Suedehead2

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!

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

Alex Warren’s Ordinary continues its run at the top of the singles chart into an eleventh week. Just three other songs have had a run of exactly eleven weeks at the top. Slim Whitman’s Rose marie did it in the early years of the chart in 1955. While four songs have subsequently had longer runs, the next song to spend exactly eleven weeks at number one was Dance Monkey by Tones & I in 2019. Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits (2021) has since matched that run. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club moves back up to number three, swapping places with Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not which slips back to number three. Roan’s Good Luck Babe re-enters at number 39 just in time for the resumption of GCSE exams next week. It first entered the chart shortly before last year’s exams. That is the only change in the top five. Sombr’s Undressed is still at number four. Show Me Love by WizTheMC and Bees & Honey remains at number five. As well as extending his run at the top of the singles chart, Alex Warren also has this week’s highest new entry with Bloodline at number nine. The song features rapper Jason DeFord who performs under the moniker Jelly Roll. Yummy. Roll has spent time in jail although he did at least use the time to improve his educational qualifications. Like Warren’s other two non-number one hits, Bloodline is better than ordinary, a song whose huge success continues to baffle many people. Jelly Roll also featured on Machine Gun Kelly's first charting single after changing his name to MGK. Lonely Road reached number 67 last year. Now he gets his first top forty hit since that name change with Cliche at number 31. While many musical cliches have entered the charts over the decades, this is the first time the word has featured in the title of a top forty hit. That said, another Kelly, Kelly Jones, was the featured artist on Manchild’s The Cliches Are True which reached number 60 in 2000. Cousins Max and Luke Dean enter at number nineteen with their debut hit Can’t Decide. They are joined on this housey track by someone called Locky who is another chart debutant. Myles Smith has a new entry at number 32 with Gold. The song is cheerful enough without offering anything terribly different from his previous hits. As well as Good Luck Babe, Gracie Abrams’ That’s So True is also a re-entry, at number 38. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ Die With A Smile is back at number 37. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things falls to number ten. In its 33 weeks in the top ten it has now spent at least one week in each position. It has also spent a week at number eleven. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for the information that it is the third song to occupy every top ten position after Harry Styles’ As It Was and (over several chart runs) Wham’s Last Christmas. As there is a BBC compilation of their material tonight (Friday), it is worth a reminder that Eurythmics have had one, and only one, song peaking at nine of the top ten positions. Two bands with an album entering the chart this week feature brothers. Many brothers in bands fall into one of two categories. There are those such as the Gallaghers or the Everly Brothers who are constantly at loggerheads. Others maintain a harmonious relationship, even when the band lasts for decades. Sparks definitely fall into the latter category. Ron and Russ Mael formed Halfnelson in 1968. In 1971 they became Sparks and have kept the name ever since. While the line-up of backing musicians has changed many times, the core of the band is still Russ on vocals and Ron as the main songwriter and keyboardist. Two things about Sparks’ new album immediately strike people familiar with their output as typical of the band. First, there’s the title of the album - MAD! The only surprise is that they hadn’t thought of using the title for one of their previous 27 albums. Track one on the album is called Do Things My Own Way, something they have definitely been doing for over half a century. The whole album is remarkably fresh for a band who started their recording career long before anyone in the current singles chart was even born. After enjoying initial success with singles such as the brilliant This This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, Sparks rather dropped off the radar from the late 1970s. They had a minor hit with When Do I Get To Sing My Way in 1994 and again the following year. Their Lil’ Beethoven album in 2002 received deserved critical acclaim, but further commercial success still eluded them. When Sparks released Hello Young Lovers in 2006, another fantastic album, they played a few shows in the UK where they played the album in full, followed by a second set of songs from their back catalogue. Two years later, they played a series of gigs where they played each of their then 21 albums in full, including songs that they had never played live before. Hello Young Lovers was their first album to chart in the UK for over twenty years, although it sadly missed out on a top forty place. In a belated upturn in fortune, Sparks’ last three studio albums all reached number seven. The fact that this was a fairly quiet week for new releases would have led to optimism in the Sparks camp that MAD! could go even further. That optimism was enhanced when Sparks were at number one in the first midweek update, ahead of other new releases and, more significantly, Sabrina Carpenter’s perennial number two Short ‘n’ Sweet. Wednesday’s update showed them still ahead with their lead over Carpenter almost unchanged. However, with further real sales on Wednesday and Thursday likely to be low for both albums, the question was whether Sparks would pick enough additional streams to hold off against Carpenter. Including streaming in the albums chart was never an easy task. In downplaying streams of the two most popular tracks, the Official Charts Company attempted to avoid albums getting a boost from streams of just a couple very popular tracks. However, they haven’t attempted to distinguish between streams of all - or most - of an album and streams of songs that have been hit singles. That gave Sabrina Carpenter an advantage, even if more people streamed MAD! in full than streamed the whole of Short ‘n’ Sweet. Sadly, Sparks didn’t quite get their first number one album. However, MAD!’s number two makes it their highest charting album, beating the number four peak of Kimono My House way back in 1974. It is at least at number one in the Physical chart as well as the CD and vinyl charts. That means that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet hits the top for a fifth time. Each previous spell at number one has lasted just a single week. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number three while Tate McRae is at number five with So Close To What. The other band of brothers to enter the chart this week are Orbital, the name used by brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll since 1987. The band has split and reformed several times, including one split before they had achieved any success. Following the example set by Peter Gabriel, but calling a halt a little earlier, they called both of their first two albums eponymously. They became known as the Green and Brown albums. For no obvious reason, they have released a deluxe edition of their second (Brown) album 32 years after its initial release. Still, it provided a good excuse to listen to it again. The album originally reached number 28. This version is at number thirteen. Just as an aside, it should be mentioned that Sparks played on a song called Acid Pants (a very Sparks-like title) on Orbital’s final album. My O Level Geography lessons from many years ago taught me that the palace where rivers meet is called a confluence, as long as the rivers are of similar size. A look at Google Maps tells me that that (sort of) happens at Brightlingsea in Essex. That, then, may have led to a band from that town calling themselves When Rivers Meet. Or perhaps not. Regardless, they are at number four with their fifth album Addicted To You. One of the consequences of going to a large number of gigs, particularly before the internet, is that you get to see a lot of awful support acts. Even if you know you don’t like the act, they might be playing between two acts you do want to see. That is how I have seen Skunk Anansie more times than I would have liked. They, along with Texas, went on to enjoy significant success without my ever feeling tempted to buy any of their material. They are at number seven with The Painful Truth, their first album for nine years and a new high for the band in the albums chart. Among the bands I willingly saw many times in the 1990s were Stereolab, fronted by French singer Laetitia Sadier. Sadly, songs such as French Disco and Superelectric failed to become the big hits that they should have been. They have just released their first new album after a fifteen-year gap. Instant Holograms On Metal Foil, their eleventh studio album, is their fourth to reach the top forty as a new entry at number 29. Sports Team, formed at Cambridge University, have their third top forty album (from three releases) with Boys These Days. While the first track sounds a little like The Blow Monkeys, it improves significantly from there. The album is at number eleven, a disappointment after the two previous albums reached the top three. Louise Redknapp is at number eight with Confessions, her first top ten album since a Best Of compilation in 2001. Her last studio album to reach the top ten was Woman In Me in 1997.

So disappointed for Sparks. It's a great album.

So there should be no check on what he is doing is actually legal within the constitution?

If I was religious, I would be praying for Sparks tonight 🤞

Have you not heard of checks and balances? Do you think a president should be able to disband opposition parties simply because he has been elected? Do you also think a British PM should be able to do whatever they like?

If a president can do whatever he (maybe one day, she) wants, what is the point of Congress and the Supreme Court?

Please let Sparks hold on to number one

A fabulous goal indeed. Brighton's second highest finish ever, so I'm pretty pleased. Just annoyed that a team from Croydon cost us a European place.

Congratulations to @Rooney and many thanks to @Houdini for running the show!

Forest's incompetence and that team from Croydon's luck cost Brighton a European place ☹️

Good, isn't it? An just one day later, SUEDE was the solution to Wordle 😀

AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Leicester City Fulham 1-3 Manchester City Ipswich Town 1-1 West Ham United Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace Manchester United 2-2 Aston Villa Newcastle United 2-0 Everton Nottingham Forest 2-0 Chelsea Southampton 0-2 Arsenal Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Brighton & Hove Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Brentford

Even if it was a little late for the same reason!

And what about the people involved in a trial that gets delayed for the convenience of Chris Brown? A rape victim, for example. Or someone whose life is being put on hold after being charged with a crime they didn't commit.

Slightly late due to the lack of a BBC Chart Show, but this week's commentary is now available from the Blogs page or the Forums front page.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary gets a tenth week at the top of the singles chart. While it is only the fourteenth single to spend at least ten successive weeks at number one, it is the fourth in the 2020s. The last song to do it was Dave and Central Cee’s Sprinter which had a run of ten weeks in 2023. Last weekend some newspapers (and tabloids) reported that Warren had broken the record for a US solo artist’s consecutive weeks at number one. Others added the word male. Both were wrong. Slim Whitman’s Rose Marie spent eleven successive weeks at number one in 1955. Two US women solo artists, Whitney Houston and Miley Cyrus have had ten-week runs at number one. The overall record for successive weeks at the top is still held by Canadian Bryan Adams with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You in 1991. The only song to spend longer at the summit is Frankie Lain’s I Believe which spent a total of eighteen weeks there (in runs of nine, six and three weeks) in 1953. Alex Warren heads an unchanged top three. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not is still at number two, one place ahead of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club. Sombr’s Undressed climbs one place to number four, swapping places with WizTheMC and Bees & Honey’s Show Me Love. Skye Newman had her first chart hit earlier this month with Hairdresser. That song climbs to a new peak of number sixteen this week. It is joined, and surpassed, by Family matters, a new entry at number eight. She still has no Wikipedia page. The available information about her is generally on promotional websites so can be somewhat hyperbolic. Last night (Thursday) the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards ceremony was held in London. The awards were established in 1956 and celebrate achievements in song composition and soundtracks. The winner of the Rising Star award was Lola Young who topped the chart with Messy earlier this year. This week she has a new entry at number 25 with One Thing. The only other charting single with One Thing in the title was by One Direction, unless you count The Fall’s Teleph One Thing. Which you probably don’t. Last weekend the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Basel. It was won by Austria who, in my opinion, just happened to have the best entry. In recent years, there have often been a few Eurovision songs in the following week’s chart. This year, there are three. The highest is the British entry which finished in eighteenth place. What The Hell Just Happened by Remember Monday put up a respectable showing in the jury vote, but no country put it in their top ten in the public vote, so it received the dreaded nul points in that part. I have always played down suggestions that the voting is political. However, some of this year’s scores from the public vote were a little odd. Anyway, the British public seem to have a better view of the song than the rest of Europe and it is a new entry at number 31. As mentioned above, Eurovision was won by Austria meaning that next year’s contest will be held in the country better known for classical composers such as Mozart and two Strausses rather than for pop music. The winning entry didn’t make it. However, the German entry Baller by Austrian siblings Abor and Tynna, is at number 34. The more eccentric Eurovision entries tend to be rather hit and miss with me. I either think they are gloriously daft, or rubbish. The third Eurovision song in the chart this week, Espresso Macchiato by Tommy Cash, is at number 40. The Estonian entry was a song about Italy. Obviously. It finished third in Basel. Some artists enjoy major success in the UK with their early material while others build up a following gradually. Others muddle along for a few years before finally having a major hit. On such artist is singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen. His first three albums reached the top ten in her native USA, with two of them topping the chart. The best he could manage in the UK was a number 40 placing with One Thing At A Time in 2023. His major breakthrough in the UK came last year when he was the featured artist on Post Malone’s number two hit I Had Some Help. His fourth album, I’m The Problem, has outdone all of that by going to number one. What I Want, a song that features Tate McRae enters the singles chart at number 32. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet continues its record-breaking run at number two. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number three. Many people, including this writer, thought that The Sherlocks would be in contention for the number one album this week. Three of the indie band’s four albums reached the top ten with 2023’s People Like Me & You getting to number four. Sadly, it was not to be and Everything Must Make Sense is at number four, matching its immediate predecessor. One of the notable things about Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia album last week was that it picked up a lot more streams than most rock albums. That gave a hint that it would not be yet another album to drop straight out of the chart. It has held up very well, falling four places to number five. There are many words that could be used to describe the career of Peter Doherty, including colourful and controversial. As a member of The Libertines and, later, Babyshambles, releases were too infrequent to build up any real momentum. His solo releases have been more regular, but with limited success. This week he gets his biggest solo success with Felt Better Alive at number seven. When CD players first hit the shop shelves, one of the first purchases for many was a copy of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms. The album was the Geordie band’s second number one, spending two weeks there in May and June 1985. It returned to the top in the summer, but really got going in May 1986 when it returned to the top and stayed there for ten weeks. We are, of course, now forty years on from 1985 and many young people are barely aware of what a CD is. A fortieth anniversary edition of Brothers In Arms is at number eight. It is now eight years since the sad death of Swedish DJ Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii. The track listing of a new compilation, Forever, gives a hint of what he might have gone on to achieve. Songs such as Wake Me Up, Levels and Hey Brother still sound good today. The album is a new entry at number twenty. Southampton metal band Bury Tomorrow are at number 33 with their eighth album Will You Haunt Me With That Same Patience. They have now had an album peak at every position between numbers 33 and 36 inclusive.

3-2 anyone? Lots of chants of the scoreline at a few Liverpool supporters at school today!

There was a Commons statement today on the UK-EU dela negotiated by Starmer. Farage wasn't there; he was on holiday. This, of course, is the same Farage as the one who was on the EU Fisheries Committee when he was an MEP. The committee held 42 meetings in that time. Farage attended one. I have finally discovered something Farage is good at - he makes Johnson appear hard-working.