Suedehead2

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

Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart. There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week. There was no real doubt that Olivia Dean would be getting her second number one single. The question was whether Sam Fender would get his first. Back in the days when the singles chart measured physical sales only (because that was all that was available), it was relatively unusual for a single to fall down the chart and then climb back up again. It was even more unusual for a single to yo-yo up and down over a prolonged period. The inclusion of streaming, and the various changes to the rules to try to speed up the chart, has made a yo-yo chart run very common. One of the clearest examples of the yo-yo phenomenon is Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In which has had seven runs in the top ten since it first entered the upper tier last October. Four of those runs have been just a single week at number ten. The longest run in the top ten started at the beginning of the year and reached seven weeks last week when it climbed to its peak of number five for the third time. In the midweek updates, Rein Me In was at number one, but with a slender lead over the number two. The opposition came from another Olivia Dean song, So Easy (To Fall In Love). That song was at number six last week, having peaked at number three. Both songs, then, were heading for new peaks. It was just a matter of which song would get the higher peak. Regardless of which song won, Sam Fender would be able to celebrate a new singles chart high, beating the number three peak achieved by Seventeen Going Under. A win for Rein Me In would also set a new record for the longest time taken for a song to get to number one in a single chart run. Rein Me In’s 36-week path to the top would easily outstrip the relatively swift 19 weeks taken by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. In the end, victory went to Rein Me In which means that Olivia Dean’s second number one is also Sam Fender's first. After waiting two-and-a-half years from his first top 100 to get into the top forty for the first time, he has had another fairly lengthy wait to get a deserved number one. Dean has a third song in the top five as Man I Need, her previous number one, climbs back up to number four. Zara Larsson’s Lush Life climbs to number three, matching its peak from almost exactly a decade ago. Bad Bunny falls one place to number five with DtMF. He also gets a fourth hit from his current album as Titi Me Pregunto enters at number eighteen. Under the three-song limit Baile Inolvidable drops out to make way for it. Last week’s number one, Taylor Swift’s Opalite drops to number eight after a week at the top. It just about avoids the fate of Lewis Capaldi’s Pointless which climbed to the top from number fifteen (as Swift did last week) before dropping straight back out of the top ten. Central Cee’s new single Iceman Freestyle gets off to a great start with a brief clip of Albinoni’s familiar Adagio in D Minor. Sadly, it goes rapidly downhill when Mr Cee’s vocals start. The wait for a song of his that I like goes on. Iceman Freestyle, a title which could have been used for a song about the Winter Olympics, is at number 37 giving Central Cee a 34th top forty single since his 2002 debut. Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole’s (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me was a number 31 hit in 2006. Thanks to Tik Tok, it is a re-entry at number 38, Oh joy. After spending the first six weeks of the year in the lower reaches of the top forty Sombr’s Back To Friends dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40. His Homewrecker enters the top ten at number seven. If it goes no higher, it will be the third of his five top forty hits to peak in that position. There are two more new entries and a re-entry in the singles chart which will be recorded in the upcoming albums chart section. While Olivia Dean was almost guaranteed to have the number one single as her main opponent was herself, in the albums chart, the competition came from fellow Briton Charli XCX with her soundtrack for the new Wuthering Heights film. Most soundtrack albums are now consigned to the separate compilations chart (a move that came after soundtrack albums - particularly The Greatest Showman - spent a large part of 2018 at number one) but this qualifies as it is credited to Charli XCX alone. In musical terms, Wuthering Heights is, of course, mostly associated with the sublime debut single from Kate Bush. When agreeing to do the soundtrack for the new film, it is unlikely that Charli XCX had any illusions that that was likely to change. Still, if she could get the number one album, Wuthering Heights would be arguably the most unusual title of a number one single and album by different artists. On the other hand, if Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving held on, it would match the three-week run by the same album in the first three charts of the year. In Wednesday’s update Wuthering Heights was still at number one, albeit with a fairly narrow lead over The Art Of Loving. By the end of the week, it held on at the top, thereby denying Olivia Dean a chart double. It is Charli XCX’s third number one album and the first of those three to have a second word in the title. And those three remaining singles? All three are from Wuthering Heights. Chains Of Love spent a week in the top forty last November. It now returns at a new peak of number seventeen. Dying For You is at number 27. The glorious Always Everywhere is at number 33. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving, then, slips one place to number two. It has spent seven weeks at the top in four separate runs. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number three, one place ahead of another compilation, The Weeknd’s Highlights. Bad Bunny is at number five with Debi Tirar Mas Fotos. In between releasing Tension and Tension II, Kylie Minogue embarked on a 66-show world tour. A live album, recorded on the tour, was released last September, but was initially only available to stream. The lack of the opportunity to buy the album meant that it failed to enter the chart in the UK. With physical copies now on sale, it enters at number nineteen. Fred Again’s USB re-enters at number 31 after he performed for four nights at one of my least favourite London venues, Alexandra Palace.Another album about a stick. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season continues to do well.

Not much of a Charli XCX fan, but this is glorious.

Trust Jack to talk over the best bit of this.

Why is this back?

The BBC has made a four-part series of Lord Of The Flies, scripted by Jack Thorne who co-wrote Adolescence and has also contributed to Skins and Toxic Town among many others. It's a brilliant adaptation which uses the extra time over the classic Peter Brook film very well. Each of the four episodes centres on one of the key characters, including a back-story for some of them. That meant that Jack was portrayed as an arrogant bully in three episodes (as per the original film), but also as a vulnerable boy in the episode focussing on him. The quality of the acting was incredible. Most child actors benefit from being able to bounce off adult actors, but that didn't happen for most of this production.

They spent the 1977-8 season in what was then Division Two, narrowly edging Brighton out of a promotion spot.

It's a good song. Elkie Brooks' version is wonderful, so I'm intrigued to hear what Beck and friends make of it.

I'm so old that I can remember when they were last relegated

A song of this title has been recorded by Jeff Buckley and Elkie Brooks among others. Don't know whether this another version of the same song.

Without having read the article yet, that YouGov survey reinforces my view that almost anything could happen. if Deform top the poll with around 30% of the vote, they could win a majority or they could end up as the third, or even fourth, party in the Commons.

Just finished watching the series. Darius was bound to fall spectacularly, and that's what he did. The on-again off-again relationship between Agnes and Schuey is not untypical of teenagers, and the Freddie - Luca storyline was really sweet. Look forward to some new characters in the next series to replace the leavers.

Coldplay's version of Boys That Sing at 2016's Glastonbury has appeared at the top of my Youtube page Coldplay - Boys That Sing (Viola Beach Cover) Glastonbury 2016

This is the song that I would have entered before their album landed in the top forty on Friday. I'm delighted that they have finally had some success, but would have loved to see how they did in this contest. IST IST - Lost My Shadow

I had something lined up until last Monday's mids ruled it out. Replacement now selected.

They had such tremendous promise. They took a brief break from supporting Blossoms on tour to go to Sweden. Shortly after the accident happened, I went to see Blossoms on that tour and they played a recording of a Viola Beach set at the time they would have played

After losing again today, Sheffield Wednesday can be relegated next week.

This week's ramblings on the charts (and the weather) can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums Index page.

In October last year Taylor Swift became the first artist to reach number one with a song that had the name Ophelia in its title. Now she has become the first artist to top the chart with a song called Opalite.The song originally reached number two, behind The fate Of Ophelia, and spent eight weeks in the top ten. Last week it was at number fifteen. Its promotion as an official single, along with a vinyl release, sees it climb all the way to the top. It is Swift’s sixth number one single and the second from her latest album. Dave and Tems slip to number two with Raindance. Readers in Aberdeen (home of the wonderful Annie Lennox) will have been surprised (or confused) when they finally saw some sunshine yesterday afternoon (Thursday) for the first time since 21 January. Raye drops to number three with Where Is My Husband. This week she was named as one of the headline acts for this year’s Brighton Pride in August. She will appear on the Saturday while Diana Ross will headline Sunday’s show. If Raye has found her husband by then, she can bring him along. Shane Boose, under the name Sombr, has had three top ten hits from his debut album I Baqerly Know Her, released last August. Now he has already moved on to songs from his next album with the release of Homewrecker. It is a new entry at number fourteen, complete with its Beach Boys-y beginning and end. Just two weeks after former members of One Direction topped the singles and albums charts, another former member has landed in the charts. This time it is the turn of Niall Horan who has temed up with Myles Smith to record a song called Drive Safe, sound advice in the rubbish weather we have been having. Each singer has two top ten singles to his name with Smith charting higher than Horan. Their perfectly decent joint venture is at number 27. Two acts whose age would generally make them unlikely visitors to the singles chart enter at number 37 with a song called Release The Pressure. Forty-two-year-old Harris has been having hits consistently for nearly twenty years, including eleven number ones. Leicester band Kasabian last had a top forty single in 2014. Kasabian seem to have decided that the best way to get back in the singles chart is to play second fiddle to Harris as this sounds far more like a Calvin Harris song than a Kasabian one. American singer-songwriter Dominic Fike is at number 30 with Babydoll, a song originally released in 2018 before it became a minor (non-top forty) hit in 2023. There are several re-entries in the chart this week, one of which is covered in the albums chart round-up. Tame Impala’s Dracula, a surprisingly long-lasting hit last year, is back at number 25. Justin Bieber’s Yukon reached number twelve last summer. It is now at number 29. If he had stuck to the original release date, Robbie Williams would have been celebrating his 52nd birthday today with a record-breaking number one album. As it is, Britpop has already been to number one (two weeks ago) and left the top forty. That means another week at the top for the Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving which has become the “default” number one whenever there are no major releases. On one Sunday evening every January, tens of millions of Americans spend several hours watching two teams of men in armour playing a glorified version of catch. Most of the time is occupied by adverts with brief interruptions for “action”, but Americans lap it up. While the men in armour have a slightly longer break than the ones for adverts, there is a live musical act. This year, the performer was Puerto Rican Bad Bunny who recently became the first act to win the Grammy award for best album with a release entirely in Spanish. Donald Trump once described the president of Puerto Rico as terrible for his inadequate response to a natural disaster there. Pity the poor person who had to explain that the president of Puerto Rico at the time was one Donald J Trump. Whether that contributed to Bad Bunny’s antipathy towards Trump, I don’t know. However, it was no surprise that Trump was not a fan of the Superbowl performance. Because of the lateness of the show, the UK audience for the quasi-sporting event is relatively low. However, the controversial choice of half-time performer generated more than the usual amount of publicity, increasing the gap between the number of people who know about that and those who know the result. The publicity surrounding Bad Bunny’s performance has had an impact on the UK charts. The now award-winning album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos reached number thirteen in January last year. Now it is back at number two, easily his best position in the UK charts. DtMF, a number 26 hit early last year, returns to the singles chart at number four. Nuevayol is a hit for the first time at number fifteen. As is Baile Inolvidable at number twenty. J Cole is at number three with The Fall-Off. Cole has said that this will be his final album. However, as he is only 41, he has plenty of time to change his mind. If not, he finishes his career with a fifth top ten album from seven releases. In Monday’s update J Cole was sitting neatly at number 26 with a song called Two Six. Some of us might have hoped he had recorded a song called Six Seven instead. Those people will have been relieved to see the song miss the top forty by the end of the week. Even if he wasn’t Japanese, the man known as Joji might have decided that his birth name of George Miller didn’t exactly catch the eye. It certainly isn’t a name that would lead to the assumption that he is from eastern Asia. Under his chosen moniker he gets a fourth top forty album this week with the delightfully-titled Piss In The Wind at number six. It matches the peak achieved by the sweeter sounding Nectar in 2020. Still on names that might mislead people about the origin of the act, the band Ist Ist come from Manchester rather than a German-speaking country. Their first four albums all fell well short of the top forty. The best they managed was number 87 with The Art Of Lying in 2021. Thankfully, their record label has been patient enough to allow them to release a fifth studio album. That patience has paid off as Dagger is a new entry at number 21. French composer Lorien Testard won awards last year for the music he wrote for the video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The soundtrack album reached number six in the soundtrack albums chart, but was placed nowhere in the main albums chart. Following a release on vinyl, it lands at number sixteen this week. The list of famous musicians from Portsmouth is relatively short although the city has at least had a hit single named after it. Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears comes from there as does former Dr Who composer Murray Gold. It was also the home of the intentionally terrible Portsmouth Sinfonia. The band Crystal Tides were formed in the city eight years ago. This week they make their chart debut with Toothpaste at number 37. Jamaican-British singer Marnz Malone is at number 36 with Yaqeen.

Going back to the decade apart question, Beatles singles were reissued after the original release and many of them returned to the chart.

Tuesday 10th February Chelsea 3-1 Leeds United (19:30) Everton 2-1 AFC Bournemouth (19:30) Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Newcastle United (19:30) West Ham United 1-2 Manchester United (20:15) Wednesday 11th February Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (19:30) Crystal Palace 1-1 Burnley (19:30) Manchester City 3-0 Fulham (19:30) Nottingham Forest 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (19:30) Sunderland 1-2 Liverpool (20:15) Thursday 12th February Brentford 1-3 Arsenal (20:00) Wednesday 18th February Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-3 Arsenal (20:00)

I was thinking of entering them for Unknown Pleasures, but I won't be able to now!

If Starmer goes, the press will be even more brutal with his successor.

Yes, it's great to see this back. The first two episodes have been very good.

I don't think we've ever heard anything official. It's just that he suddenly stopped posting.