RPM

Hi Can anyone help me confirm the correct chart dates for 1960's charts. I have a database that I downloaded years ago with 1960's charts, but the dates differ from those shown on the OCC website. For example, I've got the Christmas chart for 1967 as week ending 30th December 1967, but the Official Charts website lists this same chart as 27/12/67-02/01/68. I remember seeing a comment on a Facebook group that the OCC moved the dates by 3 days to tie in with the publication dates of later charts but does anyone know what dates were affected by this? Was it all of the 1960's? Thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks Dan.

Hi Does anyone know if there were ever official decade end top 100 best selling singles charts published for the 1990’s and 2000’s. I can only find top 40’s? Thanks for any help

It's sad to see the decline in listeners to the Radio 1 Top 40 but it's not that surprising. The Top 40 on a Sunday used to be an event but it lost importance due to the midweeks info being released. The format of the radio show was tinkered with too much - records would be skipped, features would be added, and I outgrew what was the target audience as Radio 1 panicked about appealing to anyone older than their remit would allow. I couldn't imagine sitting glued to a 3 hour radio show now. Times change. Fearne and Reggie were the final nail in the coffin for me.

I don't mind, but at least jewel cases can be replaced if they get damaged.

Still prefer CD albums but love the instancy of downloads for tracks. I still like having that physical copy of a CD album for the booklet etc. Also, you can generally get the CD for around the same price or cheaper than a download. Plus you don't need to worry about losing a computer file or your hard drive knackering.

Dunno about the better quality??? Can an mp3 ever be better than a CD?

From Digital Spy... BBC Four saw its audience rocket last night as Top of the Pops made a triumphant return to primetime, early overnight data indicates. Big Hits: TOTP 1964 to 1975 kicked off the music-themed night with 880k (3.7%) between 8.30pm and 10pm, following which Top of the Pops: The Story of 1976 was seen by 1.13m (5.7%), the channel's largest Friday audience in its history. At 10.50pm, the nostalgia continued with 850k (5.8%) for an original Top of the Pops episode, after which documentary Top of the Pops: The True Story grabbed 675k (7.2%) at 11.20pm.

Yes, I remember that. Both sets of shops were literally within 2 minutes walk from each other. And they were all busy! Saturday in Virgin was hectic. I worked there on Saturdays for about 8 weeks when it first opened on Argyle Street. It was a sh*t job so I had to give it up. You could have been selling baked beans for all they cared. Bizarrely, they always ran out of 1p pieces by about lunchtime which I always found completely frustrating in a shop where EVERY product price ended in 99 pence!!! I really miss the late night opening of Tower Records in Glasgow too. Fantastic for night time browsing and always had real gems of import CD's. Good times!

I immediately thought of the three stores in Glasgow City Centre when I read the MW article. They are all within 10-15 mins walk of each other. I only ever visit the Argyle Street store so I'm glad to hear that there's a good chance that it won't be affected. It will be sad to see any of them go though. I used to work part time in the Virgin store on Argyle Street right next door to HMV. This was in 1988/9 and who would have thought then, with 2 huge music stores surviving side by side, that there was possibly a time when a city centre wouldn't have a big music store! Hopefully that's still a long time away!

I agree with some of the points made, but I'd be GUTTED if HMV close. There was a report at the tail end of last year saying that they could be the next Woolworths. Yes, the catalogue product instore is ridiculously priced in some cases (it always has been), but they really are competing well on chart/new releases in store and the 2 for £10 deals are great. I can't imagine going into the city centre or to a shopping centre and not visiting HMV. It's just great to browse through their stuff, and it's worth an extra pound or two to do that. We cannot rely on supermarkets for our CD's. The amount of shelf space given to CD's has shrunk in the last year or so, and it will continue to do so if demand falls. Supermarkets are understandably ruthless when it comes to this. No retailer can compete with a £7-£8 price tag on a chart CD, but the supermarkets will make a loss on that item to get you in store in the hope that you buy other items while you are in. I cannot fault HMV for not matching these prices when it is a core part of their business. In my opinion, one of the biggest problems last year for CD sales was that the release schedule was very poor. Take That show that the potential is still there for a big new album, but it was a fairly uninspiring year. Downloading is obviously an issue too, but if there isn't good product in store then people won't buy CD's. Here's hoping that HMV can pull through.

Does anyone know where the revised top 100's are available online?

I was in my local HMV at lunchtime and wondered what the point of these were... BRYAN ADAMS "Bare Bones" Standard CD: £9.99 Deluxe edition: £15.99 :o ANNIE LENNOX "A Christmas Cornucopia" Standard CD: £9.99 Deluxe edition: £19.99 :o :o Both deluxe editions featured no extra tracks, just different packaging. BA was a cardboard sleeve with gold embossing, and Annie's was just a fancier cardboard sleeve. Totally pointless in my opinion. I think that they only serve to confuse consumers. :wacko:

Enjoy Rhythmic while it's still there. I don't live in Greenock but I always make a point of going to that store when I go there, and it's a great little independent CD store. There is no way that they can compete with Tesco, and I certainly don't grudge them a pound or two to give them a little bit of profit. Most chart albums were around £9.99-£11.99 the last time that I was in, but they had loads of special offers too, mainly on back catalogue. It has probably only survived cos Woolies in that centre closed down, and WH Smith gave up on CD's around the same time (still a baffling decision as surely there was a market there to be exploited) Tesco are already threatening to reduce shelf space for CD's (and some stores are already noticeably cut back), so let's hope that there are still some independent stores out there when the supermarkets give up on music. I love the instancy of downloads, but I much prefer to have a physical copy of an album.

I've just read that the TOTP2 was watched by 3.5m viewers and was the 4th most watched programme on BBC2 w/e 27th December.

Journey were huge in America but never made much of an impact in the UK until recently. "Don't Stop Believin'" reached number 62 in 1982. I see that the compilation album that I mentioned in an earlier post is at number 91 this week. I thought that it would be ineligible due to the low dealer price but I must be wrong.

It's not chart eligible. I got the double CD for £4.99 from HMV and it seems to be a similar price on Amazon etc. It's a "budget" compiliation although I'm surprised that Sony haven't cobbled together (or reissued) a full price single disc version.

It's not going to go away anytime soon as it's featured heavily in "Glee" which starts tomorrow on E4 and is being repeated on Channel 4 at some point. It's a great song. Long may it hang around.

I still think that Saturday teatime would be the perfect slot for it should it ever come back on a regular basis.

Christmas Day Special 2008 3.74m (30.6% audience share) 15th most popular progamme of the day 2009 3.40m (27.6%) 17th most popular programme of the day + BBC3 repeat - anyone got figures for this? New Year's Special 2008 4.10m (20.8% share) 2009 4.78m (24.0% share) + BBC3 repeat - anyone got figures for this? Total audience 2008 7.84m 2009 8.18m + BBC3 repeats

I agree with the person who commented previously on this post. Posts like this discourage me from posting more on this forum. Casual visitors don't read every topic so stop jumping down their throats. It's not a big deal really, is it? Not all are. Is it relevant? Generally considered to be a dud??? I'm a huge DM fan and "JCGE" is up there with their best work. Yes, they've moved on artistically but it's a great song and their first big hit. I'd be p*ssed off if I went to see them in concert and they didn't perform this song.

That's sad as I used to work there on a Saturday when it was Virgin Megastore... it was a sh*t job that I put up with for less than 2 months, but I've shopped there for many years. It's also about 200 yards from the big Woolworths store in Glasgow so that's 2 large units now empty.

HMV is my favourite online store these days. I would say that it takes 3-5 days from the date of posting to receive the item (which is the same as Play.com and faster than CD-Wow) but pre-orders are despatched usually by the Wednesday of the previous week which means that you sometimes get them on the Saturday before release or on the day of release. I've pre-ordered Now 1 and it was despatched on Tuesday night.

I can't believe that people are wishing that stores would close?!?!?!? You might not like the store but others do and people are employed by them. Choose not to shop there but don't wish it away. You might not like Zavvi but any music presence on the High Street is a bonus. Am I just being a bit over-sensitive because soon the music industry will be completely dictated by the buyers at Tesco and ASDA? I'm just praying that HMV hangs in there as they must be due to report their sales figures soon.

Thanks for posting this Martin. Really interesting and encouraging figures. I wonder how far we'd need to go back to find a TOTP episode with almost 8 million vehicles? Ok it was over 2 showings and 1 was a "revised repeat" but it just shows that the format isn't dead - it just needs the right slot in the schedule. I'm surprised that TOTP2 doesn't appear on our screens more regularly (excluding Dave repeats) as it must be a relatively cheap show to make and all we seem to hear about are BBC budget cutbacks, and the figures for that are fairly impressive also.