Suedehead2

I remain convinced that, based on the evidence they heard, the jury were right to convict Letby. Any reservations I have about the verdict are based on whether her defence team did their job adequately. For example, the defence didn't call any expert witnesses to counter those called by the prosecution. It wouldn't be a surprise of the jury concluded that there were no experts with a different point of view.

Slightly delayed in the absence of a Radio 1 Chart Show, this week's commentary is now available from the Blogs section.

Alex Warren gets his first number one single. Steve Wilson narrowly misses out on a first number one album. Alex Warren climbs to the top of the singles chart to get his first UK number one. Sadly, it is with the aptly-titled Ordinary rather than the significantly better Carry You Home which is back up to number twenty this week. The Californian singer-songwriter released his first music in 2021, but didn’t enter the UK ((or US) top forty until last year. At the beginning of the week, it was a distinct possibility that Chappell Roan could replace herself at number one with her new single The Giver. As it is, the song - which has a certain country feel to it - lands at number two. If she had topped the chart she wouldn’t have been the first act to replace themselves at the top. However, it would have been the first time that an act’s first spell at number one had been replaced by their second chart-topper. Thanks to various Buzzjack members for help with this fact. Chappell Roan is also at number four with Pink Pony Club which has spent the last two weeks at number one. Doechii climbs to number three with her version of Anxiety. The Sleepy Hallow version (on which Doechii also appears) falls to number 34. A Comic Relief event led to the BBC canning this week’s chart show. That meant there was no chance to hear them play a 6 1/2 -minute rock song, or complain about them skipping it. British band Sleep Token have, to date, released three albums without spending any time in either the singles or albums chart. That changes in style this week with the arrival at number seventeen of their epic Emergence, a track from their forthcominourth album. Let’s hope it is still in the chart next week to give Radio 1 the chance to play it (even though they will probably choose not to). Former Little Mix member Jade (Thirlwaal) is at number 25 with her new single FUFN. The subtitle spells out what the initials stand for, but let’s pretend it is Fossilised Unicorns? Fake News! While I won’t exactly be in a hurry to hear it again, it is at least good enough to be described as OK. When Lil Tecca made his singles chart debut in 2019 with the top ten hit Ransom it was at a time when there was a plethora of Lils in the chart. Now they are not quite so ubiquitous, although they are still around. This particular Lil has had a few minor hits since Ransom, but he hasn’t returned to the top forty until now. Dark Thoughts, whose greatest merit is that it is only just over two minutes long, is at number 30. South African / German rapper (a phrase which I don’t believe has appeared here before) WizTheMC gets his first top forty hit at number 38 with Show Me Love. Bees and Honey also appear on it, apparently. Austrian producer Ely Oaks is another top forty debutant, landing at number 40 with Running Around. The latest random TikTok-inspired re-entry is Adele’s Hometown Glory. It reached number nineteen in 2007 and is now back at number 31. As Playboi Carti doesn’t seem to be a very pleasant person, I shall simply mention that his new album Music is at number one. Three tracks from the album enter the singles chart. Steven Wilson’s band The Porcupine Tree released their first album in 1992. They finally reached the top forty albums chart with their ninth release Fear Of A Blank Planet in 2007.Their last album, 2022’s Closure / Continuation reached number two. His solo career has seen a similar trajectory. The first five albums each reached a steadily higher peak until To The Bone reached number three in 2017. The trend was broken when the next two albums went to number four. This week, the generally upward trajectory is back as The Overview goes all the way to number two. It is at number one in the vinyl chart. Outside the top five there are two great albums by British acts. The higher of the two is Out Of A Dream by manchester band Slow Readers Club. Their progress seemed to have gone into reverse when their top ten album The Joy Of The Return was followed by albums peaking at numbers 29 and 33. Thankfully, Out Of A Dream has done rather better. It enters at number eleven. The other great album comes from a rather better-known act, Florence + The Machine. Florence Welch performed at last year’s BBC Proms with an orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley. A recording of the gig has now been released under the title Symphony Of Lungs (BBC Proms at the Albert Hall) and it sounds fantastic. It is a new entry at number 38. Buckley has previously worked with artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Emeli Sande and Tori Amos. Ricky Warwick, who has worked with Status Quo and Black Star Riders gets his highest-placed solo album with Blood Ties at number 25. A remix version of Charli XCX’s latest album, under the sesquipedalian title Brat and it’s completely different but still Brat is at number 40. I shall be at a Public Service Broadcasting gig next Friday. In my absence, Popchartfreak has kindly agreed to provide an alternative commentary. Just as a link into one of this week’s albums chart new entries, Public Service Broadcasting have performed at the BBC Proms twice.

Based on the comments of many Americans, it's hard to believe they have an education system.

That's often a problem when you watch a programme with a setting you know about! I've found the same thing with any drama based in a school, or involving politics. I don't have Netflix, so I haven't seen the programme. However, a lot of colleagues have been raving about it. I might get Netflix for a month so that I can see it and, perhaps, a few other programmes.

I've been saying for years that the process of going back on to benefits if a job doesn't work out is far too complicated. It is good that the government is trying to tackle this. They ought also to look at encouraging employers to take on people who would do a perfectly good job, but not necessarily as efficiently as some, because of a disability or neurological reason. Should employers be able to pay them a lower rate with the state topping it up? Surely that is better than them not being employed at all?

Daft Punk - Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams) Hozier - Take Me To Church Nothing else stands out.

Everton 2-1 West Ham Ipswich 1-3 Nottingham Forest Man City 2-2 Brighton Southampton 1-2 Wolves Bournemouth 3-1 Brentford Arsenal 2-2 Chelsea Fulham 0-2 Tottenham Leicester 0-2 Man Utd

I thought Tom Chaplin was born in nearby Battle, but Wiki says I'm wrong. I hadn't realised that Suggs was born there either. It's still a pretty modestly-sized list for the place. I was able to watch a group of Yr7 students re-enact part of the Battle of Hastings on the actual site last year. I may get to do it again in the summer!

Best Eminem - Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) JAY-Z - Empire State Of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) Lady Gaga - Born This Way Owl City - Fireflies Worst The Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow Pitbull - Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer) Usher - OMG (feat. will.i.am)

This week's commentary can be found from the Homepage or the Blogs section. Thanks to some work by Philip, it isn't messed up this week.

Chappell Roan remains at the top of the singles chart. Lady Gaga gets her fifth number one album. Having climbed to the top of the singles chart last week, Chappell Roan remains at number one with her Pink Pony Club. It therefore avoids becoming the first one-week number one since Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song four months ago. Alex Warren climbs one place to number two with Ordinary. The release of Lady Gaga’s new album helps Abracadabra climb three places to number three, matching its previous peak. She also climbs back up to number eighteen with Die With A Smile (assisted by Bruno Mars) and has a new entry at number 23 with Garden Of Eden. That becomes her 32nd top forty single. Four versions of a song called Garden Of Eden were in the charts in January 1957. That would have made for a rather repetitive Chart Show if one had existed at the time. Last week Sleepy Hallow had a new entry with Anxiety, featuring vocals from Doechii who released a solo version of the song in 2019. That version falls one place to number sixteen this week. However, it has triggered renewed interest in the original version which is a new entry at number four. Thankfully, it is so much better than Denial Is A River that it’s hard to believe they are by the same singer. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things falls one place to number five. Blackpink member Jennie’s singles chart record so far has been rather underwhelming (thankfully). This week she gets her fourth solo top forty single as the lead artist. By entering at number 36, Like Jennie has already outperformed the three previous hits. Much as I dislike the song, it seems rather odd that the Radio 1 chose not to play it on the Chart Show. Surely all new entries should be played unless there is no version suitable for a play on teatime radio. Australian-born Sonny Fodera gets his fourth top forty hit with Tell Me at number 39. The song is graced with vocals from Clementine Douglas who also feature on Fodera’s number seven hit Asking in 2023. Teddy Sims has a re-entry at number 35 after a four-week absence. Lady Gaga’s career has been a near constant success.Her debut single Just Dance was the first of six number one singles and all but one of her studio albums has topped the chart. She has also had two top ten albums with veteran singer Tony Bennett. With her continued success in the singles chart, one not enjoyed by many artists who first entered the chart as long as sixteen years ago, her new album Mayhem was always likely to top the chart. OK, it has to be said. A few weeks ago, the top of the singles chart was Messy; now there is Mayhem at the top of the albums chart. As predicted last week (not that it was hard), Sabrina Carpenter’s latest run at number one with Short ‘n’ Sweet lived up to the album’s title once again. It is back at number two for a seventeenth week in the runner-up position. Its five weeks away from the number two opposition is its longest so far. Carpenter released her debut album, Emails I Can’t Send, in 2022. It spent a week at number 76. It returned to the chart last year after she finally started to achieve significant success, eventually getting to number 41 in June. This week it finally makes it into the top forty at number 40. The arrival of a new single from Jennie in the top forty coincides with the release of her debut solo album. Ruby is a new entry in the albums chart at number three. Tate McRae is at number four with So Close To What. Sam Fender’s People Watching is at number five. Lady Gaga is a very long way from being the oldest act to have a new entry this week. That honour falls to folk-rock band Jethro Tull who formed in 1967 and had their first top forty album the following year. Ian Anderson is the only remaining founder member of the band. Curious Ruminant, at number 25, is their 26th top forty album. Just one of those album’s 1969’s Stand Up, went all the way to the top. Many bands, including Jethro Tull, have split up and then re-formed. Rather fewer bands do it as often as The Wildhearts. They were formed in Newcastle in 1989. When they split up in 2022, it was the fourth time they had done so. Now they are back yet again and have released a new album. Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts enters at number 26 to give them a sixth top forty album. Hot Wax was the name of a record company formed by the legendary songwriting partnership of Holland-Dozier-Holland when they broke away from Motown. HotWax, on the other hand, are a rock band from Hastings. Their debut album, Hot Shock, is at number 38. They appear to be the first charting act from the East Sussex coastal town. The partying there should go on all night.

In what way are they targeting specific states?

The number of people claiming disability benefits has soared in the last five years or so. That hasn't happened in comparable countries. Before cutting benefit payments, the government should be asking why that has happened. Is it because there were a lot of people eligible for benefits who didn't claim them five years ago? Or is there another reason? Regardless of why the increase has happened, the process of moving between being in work and claiming benefits is horrendously complicated. The difficulty of going back on to benefits if a job doesn't work out is a disincentive to starting a job. The system doesn't work for people whose ability to hold down a job fluctuates. It doesn't allow for the fact that some people who couldn't cope with a busy office could now do some work from home. Furthermore, it isn't flexible enough to cater for people whose capacity for working at home varies from week to week, or even day to day. While it would delay any savings, the government should sort that out before cutting the amounts paid to individuals.

With Reform in seco9nd place, it could be rather harder for the Lib Dems and Greens to win over Labour support. Many potential switchers will be reluctant to risk a Farage win.

The fact that Reform has lost 25% of their parliamentary party due to accusations of bullying, and that 25% of the remainder carry a conviction for domestic violence should make things difficult for Farage's fascists even with the reason for the byelection.

Mike Amesbury has resigned as MP for Runcorn following his conviction for assault. The first byelection of this parliament will be in a seat won by Labour in July with a majority over Reform of over 14,500.

The story about police stealing the identities of dead children was broken by the Guardian years ago. The rest of the media chose to ignore it.

Cee Lo Green - Forget You Lady Gaga - Bad Romance B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams)

Best Coldplay - Viva La Vida Shakira - Hips Don't Lie (feat. Wyclef Jean) Worst Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love Soulja Boy - Crank That (Soulja Boy) Usher - Love In This Club (feat. Young Jeezy)

Founder member of The Damned Brian James has died. He wrote the band's debut single New Rose which makes it a suitable choice for the RIP slot.

Saturday 8th March Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester City (12:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Fulham Crystal Palace 1-1 Ipswich Town Liverpool 3-0 Southampton Brentford 1-2 Aston Villa (17:30) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Everton (20:00) Sunday 9th March Chelsea 3-1 Leicester City (14:00) Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 AFC Bournemouth (14:00) Manchester United 2-2 Arsenal (16:30) Monday 10th March West Ham United 2-2 Newcastle United (20:00)

Not sure how I missed this connection!

This week's commentary can be found in the Blogs section. It's a bit messy at the moment as I have clearly done something wrong, but it is still readable. With luck, someone can fix it and make sure it doesn't go wrong again next week.

Chappell Roan finally gets to the top of the singles chart. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart. Chappell Roan was one of the biggest new stars of 2024 but still ended the year without a number one single to her name. Her success has continued into the early months of 2025; as of last week’s chart, she had spent a total of 29 weeks in the top ten with Good Luck Babem Hot To Go and, to complete the trio of three-word titles, Pink Pony Club. Still, however, a chart-topping single had eluded her. That finally changes this week as Pink Pony Club, originally released five years ago to general indifference bags the number one spot. Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us falls to number two after a fortnight at the top. Tate McRae’s Sports Car falls two places to number five. Sleepy Hallow, whose name sounds like a soporific version of a Harry Potter book, has the week’s highest new entry at number fifteen with Anxiety. The song was originally released independently by Doechii in 2109, but in this version she has been relegated to the role of featured artist. Thankfully, the song is a lot better than Denial Is A River. Benson Boone gets his fourth top forty hit with Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else at number 30. Much as I like his number one beautiful Things, I also like the more restrained vocals on this one. It also has rather more of a sense of fun. Beautiful Things is at number four this week. Brit School graduate Olivia Dean made her chart debut in 2021 with her version of The Christmas Song. A little over three years later, she gets a second hit with It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be. If that refers to the song, it isn’t perfect. It comes from the soundtrack of the latest Bridget Jones film. Ravyn Lenae Washington this week joins the list of top forty singers who have used their two forenames as their professional name, dropping the surname. She makes her top forty debut this week with the perfectly pleasant Love Me Not. The singers of those two new entries will be supporting Sabrina Carpenter on tour. One purpose of the midweek chart updates is to allow any potential acts of chart rigging to be spotted early. There have been occasions in the past of songs being disqualified from the chart for breaches of the rules. It is, therefore, a little surprising to see Jimin’s Who re-enter once again at number 24. There is no obvious reason why this song has done so much better than other solo songs by members of BTS. Furthermore, it has developed a habit of getting a sudden increase in streams each time it is in danger of going on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) whereby the value of streams is halved. Again, there is no obvious reason such as the release of a new mix to explain these conveniently-timed surges. There are several re-entries in the lower reaches of the chart, but also one in the top ten. Myles Smith performed his catchy hit Nice To meet You at the Brit Awards last weekend. The song had been subject to ACR, meaning it dropped out of the top forty. However, the increase in streams this week has seen it restored to the standard ratio, It is back in the chart at number eight. Alex Warren has a re-entry at number 37 with Burning Down. The song has now spent four weeks in the top forty (starting last autumn) but has yet to climb beyond number 34. Warren’s Ordinary is faring rather better. That climbs to number three this week. Just a week after slipping out of the top forty, Teddy Swims’ Lose Control is back at number 32. Tate McRae’s It’s Ok I’m OK returns at number 35. The story of the top of the albums chart this week is a curious one. At the start of the week the battle was presented as a two-horse race between new albums. By the end of the week, neither of those albums made the top two. Instead, the top two comprises an album returning to the summit and a third new album. The album returning to the summit is Sabrina Carpenter's Short ‘n’ Sweet, helped by her exposure at last weekend’s Brit Awards. It is the fourth time the album has gone to number one. On each of the three previous occasions it lost the top spot after a week. With a new Lady Gaga album out today (Friday), we can expect the same to happen next week. Brighton band Architects surprisingly topped the chart in 2021 with their tenth studio album For Those That Wish To Exist. Only three of their previous albums had reached the top forty with none of them getting into the top ten. Album number eleven The Sky, The Earth And All Between lands this week at number two. The album topping the chart in both Monday and Wednesday’s updates (albeit by a very narrow margin) was the fourth album from The Lathums, Matter Does Not Define. Their two previous albums each topped the chart (including one that edged out Public Service Broadcasting), so they were always expected to be contenders for number one. The album is decent enough although it is not exactly vastly different from the last two. It enters at number three. In those early updates, Doves were at number two album number six Constellations For the Lonely. There seems to be a scientific trend in the names of this week’s high new entries. Doves’ comeback album The Universal Want (2020) went to number one. This one is at number five. Last week’s number one Sam Fender’s People Watching, is at number five. There are just two more new entries from totally new albums and they are both debut solo albums by people previously associated with a band. Vamps had four top forty albums between 2014 and 2020, including two number ones. The band still exists, albeit rather quietly at the moment, but Bradley Simpson has found time to record a solo album. The Panic Years is at number seven. Blackpink member Lisa makes her solo debut in the albums chart at number twenty with Alter Ego. There is, however, one more new entry. Lola Young’s debut album This Wasn’t meant For You Anyway went almost unnoticed when it was released last year. It failed to reach even the top 100. However, the success of Messy, and a Brits performance, sees it make the chart at last at number sixteen. A week after Oasis had a re-entry in the singles chart with Whatever, they have one in the albums chart with a new edition of 2000 album Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. It is at number eleven, ten places below its original peak.