DoBelieveTheHype

O'Sullivan and Wilson both comfortably see off their opponents through to the quarter finals. O'Sullivan will face the winner of Bingham v Lisowski Wilson will face the winner of Allen v Higgins Both of the remaining L16 matches finish tonight from 7pm.

The North East Mayoral Election will be an interesting with independent candidate Jamie Driscoll now neck and neck with the Labour candidate Kim McGuiness. Results of that one expected during the afternoon on May 3rd.

The question is then whether or not any other players have said yes.

The criteria is definitely 1m+ :)

Judd Trump reveals he's been approached to join the rumoured rival tour and told them to go away. Tom Ford reveals he hasn't even been asked. Looks like the rumours are true - it's just a question of who goes and who stays.

It's obviously not taking place next week as it's only held after 25 working days from the announcement. I still think we won't get any such announcement next week, we're looking at October/November.

So I finally bothered to listen to Espresso (I didn't listen to the chart show this week). It's not a bad song but it certainly doesn't deserve this level of success. Middling at best.

Judd Trump joins David Gilbert in the Quarter Finals with a comfortable 13-7 win over Tom Ford.

Seems unlikely. They've been quite firm on the line that the election won't be until the second half of the year for a very long time now. I think what's more likely is the Tory party having another internal war after the presumed to be disastrous local election results.

You won't be waiting until 2026 for an election in Scotland. The Conservatives are tabling a motion of no confidence in Humza but Labour are tabling a motion of no confidence in the government. Both should pass - if the second one does an election looks likely short of Labour and the Tories working with each other - which isn't happening.

He's attempting to shift the blame on the council for a decision that's already been made. It's going to end up in China or Saudi.

His post-match interviews shed some light on his thought process. Don't think he's going to win the worlds again and more importantly I don't think he even wants to. Anyway we've got 4 matches playing to a finish today. Should be good.

I think we might be taken aback just how quickly it drops. I can't see people returning to it after 1 listen.

OP updated for Taylor Swift's massive album bomb. The new Top 10 without Christmas songs Top 10 Highest Daily Streams Excluding Christmas 1. 2,801,638 (15-10-2021) Adele - Easy on Me 2. 1,729,543 (16-10-2021) Adele - Easy On Me 3. 1,675,220 (19-04-2024) Taylor Swift - Fortnight ft Post Malone 4. 1,472,625 (11-07-2021) Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds - Three Lions 5. 1,409,140 (18-10-2021) Adele - Easy On Me 6. 1,342,576 (17-10-2021) Adele - Easy On Me 7. 1,323,982 (09-01-2017) Ed Sheeran - Shape of You 8 1,308,645 (19-04-2024) Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department 9. 1,295,532 (05-06-2023) Dave, Central Cee - Sprinter 10. 1,280,898 (06-01-2017) Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

1,159,687. Taylor's got 5 songs above that with this album.

Congratulations to 9 people that went for 1.5-1.9m.

Now I have to edit the list goddammit.

It would be nice to see another non-Christmas song do 2m streams after all these years.

No really long odds this year then. 250/1 for Dominic Dale and 200/1 for Robbie Williams seem a bit stiff. Jak Jones all seems a bit sting at 80/1. You can get 300/1 for Dominic Dale on William Hill.

On reddit they're generally saying Part 2 (17-31) is better than Part 1 (1-16) with Desner's production being better than Antonoff's. I've only listened to the first part and got bored of it to be honest.

Will the first 16 tracks end up with two different versions for the Spotify chart as they're on technically different albums or will they end up combined?

If you search Taylor Swift though you get the long (The Anthology) album though. With the other one nowhere in site. So it's going to be how people look for the album how well this does.

Will it being a double album help or hinder streams? Maybe more songs in the Top 40 but at slightly lower numbers as people won't replay the songs as much as normal? With that in mind I'm not sure it'll do 1 million streams as I expected. I normally listen to Friday releases in the morning but will have to leave it until later due to the sheer length. I won't be the only one.

(1) Luca Brecel vs David Gilbert (16) Robert Milkins vs Pang Junxu (9) Ali Carter vs Stephen Maguire (8) Shaun Murphy vs Lyu Haotian (5) Mark Selby vs Joe O'Connor (12) Kyren Wilson vs Dominic Dale (13) John Higgins vs Jamie Jones (4) Mark Allen vs Robbie Williams (3) Judd Trump vs Hossein Vafaei (14) Tom Ford vs Ricky Walden (11) Zhang Anda vs Jak Jones (6) Mark Williams vs Si Jiahui (7) Ding Junhui vs Jack Lisowski (10) Gary Wilson vs Stuart Bingham (15) Barry Hawkins vs Ryan Day (2) Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Jackson Page

He's got a winnable but tough match against Jackson Page to qualify - so he might not even make it. If he overcomes that he might have a shot at the second round depending on who he draws. He's first turned pro in 2010 and his best performance came this season where he lost to Gary Wilson in the Scottish Open final - to date Noppon's only final. I definitely wouldn't see him as one to go deep in the Worlds.