John_Squire

15 1992 Jimmy Nail 'Ain't No Doubt' 12 1993 The Bluebells 'Young at Heart' 10 1990 Maria McKee 'Show Me Heaven' 08 1996 Babylon Zoo "Spaceman" 06 1993 Gabrielle 'Dreams' 05 1996 Fugees "Killing Me Softly" 04 1998 Cher 'Believe' 03 1992 Charles and Eddie 'Would I Lie To You?' 02 1999 Fatboy Slim "Praise You" 01 1998 Cornershop 'Brimful Of Asha' -2 1991 Queen 'Bohemian Rhapsody/These Are The Days Of Our Lives'

Mary Byrne won't sell over 100k so she will probably be #2 or #3 and then drop like a stone. Ronan Keating could well increase in sales in Mother's Day week and go to #2, but he won't sell more than Adele as she'll get the MD boost as well - for both albums :o Based on how well the singles have done - I expect Britney to chart around #5, selling 35-40k. I don't mind '21' staying at number one for ages (well, not half the year hopefully!) - I hope SLY doesn't, though. I can see why people like it but I'm very, very bored of it now. There are far superior songs on the album. Assuming SLY is #1 this week (its 5th week), will it be likely to get a 6th or 7th week? EDIT: Radiohead should sell over 50k, which would usually be enough for #1 - but not this time! Maybe #4.

Gutted that Wamdue Project isn't doing that well. It's one of my favourite dance #1s (and it probably would have got 12 or 15 in most other years).

08 If You Had My Love ?? No Me Ames (with Marc Anthony) 07 Waiting For Tonight 06 Feelin' So Good (featuring Big Pun and Fat Joe) ?? Let's Get Loud 07 Love Don't Cost a Thing 07 Play 09 Ain't It Funny 05 I'm Real ?? I'm Real (Murder Remix) (featuring Ja Rule) 06 Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix) (featuring Ja Rule and Caddillac Tah) 08 I'm Gonna Be Alright (Track Masters Remix) (featuring Nas) 06 Alive 07 Jenny from the Block (featuring Styles P and Jadakiss) 08 All I Have (featuring LL Cool J) 06 I'm Glad 07 Baby I Love U! 06 Get Right 03 Hold You Down (featuring Fat Joe) ?? Qué Hiciste ?? Me Haces Falta ?? Por Arriesgarnos (with Marc Anthony) ?? Do It Well ?? Hold It, Don't Drop It ?? Louboutins 07 On The Floor (featuring Pitbull)

Akon. There's a few I want gone though.

Amarillo? Really? As a song it's very good! Is it the novelty aspect that puts people off? Voted Westlife BTW - one of their worst covers.

So they didn't borrow more than was prudent? They didn't make any financial mistakes at all?

You've missed the point there somewhat...

Yes, exactly - it doesn't have to be fiction, classics or what literature snobs would say is acceptable. Any books are good. Plenty of people don't read fiction but reading about history, war, cars, sport, current affairs, politics, biographies, whatever - it's all reading and all of that contributes towards part of your overall intelligence. And I'm not saying everyone who reads voraciously is a genius. But reading for pleasure is an enjoyable hobby that expands your knowledge about many things, no question.

They had more hits later in 2005 (and I think one in 2006?), but that's still quite a big gap.

A lot of the best songs didn't get to number 1, but there are lots of absolute gems here anyway. 15 Blondie ‘Maria’ 12 B*Witched ‘Blame It On The Weatherman’ :wub: 10 Fatboy Slim ‘Praise You’ 08 Lenny Kravitz ‘Fly Away’ 06 The Wamdue Project ‘King Of My Castle’ 05 Britney Spears ‘Baby One More Time’ 04 ATB ‘9PM (Till I Come)’ 03 Five ‘Keep On Movin’ 02 The Vengaboys ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’ 01 Christina Aguilera ‘Genie In A Bottle’ Still her best. -1 Westlife ‘I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun’ Awful, awful, awful

I think some of the cuts are disgusting. But. What would people prefer? Higher taxes? Some people would accept that but say the government made no cuts and put 5p (or even 2p) on the basic rate of income tax - there would be absolute uproar. If you live beyond your means you can get into trouble. Labour lived beyond their means and the country has gotten into trouble. Yes, you could keep borrowing, keep spending - but given the world we live in, that would cause no end of problems on a world scale. The current government should be doing a lot (not all, though) of things differently. But Labour caused most of the problems in the first place. How anyone can not see that is bizarre.

They have both had crap periods and good periods. What really, really, really pisses me off is the idea that many people seem to have, that (generally) things done by Labour are good because they are left-wing and therefore nice and kind and generous and caring and fluffy, and things done by the Conservatives are bad because they are right-wing and hateful and bigoted and evil and every single one is a big bad milk-snatching land-owning virgin-sacrificing devil-spawn. To me, the Tory Party of 100 years ago was an over-privileged, unfair thing (call it bad) and the Labour Party was a source of help for the poor and badly-treated workers (so effectively good). That was then. It sure isn't the case now. Blair could easily have been a Tory. Gordon Brown might be committed to Labour but he's hardly worked ten-hour shifts in hard manual jobs like many Labour voters have/had (correct me if I'm wrong) - he's had things relatively soft and enjoyed a university education in the 1970s - how many Labour supporters had that then? Thatcher wasn't a typical, rich family-background Tory - she was lower middle-class and worked her way up (and the 'Milk Snatcher' tag - well, that policy had already been decided before she took on the portfolio). Ted Heath went to a grammar school and also worked his way up. Michael Foot was a left-winger who probably never knew a day's hardship in his life. Look at the parties now. For a start, what difference is there between Cameron and Miliband (and indeed Clegg?). Precious little, apart from presumably different family background ideologies, and maybe a few thousand quid in the family coffers (I doubt Miliband's family is as rich as Cameron's family, but let's face it, they were/are hardly paupers). No, David Cameron hasn't spent time living in a crappy council house with no money or prospects - well neither has Ed nor David Miliband! Tory and Labour politicians alike are often privately-educated, privileged, rich, hypocritical, and have no idea what life is like for millions of the people under their rule. That always has been and always will be. The ideal would be a mix of right- and left-wing ideologies - but when's that gonna happen?

Regardless of what you think of him/his party, it's absolutely true that kids should be encouraged to read. I know plenty of people who haven't read fifty (or even twenty) books in their life, let alone in a year - and that includes adults with university educations (if you only count reading for pleasure). Reading is so important - for a start it helps with spelling and grammar, which are often poorly taught in school (I know from personal experience), and both of which many many people are, quite frankly, crap at (there/their/they're being one irritating example amongst many). I think it's a lot to do with culture though. For a lot of there isn't a great desire to read books. Reading used to be seen as a way to improve yourself and your mind, for all classes - for example, poor, working-class miners would usually have a library in their miners' institutes. Of course literacy and class don't necessarily go hand in hand - there are plenty of thick rich people and intelligent poor people, etc, etc, and there have always been people hostile to reading and learning, as there are now. It seems to me though that there is a lot of hostility towards reading books for pleasure, far more so than there is for learning/education. I don't know. It would just be nice to see more kids - and indeed more adults - reading more books.

No 'God' :( IMO the best single from that album, equal with Cornflake Girl (and I think CG goes on a bit much at the end). Under The Pink is fantastic, though. Favourites: Pretty Good Year, God, Wrong Band, Waitress, Cornflake Girl, and the sublime 'Yes, Anastasia' Don't want to get embroiled in a Bush vs. Amos row - however - I maintain 'Hounds Of Love' is NOT the best Bush LP. Of the ones I have heard (so not TSW and TRS), Hounds Of Love would be equal bottom with Aerial. Kick Inside is the best by far, with Never for Ever second. Lionheart I think is good, just needs some polish. Tori - only heard Under The Pink, Little Earthquakes, and Choirgirl. UTP>Choirgirl>LE, easily. Under The Pink and The Kick Inside are similar yet opposite IMO - Kate's is a young woman's view of things whereas Tori was over 30 when the album was released. Sort of discovering the world vs. being world-weary (that doesn't put it very well but that's the general feel), with both dealing with complex human emotions. Both are beautiful, emotive albums and I hugely enjoy both.

4 weeks top 40 and hopefully will get 6 (maybe 7) weeks top 75 - not bad for a low top-ten 'rock/indie/alternative' album. Not bad at all. I think the first five or six tracks are easily the strongest (sublime). Not as good in the second half but the first half means it averages an 8-9 IMO. I'll give it the 9.

Uhhhhh.............The Smiths! PSB and New Order have some great singles but even with 20-odd years (maybe because of that) they can't come close to The Smiths' output in less than five years. Even Morrissey solo - and he can be very average, depending on his band/writing partners/the occasional less-than-stellar lyric - is far, far better than most of the other bands' output. Compare his 'You Are The Quarry' material to New Order's 'Waiting For The Siren's Call' for instance (their mid-00s comebacks) - Moz is infinitely better than NO. If it was Pet Shop Boys vs New Order (more apt since far closer in genre) I'd back the PSB, for their 85-93 stuff alone; never got that into New Order though they have many great songs. Add Joy Division to NO and perhaps they'd beat the PSB.

Ah. Well, Stop and Busta are far better than ILT. I'll let it have the weeks it beat Celine for. Extremely surprised how well the Manics are doing (at least, until the announcement of how well they were doing!). I would have imagined them to be a very niche band for Buzzjack! Their votes since the announcement is how I would have expected the whole thing to go TBH!

Shayne Ward. Not just 'cos it's X-Factor debut, I genuinely don't like this. One of the worst five tracks there. Forgot about the Crazy Frog - but then again I found it hilarious how well it did, so I wouldn't have voted it off yet. EDIT: actually, Shayne probably isn't worse than Westlife, My Humps, MVP, Sean Paul and Akon. But it is still crap.

He was on 'Stoned In Love' by Chicane which was either 2007 or 2008. Not sure if he was credited though.

GREAT top 4 for 97 :cheer: 1998 is pretty tough, even the forgettable pop is OK. 15 All Saints ‘Never Ever’ Classy as f**k 12 Madonna ‘Frozen’ Another one of those great comebacks 10 Manic Street Preachers ‘If You Tolerate This…’ 08 Baddiel Skinner and Lightining Seeds ‘Three Lions ‘98’ Best version by a mile 06 The Tamperer feat. Maya ‘Feel It’ :wub: 05 Oasis ‘All Around The World’ One of the best Oasis singles, seems to be forgotten about 04 Spice Girls ‘Goodbye’ 03 Jamiroquai ‘Deeper Underground’ One of my favourites by them 02 Robbie Williams ‘Millennium’ Definitely one of the best Robbie singles 01 Cornershop ‘Brimful Of Asha’ Honourable mentions: Cher, Mel B, C'est La Vie -2 Run DMC vs Jason Nevins ‘It’s Like That’ Never got this, and 6 weeks at number one? What did it keep off the top spot?

07 The Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling 05 Snow Patrol Chasing Cars 03 P!nk F**kin' Perfect 02 The Black Eyed Peas The Time (Dirty Bit) 01 Avril Lavigne What The Hell -1 The Wanted Gold Forever

12 Wheatus/ Teenage Dirtbag 11 Dr Dre ft Eminem & Skylar Grey/ I Need A Doctor 10 Tinie Tempah ft Ellie Goulding/ Wonderman 09 Snoop Dogg ft David Guetta/ Sweat 08 Alexis Jordan/ Good Girl 07 Wiz Khalifa/ Black And Yellow 06 Parade/ Louder 05 Diddy Dirty-Money ft Skylar Grey/ Coming Home 04 Adele/ Rolling In The Deep 03 George Michael/ True Faith 02 Lady GaGa/ Born This Way 01 Martin Solveig & Dragonette/ Hello -1 Pink/ F***in Prefect -1 David Guetta ft Rihanna/ Who's That Chick? -1 Rihanna/ S&M -1 Chris Brown/ Yeah 3x -1 Avril Lavigne/ What The Hell -1 Cee-Lo Green/ Forget You

Reading the comebacks thread made me think - what artists would you like to see making a massive, unexpected comeback? Here's some of mine: Ashanti - was de rigeur on anything rap/urban that did well in 2002. Had some decent singles out. Most recent big success was 2006. Maroon 5 - flopped last year but I think they still have it in them to produce another quality hit single (tbh Misery wasn't bad but it was no This Love). R Kelly - I dislike a lot of his records but it would be interesting to see him back near the top of the charts. 'Ignition' was massive nearly five years after IICTBTHOT and seven years after his last (crap) #1. So he's due a #1 in 2011... Girls Aloud - they've just sort of fizzled out. It's only been 2 1/2 years but that's a long time in pop. I'd like to wait a year or two and see what they come back with. Franz Ferdinand - had some success in 2009 but nothing on the scale of their 2004 debut. A storming single from FF would be brilliant. Kaiser Chiefs - another band that seem to have just petered out in terms of popularity. Granted, they weren't doing much different on their third album than their first. But that never stopped lots of bands before. Ruby may have been #1 but I'd prefer a string of singles like the ones off 'Employment' Blu Cantrell (well, why not?) David Sneddon and Steve Brookstein - even if just for the lols. Any Britpop-era band to reform and have one big hit. Sleeper, maybe? Elastica? Or a #1 for the Bluetones? And, finally, some random early 2000s acts - say Papa Roach, Sarah Whatmore, Sarah Connor, Sum 41, tATu, Nina Sky!

The two finalists in the 2006 number ones voting, Shakira and Nelly Furtado. Shakira - massive #2 (#1 but for Will Young), big #3, then low top 20 (2002), huge #1 in 2006 (HDL probably sold less in year of release than WW but it was as big if not bigger) Nelly Furtado - 2 top 5s in 2001, muted reception in 2003-4, huge success in 2006-7. I think these two are the most unexpected for me - if you said at the start of 2006 that Nelly and Shakira would have massive #1s by the summer, I would have doubted it. Not really a huge gap but I was really surprised how well Britney did in 2004. She had top 5s in 2001, 02 and 03, but Toxic was easily her biggest single since OIDIA. Everytime getting the #1 was even more surprising. From further back: Jefferson Airplane/Starship - not sure if they had any hit singles in the 60s but very famous and acclaimed - then 2 big hits in the late 80s