Suedehead2

For most of the song, I didn't see the point of the cover. It was far too close to the original version. It only went slightly bonkers towards the end.

I expect this to ne the last World Cup when kick=off times are an issue for me. I'll be nearly 70 by the next one, and safely retired.

Thanks. You can tell that I've never watched any of Stranger Things!

Saturday 6th December Aston Villa 1-1 Arsenal (12:30) AFC Bournemouth 2-1 Chelsea Everton 2-0 Nottingham Forest Manchester City 2-1 Sunderland Newcastle United 2-0 Burnley Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Brentford Leeds United 1-2 Liverpool (17:30) Sunday 7th December Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 West Ham United (14:00) Fulham 2-1 Crystal Palace (16:30) Monday 8th December Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Manchester United (20:00)

The logistics of booking flights, accommodation etc for teams and supporters would be horrendous.

Taylor Swift spends a fourth consecutive week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. It has now spent a total of seven weeks at the summit, making it Swift’s longest-running chart-topping single. Raye remains at number two with Where Is My Husband. A clear sign that Taylor Swift may well be in her last week at the top (at least until next year) is that Wham’s Last Christmas is at number three with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at five. Brenda Lee is at number six with Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree. With the release of the first part of the final series of Stranger Things, some people have clearly gone back to watch the previous series. That, in turn, has led them to start streaming Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill again. That excellent judgement sees the song back in the chart at number 37. Still on the subject of Stranger Things, Djo - who, apparently is in it - has a re-entry at number 34 with End Of Beginning. It reached number four last year. Those two songs are, of course, not the only re-entries this week. Yes, there is a whole bunch of Christmas songs returning to the chart as well. One of the consequences of the Christmas takeover is that Alex Warren’s Ordinary has dropped out of the top twenty for the first time after 42 weeks. Before we get to those re-entries, there is actually one brand new entry. As usual, one of the streaming sites has a song that is only available on their site. This year it is Xmas by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. Isn’t it great to see new artists being given a boost? Well, it would be if that happened. As it is, Minogue gets her 54th top forty hit with a new entry at number 24. Last week’s Christmas exclusive, Laufey’s version of Winter Wonderland re-enters at number eighteen, gaining a new peak now that it is available more widely. Here we go then. I shall simply list this week’s festive re-entries. Step Into Christmas - Elton John, number twenty. Do They Know It’s Christmas - Band Aid, 22. Andy Williams - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, 23. Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney, 25. Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes, 28. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Michael Buble, 29. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love, 31. Snowman - Sia, 32. Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano, 33. Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir, 34. Mistletoe - Justin Bieber, 36. Holly Jolly Christmas - Michael Buble, 38. Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea, 40. Over half of the top forty is now made up of Christmas songs. As the albums market enters a quiet period with very few new releases, Olivia Dean returns to number one with The Art Of Loving. Taylor Swift is at number two with The Life Of A Showgirl. Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number three and Tate McRae is at five with So Close To What. The album preventing another all female top five is Michael Buble’s perennial; Christmas album at number four. Since the release of her last full studio album in 2014, Jessie J has had a very traumatic time. She has suffered a miscarriage, been diagnosed with a disease affecting her hearing, and been treated for breast cancer. On a much happier note, she has also given birth to her first child. All these events have influenced the lyrics of her fourth album Don’t Tease Me With A Good Time. Her previous studio albums all reached the top five - a Christmas album in 2018 failed to reach the chart at all. This one is a new entry at number nineteen. As far as new entries go, that’s it for this week. We can expect a similar pattern until the new year. There are, however, some re-entries. Teddy Swims is at number 25 with I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy - The Complete Edition. It reached number thirteen in the summer. Chappell Roan is back at number 29 with The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess. Sam Fender’s People Watching returned at number 34 while Fontaines DC’s brilliant 2024 album Romance is at 37. Next Friday (12 December) is the day of my departmental Christmas meal. Therefore, next week’s commentary may be delayed until Saturday. Alternatively, I could just repost my commentary from the same week last year and see whether anyone notices!

Oops. I haven’t looked back at my first predictions, so use them.

Tuesday 2nd December AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Everton (19:30) Fulham 0-2 Manchester City (19:30) Newcastle United 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (20:15) Wednesday 3rd December Arsenal 2-0 Brentford (19:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Aston Villa (19:30) Burnley 1-1 Crystal Palace (19:30) Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Nottingham Forest (19:30) Leeds United 2-2 Chelsea (20:15) Liverpool 3-0 Sunderland (20:15) Thursday 4th December Manchester United 2-0 West Ham United (20:00)

I'm not totally against limiting the right to a jury trial. An obvious example is for complicated fraud cases. The defence can bamboozle a jury into voting for acquittal for the simple reason that they don't understand the case. These cases can also last for months which is inconvenient for jurors and their employers. My biggest reservation is with the freedom of a jury to acquit a defendant on the grounds that they are being prosecuted under a bad law. When a government introduces legislation that affects our freedom of expression or the right to protest, there are always people coming up with suggestions that people could be prosecuted for technical breaches of the law which are pretty trivial. I have generally taken the view that a jury would deliver a Not Guilty verdict on the grounds that the law is a ass, a idiot. In other words, they would exercise common sense. The belief that a jury would do that would generally mean that a prosecution wouldn't proceed. I would be worried that a jury-less court would follow the letter of the law and convict in these cases.

I have this vision of people on the doorstep telling canvassers of all parties that they will be voting for "your party", and being put down as supporters. Those people will get a shock on election day when those parties have included them on their lists of voters to be encouraged to go out and vote.

Tuesday 2nd December AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Everton (19:30) Fulham 1-2 Manchester City (19:30) Newcastle United 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (20:15) Wednesday 3rd December Arsenal 2-0 Brentford (19:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Aston Villa (19:30) Burnley 1-1 Crystal Palace (19:30) Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Nottingham Forest (19:30) Leeds United 1-2 Chelsea (20:15) Liverpool 2-0 Sunderland (20:15) Thursday 4th December Manchester United 2-0 West Ham United (20:00)

Saturday 29th November Brentford 2-1 Burnley Manchester City 2-0 Leeds United Sunderland 1-1 AFC Bournemouth Everton 1-2 Newcastle United (17:30) Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Fulham (20:00) Sunday 30th November Crystal Palace 1-3 Manchester United (12:00) Aston Villa 4-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (14:05) Nottingham Forest 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (14:05) West Ham United 2-2 Liverpool (14:05) Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal (16:30)

This week's musings on chart world can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums Index page.

Taylor Swift gets a sixth week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. Swift has now spent a total of sixteen weeks at the top of the singles chart. Combined with her 36 weeks atop the albums chart, she has now accumulated a combined total of 52 weeks (one year) at number one in the two main UK charts. Only ten artists have spent more weeks at number one. Of those ten, only two - The Beatles and Elvis Presley - have spent at least a year at the top of each chart. When Ed Sheeran spends another week at number one in the albums chart, he will become the third act to top both charts for a year. Thanks to Colin (a Buzzjack and Haven member) for that information. Raye’s Where Is My Husband is still at number two. Her best hope of getting to number one may now come in the New Year when all the Christmas songs drop out. Two Olivia Dean songs each climb one place. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is at number three and Man I Need is at four. She is also at number five alongside Sam Fender with Rein Me In. As she is credited second on Rein Me In, it doesn’t count towards her limit of three songs. As a result, Let Alone The One You Love is allowed to enter at number 21. Korean band Stray Kids get their third top forty hit with Do It at number 35. Neither of their two previous top forty hits has advanced further than number 30. This unlikely to outdo that any time this year, if ever. The background to Haven’s I Run was chronicled here a few weeks ago. It looked set to be a high new entry, but was excluded from the final chart. The issues which caused it to be disqualified have now been resolved and, with an additional credit for Kaitlin Aragon, it is at number 37. Time for another film spot. This week we have three new entries from the soundtrack to the latest Wicked film, all of them with Cynthia Erivo as the lead artist. For Good, which includes Ariana Grande, is at number fourteen, three places ahead of No Good Deed on which Erivo is the sole credited artist. She is joined on As Long As You’re Mine by Jonathan Bailey, not previously known for his singing talents. Tate McRae has two new entries to join Tit For tat which falls to number nineteen. Nobody’s Girl is at number sixteen and Anything But Love is at 25. It may still be November, but we already have the second “festive update” of the year. Wham’s Last Christmas is at number nine while Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You is at number thirteen. Then, of course, there is a batch of re-entries. Once again, they show the influence of American-curated streaming playlists on what many people listen to. Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath The Tree is at number 24, one place behind Brenda Lee's Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree which entered the top forty last week. Ariana Grande is at number 28 with her version of Santa Tell Me. Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms is at number34. Some British and Irish Christmas songs have also made it. The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl are at number 33 with the ever-brilliant Fairytaler Of New York. Shakin’ Stevens rather less good merry Christmas Everyone is at number 40. Oh, and Michale Buble’s Christmasis at number 24 in the albums chart. Rock band Aerosmith made their UK chart debut in 1986 when their Walk This Way, a collaboration with Run DMC made the top ten. They entered the albums chart for the first time the following year. They have had fourteen top forty albums, but none of them have gone all the way to the top. Yungblud wasn’t even born until 1997 when he was given the name Dominic Harrison. He made his chart debut in 2019 when The Underrated Youth reached the top ten in the albums chart. He had his first top forty single the following year with Obey, a collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon. The next three albums all topped the chart, including Idols earlier this year. That history makes a collaboration between Aerosmith and Yungblud seem a relatively logical development. It has happened and the result, One More Time, is at number one. In interviews he has given to promote his latest album, Olly Murs has lamented that his background as a former talent show contestant means that he hasn’t been taken seriously by the music industry. There may be some element of truth in that, but singers such as Harry Styles have thrived following their talent show career. Perhaps Murs has found it more difficult to get out of that shadow because his television success came after several years trying to make a breakthrough. Knees Up is Murs’ eighth album and it enters at number five. Two Greatest Hits sets enter the top ten. Madness made their chart debut in 1979 and had a string of hits in the 1980s. They have released a number of compilations, two of which topped the chart. Their only studio album to reach number one was Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie just two years ago. The latest compilation, Hit Parade, is at number eight. James were formed in Manchester in 1982 but didn’t achieve any significant chart success until 1990. They went on to become one of the most successful bands of the 1990s. They too have released a number of compilations with the most recent (apart from a collection of their earlier recordings) being Fresh As A Daisy in 2007. The new release, Nothing But Love - The Definitive Best Of is at number six. Two more of the biggest bands of the 1990s were The Stone Roses, another Manchester band, and Primal Scream. Much of the Stone Roses’ success was down to the distinctive bass lines played by Gary Mounfield, known as Mani, who died last week. He joined Primal Scream after The Stone Roses split up. The Stone Roses’ debut album was not an instant success. It didn’t enter the chart at all until two months after its release in June 1994 and that was at a rather unimpressive number 82. It reached the top forty for a single week three years after its release but didn’t reach the top ten until its twentieth anniversary. Nevertheless, it is widely regarded as one of the best debut albums of all-time. Unsurprisingly, it is back in the chart at number 25 this week. The Stone Roses only released two studio albums, but there have been six compilations. One of those, The Very Best of The Stone Roses is at number 37. In 1995, ITV showed Anthology, a documentary series about The Beatles. It featured interviews with all three surviving band members (John Lennon had been assassinated fifteen years earlier) who acknowledged that the series should perhaps have been made earlier. However, they had spent far too long suing each other. Three albums were released to accompany the series and they each reached the top five. Now, the series is being reshown on a streaming service with an additional episode and an additional album. Anthology 4 is at number nine with The Anthology Collection (all four albums) twenty places lower.The albums include recordings of Lennon and McCartney’s first band The Quarrymen, remastered recordings, BBC sessions and a whole lot more. British DJ and producer Sub Focus gets his first top ten album with Contact at number ten.

The Lib Dems proposed a mansion tax before Labour stole the idea. I can understand Cooper's stance in her role as a constituency MP, but she is also the party's Treasury spokesperson. She should be supporting it.