Suedehead2

Best Jon And Vangelis - I Hear You Now Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls The Specials - Too Much Too Young (The Special AKA Live! EP) The Tourists - So Good To Be Back Home Again Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers Hon mention - Captain Beaky Worst Kool And The Gang - Too Hot Commodores - Wonderland Sister Sledge - Got To Love Somebody

Are you planning to catch up with the number one albums over the next few weeks rather than doing them all tonight?

The BBC are currently planning to show their set. However, I suspect the live feed will be subject to a short delay.

The new album is fantastic! If I go, I will definitely go for a seat! Battle Abbey is the location of one of the most significant events in English history. Unfortunately, Yr 7 students don't quite get just how big a deal it is. It is the site of the last successful invasion of England, and it was almost 1,000 years ago. Most of the current Yr 7s will be alive for the 1,000th anniversary even if we are not. I wonder if Alex Warren will still ne number one by then.

I suspect the Lords will pass some amendments. I also think that at least some of those amendments will be sensible. Issues like this can often see Parliament working at its best as it is not a party political matter. It is a lot easier for all parliamentarians to have respect for their opponents' arguments.

I went on a History trip to Battle Abbey yesterday. One of the History teachers had been to Hammersmith the previous night. She was about half our age and loved it! They are in Wolverhampton the day after we break up for summer. I'm still wondering whether to go.

This week's chart-related musings can be found from the Blogs page or the Forum Index page.

After it was replaced at number one last week, people might have thought that Alex Warren’s Ordinary had had its time at the top. The first signs that they were wrong came on Sunday when it was back at number one in the first update of the week. It is still there at the end of the week, giving it a thirteenth week at number one in total. It thereby creates another chart record. Its return to the top after an initial twelve week run shatters the record set by Frankie Laine’s I Believe way back in 1953. That song’s first run at number one lasted for nine weeks before it lost its hold on the top spot. However, after just one week, it returned and stayed there for a further six weeks. It then bounced back up again for a three week run. Its total of eighteen weeks at number one remains a record over seventy years later. The return of Alex Warren to the top spot means that Sabrina Carpenter’s fourth number one Manjchild comes to an end after just one week. Of course, she may yet return to extend her run. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not remains at number three with Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club another non-mover, at number four. The big mover of the week is MK and Chrystal’s Dior which jumps twelve places to number five. Most of this week’s new entries come from, or feature, acts with a relatively long chart history. The first (measured simply by the order in which I am covering them)comes from Twenty One Pilots who made their top forty debut with Stressed Out in 2016. They haven’t exactly been regular visitors to the top forty since then. The Contract, a new entry at number 33, is only their fourth single to reach the top forty although others have spent time in the lower reaches of the chart. Mark Ronson’s first chart outing came in 2003 when Ooh Wee reached number fifteen. His first major success came with his 2007 album Version, a collection of cover versions with guest singers. That included his version of The Zutons’ Valerie with Amy Winehouse on vocals. Ronson had previously produced many of the songs on Winehouse’s classic back To Black album. Suzanne, a new entry at number 34, features vocals from Raye and is Ronson’s thirteenth top forty hit, his first since 2019. Regular readers will know that I am a bit of a Sparks fan. Unfortunately, old age and the need to be up for work in the morning meant that I didn’t see either of their London gigs this week. However, thye band does join the list of chart acts whose name has also been the title of a top forty single. Rather unexpectedly, it has happened because Coldplay’s song Sparks, from their debut alum Parachutes released in 2000, is a new entry at number 40. Coldplay made their singles chart debut in the same year. The song which least deserves to be described as being from an act with a long chart history is the one where that act, Tinashe, is the featured artist. In fact, all three of her top forty hits since 2015 has seen her in a featuring role. On No Broke Boys, which enters at number 37, she plays second fiddle to Disco Lines, a new name to the top forty. The exception to the established acts rule comes from BTS member J-hope. His first top forty single as a solo artist came as recently as 2023. He now gets his second with Killin’ It girl at number 30. It features GloRilla which I’m guessing isn’t their real name. The Black Eyed Peas’ Rock That Body has been allowed back in to the top forty at number 35. It reached number eleven in 2010. The writer of the Official Chart Company’s write-up of the albums chart is still proudly using their new word, multihyphenate. This week they have used it to describe James Marriott, the Brighton-based musician who has a surprise number one album this week. His previous album reached number seventeen but a social media fanbase has propelled Don’t Tell The Dog all the way to the top. A combination of a new (very expensive) vinyl edition and the imminence of their live comeback has lifted Oasis’s Time Flies compilation to number two. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number three. It has been in the top five for 43 consecutive weeks, a new record for a studio album. It has a little way to go to beat the South Pacific soundtrack album which entered the top five in April 1958 and stayed there until October 1961. It spent 114 weeks at number one, including the whole of 1959. For many years Van Morrison was one of the most highly-acclaimed singer-songwriters. Chart watchers have also been able to comment on the fact that Astral Weeks, an album which regularly features on critics’ lists of the best albums of all time, was not a hit. Later albums have been more successful. His reputation took a bit of a knock when he rai9led against measures taken to protect people from Covid, including recording a song about it. However, his latest album, Remembering Now, has been well received and it is a new entry at number eleven. To the delight of many, The Cure reached number one with their Songs Of A Lost World album topped the chart last year. They have now released an album of remixes o songs from that record and it is at number nine this week. New York rapper Lil Tecca is at number seventeen with Dopamine. AJ Tracey 37 with the cheerfully-titled Don’t Die Before You’re Dead. Last week saw the sad news of the death of Brian Wilson, the last surviving of the three brothers who formed The Beach Boys. It is impossible to exaggerate just how revolutionary songs such as God Only Knows and Good Vibrations sounded when they were released in 1966, almost sixty years ago. The news came too late to influence last week’s chart but their 1983 compilation The Very Best Of The Beach Boys is at number 32 this week.

Ver pleased with a sixth place!

I make no excuse for entering Icicle Works for another contest. Both of my entries are great songs!

And it finishes 10-0. Auckland's xG reached the dizzy heights of 0.03. What a farce.

It's 6-0 at half-time. Auckland still haven't had a shot and have an xG of 0.00.

Bayern Munich v Auckland is proving to be the joke that most people will have expected. Less than 30 minutes into the "match", Bayern are 4-0 up and Auckland haven't had a shot.

There has already been a national enquiry. The last government didn't implement any of its recommendations. You've been told that before. Why are you still ignoring the facts?

If the new enquiry finds nothing new, I hope the Daily Mail will offer to pay for it.

This week's ramblings can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums index page.

After many weeks when Alex Warren’s Ordinary finished well clear of all rivals at the top of the singles chart, he finally faced a real challenge this week. It came from Sabrina Carpenter with her new single Manchild. In Monday's update, Manchild had a fairly clear lead over Ordinary. However, by Wednesday the lead had narrowed leaving the final outcome in doubt. The lack of an additional update yesterday (Thursday) was perhaps a hint that Sabrina Carpenter’s lead had either stabilised or even increased. Whether the lack of news on Thursday was a hint or not, Alex Warren has finally been toppled. Ordinary is down to number two after a far from ordinary twelve weeks at the top. Only four songs have had a longer continuous run at the top. Two of them are by Canadian solo artists, Drake and Bryan Adams. One is by a Scottish band, Wet Wet Wet, and the other is by an English singer, Ed Sheeran. That finally leaves the way for a new chart-topper. Sabrina Carpenter had three number one singles last year. Manchild is her first of 2025. All four songs have used only one word in the title although one of them did use that word three times. Neneh Cherry’s song of the same name reached number five in 1989. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not is back down to number three. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number four. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for pointing out that Pink Pony Club is the ninth song to spend eighteen consecutive weeks in the top five and the first by a female solo artist. Sombr’s Undressed falls one place to number five. He is also at number seven with Back To Friends. Ed Sheeran’s new album is still a few months away. Sapphire, a new single from the album, enters at number nine. The song has a slightl;y odd start before becoming one of Sheerans lively songs. It is his 43rd top ten, and 65th top forty, hit. His 42nd top ten hit Azizam is one place lower, at number ten. The cover art for Sapphire is very similar to that of Moby’s album Play. Play just happens to be the title of the forthcoming Sheeran album. As a follow-up to The Days, Chrystal has made a shameless pitch to receive some free stuff by teaming up with MK to release a song called Dior. That has to be more attractive than a weekend in Milton Keynes. The song is a new entry at number seventeen. Teddy Swims’ Lose Control has spent the last five weeks outside the top forty. In that time, it hasn’t dropped any lower than number 45. This week it is back up to number 40. Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe returns at number 38 and Gracie Abrams’ That’s So true re-enters one place higher. It is very easy for me to find out when I first saw Pulp perform live. It was the day that Arsenal played Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup final, 15 May 1993. How is that significant? It was at the Highbury Garage, Arsenal were still playing at Highbury and Pulp were a band from Sheffield. At the time, Pulp were a band who had been together for 15 years but were still playing at small venues. The Garage had a capacity of just 600. However, they were finally starting to get noticed and the following year they had their first top forty single with So You Remember The First Time? Back at the Garage gig, it was immediately apparent that Jarvis Cocker was a brilliantly flamboyant front-man. By August the following year, they were playing on the main stage at the Reading Festival and I was in the audience once again. Unusually for a festival set, they played a new song. So new that Jarvis Cocker had only finished writing it the day before. That song was Common People, the one that gave them major chart success the following year. Indeed, it was at number three this week thirty years ago. Jarvis Cocker also demonstrated his stage presence in one of my favourite Top of the Pops performances. Cocker had written Walk Like A Panther for Sheffield band All Seeing I. The song featured vocals by another Yorkshireman Tony Christie. However, when the band were asked to perform on Top of the Pops Christie was unavailable, so Cocker stepped in to take his place (although Christie’s vocals were also in the background). Pulp have disbanded and re-formed twice, re-forming most recently in 2023. The first re-formation was purely for live dates with no new album. This time, though, Jarvis Cocker decided that he had enough material (some written several years ago) to treat fans to something new. The result is More, an album which is very Pulp-like, meaning that it is mostly great. It becomes their third number one album after the classic Different Class (1995) and This Is hardcore (1998). The Official Charts Company (OCC) have reported excitedly that Addison Rae has scored her first top five album this week with Addisn at number two. As it is her debut album, the bit about it being her first in the top five is not really big news. Still, they have to generate headlines somehow. What is rather more noteworthy is that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number four. While two places below its more customary spot, its 42 successive weeks in the top five is a record for a solo female artist. Her previous five albums didn’t get anywhere near the top five although the EP Fruitcake did spend a week at number five last December, a year after it was released. Carpenter announced this week that she will be releasing a new album in August. Somebody at the OCC seems to have come across the word multihyphenate this week as it has been used to describe both Addison Rae and Little Simz. It doesn’t mean someone who uses lots of hyphens. Instead it means someone with several professions or skills. Little Simz is an actor as well as a rapper which apparently qualifies her as a multihyphenate .Her sixth album Lotus is at number three. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection falls three places to number four. Marina Diamankis, now performing simply as Marina having dropped the Diamonds bit, is at number seven with Princess Of Power. With two Larsens and a Poulsen in their line-up it is no surprise that Volbeat are a Danish band. Their ninth studio set God Of Angels Trust is at number 24, giving them a fourth top forty album. American punk band Turnstile are at number eleven with Never Enough. This week’s anniversary edition is My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. My Chemical Romance’s second album reached number 34 when it was released twenty years ago. This new edition is at number nine.

Most people involved in plane crashes do survive. It's just that crashes involving light aircraft with very few people on board don't get reported.

The special D Day edition of the weekly chart commentary, which doesn't mention D Day at all, can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums index page.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary spends a twelfth week at number one in the singles chart. Just four other songs have had a twelfth successive week at number one; all four of them managed at least one more week at the top. Ordinary now has the second longest time at the top for a first number one as the lead artist, behind Drake’s One dance which spent an interminable fifteen weeks there in 2016. He had spent time at number one before, but not as the lead artist. He was the featured artist on Rihanna’s What’s My Name. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not goes back up to number two. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club slips to number three. It is in its seventeenth successive week in the top five. Sombr’s Undressed is still at number four. He now has two singles in the top ten as Back To Friends climbs to a new peak of number nine. Skye Newman’s Family Matters climbs to number five. The highest new entry of the week is Tate McRae’s Just Keep Watching at number ??? The song features in a film about people who drive cars very fast without actually going anywhere. It is co-written by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder who seemed to have a new entry almost every week a few years ago. Two of the remaining three new entries are also by female solo artists. Olivia Dean had her first hit with a Christmas song in 2021. However, she didn’t get another hit until earlier this year when It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be reached number 36. She now gets her second hit of the year with the rather soporific Nice To Each Other at number 28. One place above Olivia Dean, at number 27, Addison Rae has a new entry with Fame Is A Gun. As with Dean, this is Rae’s third top forty hit and her second this year. Her first hit was rather more recent though. Diet Pepsi was in the top ten last year. Fame Is A Gun has rather more life to it than the song one place below. Levi Heron gets his first top forty hit with The Glen at number 37. It is a dance remix of a song originally recorded by Scottish folk-rock act Beluga Lagoon in 2019. Levi Heron is both the first Levi and the first Heron to be named on a UK chart hit. The original version reached number 25 in the Sales Chart earlier this year. The top of the albums chart sends two very clear messages this week. One is about the state of the albums market in the middle of the 2020s; the other is more about a specific artist. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection returns to number one. The album hasn’t been particularly successful by Sheeran’s standards. This is only its second week at the top after it climbed to the summit at the start of the year. Its presence at the top of the chat this week is a clear indication of just how low albums sales are. After spending a sixth non-successive week back at number one last week, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is now back in the more familiar surroundings of the number two spot. The album went straight to number one when it was released last autumn before falling one place to spend the first of a record-breaking 26th (and counting) week in second place. The second clear message is that the career of Miley Cyrus, never a massive album-selling artist, may be on the wane. In a low-sales week, her new album Something beautiful can only get to number three. Furthermore, there has been no hit single from the album. Two more compilations complete the top five. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop collection is at number four. The Weeknd’s Highlights is at five. Garbage, one of those 90s indie bands who are still around, are at number 24 with Let All That We Imagine be The Light. Their seventh studio album is their lowest-charting set. Their previous low was with Strange Little Birds which peaked at number seventeen in 2016. The National released a new album at the end of last year but it didn’t get anywhere near the top forty. Their singer Matt Berninger has fared rather better with his second solo album. Get Sunk, which I prefer to his band’s material, is at number 27.

So far, the number of councillors they have lost is greater than the number of potholes they have fixed.

Following on from my last post, the number of Reform MPs in the Commons for the Strategic Defence Review this week was.... zero, Meanwhile, Richard Tice, an MP who has never been elected as a councillor, has announced that new employees in the ten councils controlled by his party will not be able to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. Any attempt to challenge that in court will, of course, succeed, costing council taxpayers a substantial sum. I have a strong suspicion that Reform are deliberately provoking the government into considering taking control of Reform-led councils (as the Tories did with various councils that effectively went bankrupt). They will try and portray themselves as "martyrs against an authoritarian government".

What is that 11-year-old going to think about Israel as he grows up? That's why Israel's murderous campaign is so insane. It just stirs up further hatred against their state.

A Premier Inn in Mansfield? Someone's really living the high life 😄

You noticed!