star by David Essex. I've pulled data together going up to 20 August 1977 but don't think we'll get through that all.

Yup, as always it's a mix of absolute cack and timeless classics this week! I hope we're all looking forward to sitting through the first EP of the marathon too

Foreign Office will support Brits heading to Ukraine to fight.

https://twitter.com/antiputler_news/status/...843820091871235?

Back this week! :)

Orban backing sanctions must be a major blow to Putin?

There's a large part of Western Ukraine that is not a warzone. Reports that many captured Russian soldiers are claiming they didn't know they were being sent to Ukraine and wouldn't have gone if they did- obviously that might be the pleading attempt of men facing death, but could be the reality, if so surely a good chance Ukrainian neighbours could offer sanctuary to Russian soldiers who lay down their arms?

I never said it was right, I was explaining the justification. We should accept migrants, but the governments logic is exactly the same logic that Poland used to refusing Syrians to disguise their literal racism on it.

But your point is wrong, because the fact Ukraine isn't either in NATO or EU is exactly the reason we have this war in the first place, it's complete garbage to suggest that this war has shifted it's place in the world, otherwise we'd have sent troops we haven't.

Yes, it's a country with real people, most of whom - aside from those men of fighting age - have fled to safety. That's sad and horrible for them, and something no-one should ever have to go through - however it's not 1914 or 1939 and sending troops into defend 'democracy' is not going to be as simple and likely to be even more deadly, with far more dangerous technologies around now than were then. It's tremendously sad and horrible to see this happen to Ukraine, but sending British troops into Ukraine - a non NATO country - is an escalation to a full scale world war and would risk scaring Putin into invading a NATO country that bordered Russia - I'd honestly hazard that's why he has so few troops in Ukraine itself - as he's waiting for an excuse from the west's actions with military stationed on other borders, I can't believe anyone in the UK truly wants that. What's happening in Ukraine is devastating to watch, but what would happen if we sent troops into Ukraine is not even worth thinking about - NATO countries have been desperately scaling back their military spending for decades - Russia has been expanding theirs, both the US and Russia have access to nuclear weapons. Afghanistan served the purpose of avoiding war in Europe for the past 20 or so years, as a proxy war - actions in the next few days and months between NATO and Russia regarding Ukraine could seriously decide whether this war is contained to Ukraine or spreads beyond, and I ask the question again, is the sake of one country worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives? Until we know whether Putin truly intends just to take Ukraine or wishes to invade a NATO country, it's a ridiculously dangerous idea to send troops - it's absolutely right to help Ukranians defend themselves. Long term, the world may have to resign itself to the fact allowing Russia to occupy at least the Eastern part of Ukraine with only limited 'military aid' to Ukraine and absolutely no NATO troops on the ground, is the only way to prevent Vladimir Putin going completely power-hungry for other nations bordering Russia - we've already seen the unhinged threats of catastrophe and consequences if Finland and Sweden join NATO. I'm not going to apologise for suggesting that rushing into a world war for the sake of a single country is a bad idea. It's amazing how quickly 'never again' can be forgotten - get everybody out of Ukraine that we can and provide them sanctuary but don't poke a beast that is clearly willing to go over most lines.