Suedehead2

The best obscure Light songs are Red Frame White Light by OMD and Arclight by The Fat Lady Sings.

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

After being replaced by Harry Styles last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean climb back to number one in the singles chart with Rein Me In. The song has now had four weeks at the summit. It used to be fairly rare for a song to return to number one in the same chart run, but nowadays it is hardly worth highlighting. Rein Me In is already the second song to return to the summit this year. Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit climbs back up to number two. Harry Styles’ American Girls falls to number two after a week at the top. Pink Pantheress climbs to number four with Stateside. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) is at five. Sienna Spiro gets her third top forty hit with The Visitor at number e;even. The instrumentation is rather lovely, but the vocals occasionally grate a bit. While I did not expect to find a long list of hit singles with the word Visitor in the title, I was rather surprised to find that this is the very first, even when extending the chart to a full top 100. After the huge success of the splendid Stick Season, it took Noah Kahan some time to get a second top ten hit on his own. That happened earlier this year when The Great Divide reached number ten. He is now looking for another one with Porch Light. It’s not there yet, but a new entry at number nineteen is a good start. Unsurprisingly, the word Light has appeared in the title of a lot of hit songs. Among those to use it as a singular noun are Blinded By The Light (Manfred Mann’s Earth band’s version of a Bruce Springsteen Song), Red Light Spells Danger (Billy Ocean) and the unforgettable Red Light, Green Light by Mitchell Torok. Zara Larsson’s Lush Life continues to be a big hit for the second time. It spent thirteen weeks in the top ten at the beginning of 2016, peaking at number three. Exactly ten years later, it returned to the top ten and, again, peaked at number three. Last week it dropped out of the top ten, but this week it is back up to number eight. Tame Ompala’s Dracula climbs to a new peak of number fourteen. His only top forty single entered the chart last October. After spending the last five weeks at number 35, Ella langley’s Choosin’ Texas climbs two places to a new peak of number 33. Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide slipped out of the top forty last week. This week it edges back in at number 40. To no great surprise, Harry Styles gets a second week at the top of the albums chart with the curiously-titled Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. A combination of its huge sales last week and the lack of any serious competition from last week’s new releases made it almost inevitable. It is the first album by a male artist to get a second successive week at number one since Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) in summer 2024. The last British male act to do so was Lewis Capaldi with Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent in May and June 2023 which immediately followed a two-week run for Ed sheeran’s -. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving eventually provided Harry Styles with his nearest challenger. It remains at number two, extending its run in the gold and silver medal positions to nineteen consecutive weeks. While James Blake has never had a major hit single, he has had a good run of successful albums, beginning with his eponymous debut in 2011. This week he reaches the top three in the albums chart for the first time as Trying Times enters at number three. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number four. Tate McRae’s So Close To What entered the albums chart at number two in February of last year, somebody told me. It has remained in the top forty ever since and last week stood at number 22, stacked up there for a second consecutive week. Following the release of a double vinyl version of the deluxe edition, it soars back up to number five. The Official Charts Company’s review of the albums chart insists that there will be celebrations on the East Sussex coast tonight for Brighton band Yonaka. I can’t hear anything yet, but perhaps something will happen later this evening. That would be to celebrate Until You’re Satisfied becoming their second top forty album at number 25. The Black Crowes get their ninth top forty album with A Pound Of Feathers at number 37. It comes almost 35 years after their first top forty album back in August 1991.

Friday 20th March AFC Bournemouth 2-2 Manchester United (20:00) Saturday 21st March Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Liverpool (12:30) Fulham 2-0 Burnley Everton 2-1 Chelsea (17:30) Leeds United 2-1 Brentford (20:00) Sunday 22nd March Newcastle United 3-1 Sunderland (12:00) Aston Villa 1-0 West Ham United (14:15) Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Nottingham Forest (14:15)

Will the OCC use the upgrade as an excuse to start charging for access to the archive?

As a fan of John Simm and a Brighton resident, I'm a big fan of this programme.

There is now a vide for the wonderful Jamie Oliver Petrol Station featuring the man himself CMAT - The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station (Official Video)

The Springsteen cover is great, so here's hoping the rest of the album is as good.

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

Rather late after yesterday's outage, this week's commentary is now available from the Blogs page and the Forums Index page.

Once the release date of Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally was announced, there was no doubt that this particular Friday the thirteenth would not be unlucky for him. There was no prospect of there being anything resembling a race, just a complete walkover. Let’s leave aside the fact that the people responsible for the title seem to have been determined to make some of us type a supposed sentence that makes no sense. Just a couple days after Harry Styles released his new album, a concert promoting the album appeared on Netflix. That was convenient, wasn’t it? His choice to dress up like the Ukrainian flag might have helped his sales there, and if that led to reduced sales in Russia, who cares? It was possibly the first live set I have seen that has started and ended with the same song. As that song was the rather brilliant Aperture, I’m not going to complain. Styles used the opportunity to play the album in full before a five-song encore comprising songs from earlier in his solo career. The repeat performance of Aperture formed the second encore. Overall, the album demonstrates Harry Styles’ welcome willingness to experiment. He has come a long way since his days in One Direction. He has been rewarded with a third number one album. His second solo album Fine Line missed out On its release just before Christmas 2019 it finished behind a Rod Stewart compilation and Stormzy’s new album. It eventually climbed to number two at the beginning of 2021, behind a Taylor Swift album. The new album notched up 183,000 “sales” in its first week, the biggest weekly sales of the year so far. Harry Styles’ previous albums have all received a boost. Harry’s House benefits the most and re-enters at number 31. In the singles chart, Harry Styles inevitably has three songs riding high. In the midweek updates, American Girls was showing as a new entry at number one, but by Wednesday its lead over Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In was a narrow one. A second number one from this album would give Styles his second chart double. Harry’s House was the number one for two weeks while As It Was topped the singles chart. American Girls held on to finish the week at the top of the chart giving Harry Styles a fourth number one single and a second chart double. Aperture is at number four, one place ahead of another newcomer Ready, Steady, Go! Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In slips to number two after three weeks at number one. Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit is at number three. Returning to the albums chart, Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a thirteenth week at number two. It has been in the top two since last November. Fleetwood Mac’s compilation 50 Years: Don’t Stop oss at number four. Bruno Mars falls to number five with The Romantic. :asy week’s number one, Gorillaz’ splendid The Mountain, falls to number ten. Morrissey has long been a controversial figure. From his days in The Smiths he has been passionate about his vegetarianism but alienated some with his comments about omnivores.However, as time has gone on, his comments have become increasingly bizarre and unpleasant. He has compounded that by calling off several dates on his current tour at short notice. Morrissey’s behaviour has made him a classic case of “Great music, shame about the man”, As the years have passed, an increasing number of people have let their views about the man override their thoughts on his music and their willingness even to listen to any new material. He hasn’t had a number one album for twenty years. This week Make-Up Is A Lie, his fourteenth solo album and the first for six years lands at number three. Since making their chart debut in 1979, Squeeze have had twelve top forty albums and twelve top forty albums. Coincidentally, they have accumulated a total of 57 weeks in both top forties. They have never had a number one in either chart and their three top ten albums have all been singles compilations. Their new album, Trixies, enters at number fifteen. It is their first album for eight-and-a-half years. British folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy gets her first top forty album with These Frightening Machines at number 21. Finally, many thanks to popchartfreak for stepping in for me at very short notice last week. I had received some bad news at work which had come as a massive shock. I struggled through the rest of the day at work, but couldn’t face writing a light-hearted chart commentary.

We were discussing the possibility of Tottenham winning the Champions League and being relegated in the staffroom earlier this week. I think we can now assume that won't happen. However, if Nottm Forest win the Europa League, they will qualify for the Champions League. If they do that and are relegated, they will really struggle with the number of fixtures, particularly as Champions League weeks sometimes coincide with a Championship midweek programme.

The House of Lords has finally accepted the legislation to abolish the remaining hereditary peers. The Earl of Devon opposed the move, insisting that they would be missed. I suspect you would struggle to find someone who knows who the Earl of Devon is. That is, unless you made it easy. Is the Earl of Devon a) Dave Smith or b ) Charles Peregrine Courtenay? Which one of those thinks that he deserves to be part of the legislature because of something that happened around 900 years ago? Good riddance to them.

Maybe the actor needs the money

That's all very well when only one of the contestants knows nothing about the subject, but it gets a bit silly when they are both clueless. That said, nerves clearly play a part. I find it hard to believe that someone who has entered a general knowledge quiz can look at a map showing Canada and guess that it might be India. Even though the issue of who has more "squares* (they aren't squares) by the final is somewhat arbitrary, perhaps the format of the final should be 1) The subject originally chosen by the contestant with more "squares" 2) A neutral subject 3) The subject originally chosen by the other contestant

MQTs at Waterloo Road? What could possibly go wrong?

If Johnson had still been PM, he would’ve insisted on flying a plane himself and would probably have bombed Mecca by mistake.

The final highlighted a bit of a flaw in the format. We ended up with two contestants competing in a category (cricketers) they knew nothing about. That made it a bit of a farce.

That's one reason why I think whole life sentences should be used sparingly.

Yes, it was horrific but that doesn't justify the murder of the man responsible for it.

Thanks for filling in at very short notice!

Chartstats was great, but it's not surprising that the OCC forced it to close when they were ready to launch their own equivalent site. It's just a shame the OCC didn't work with the owner of that site to make sure their archive was better.

Man City won the title in 1936-7. The following season, they were relegated.

I assume they are hoping that there is a difference between a health emergency and an emergency caused by an imbecilic orange baboon.

Ed Davey has said that tax exiles in Dubai etc should not have their return to the UK paid for from the taxes they haven't paid. I totally agree.