Suedehead2

After a week when it never seemed to stop raining, Dave and Tems climb back to the top of the singles chart with Raindance. The song’s last spell at number one lasted just a single week. Time will tell whether it falls so soon this time. Raye climbs back up to number two with Where Is My Husband. Djo’s End Of beginning remains at number three. Harry Style’s Aperture drops to number four after a week at the summit. Taylor Swift is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia. Like last week, all of the top five singles have spent at least a week at number one. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season was very much a slow burner. It entered the singles chart in October 2023, over a year after it was released. It climbed to number one at the beginning of the following year and stayed there for eight weeks. It stuck around in the top forty for many months. Since Stick Season, Noah Kahan’s subsequent single releases have had mixed fortunes. Some have been hits while others have been less popular. His latest single, The Great Divide (not a tribute to an Ed Sheeran album) was at number one in Sunday’s initial update. However, by the following day it had already fallen to number five. It finishes the week as a new entry at number ten. Country music has never been particularly popular in the UK. Even country singers who have scored hit singles here have generally done so with songs that lean some way towards pop. Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas, a new entry at number 38, is more like what we expect American country music to sound like. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is a matter of personal taste. There are four re-entries in the top forty. Three of them were in the top forty recently, but the other is from 2002. Italian production group Milky reached the top ten that year with Just The Way You Are (not the Billy Joel song or a time warp-enhanced version of the Bruno Mars song). Thanks to a new remix, it returns at number 35. Billy Eilish’s Wildflower is back at number 32. It peaked at number seven in 2024 and was last in the top forty in March 2025. Tate McRae’s Tit For tat is back at number 39 after leaving the top forty last week. Fred Again, Sammy Virji and Reggie’s Talk Of The Town also dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40. When Lily Allen’s West End Girl reached the top five last year, it was tempting to predict that it would climb to number one when physical copies were released as it was scheduled for a week lacking in major releases. However, I reckoned without the enduring popularity of Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving. The album received an additional boost when Dean won the Best New Artist award at last weekend’s Grammys ceremony. That boost sees the album reclaim the top spot, bringing its total time at number one up to six weeks. The success of West End Girl led to tickets for Lily Allen’s tour selling out very quickly, despite some eye-watering prices. Fresh dates added to the tour, including three nights at the London Palladium, also sold out quickly. She narrowly misses out on being able to say that the tour is promoting a number one album as the physical release helps it to return to the chart at number two, matching its peak position last year. Liverpool band The Molotovs were formed in 2020 by brother and sister Matthew and Issey Cartlidge. Their debut album Wasted On Youth enters at number three. Maybe they will celebrate with a few cocktails tonight. On one of the occasions I saw Oasis live, they were supported by The La’s who had re-formed not long before. At the time they were known for There She Does and little else. That song had been a hit in 1990, two years after its original release. Not long after their time supporting Oasis, the band split up for a second time and backing vocalist and guitarist John Power went back to Cast., the band having been formed after The La’s split up for the first time. Thirty-odd years later, Cast supported Oasis on their reunion tour. They are the second Liverpool act to enter the top ten as their eighth studio album Yeah Yeah Yeah lands at number eight. Texan Don Toliver’s first three albums peaked at steadily lower positions. If that trend had continued, his fourth offering would probably have missed the top forty. However, the trend went into reverse and it reached number 27. The reversal in fortune continues in style this week as he bags his first top ten album with Octane at number four. Despite the lack of any chart history, in either the singles or albums chart, Reading band Only The Poets managed to sell out a gig at the Brixton Academy recently. They have now broken their chart duck by reaching number nine with their debut album And I’d Do It Again. Cast are not the only band never regarded as particularly cool to have a new album in the charts this week. They were briefly popular as a result of their psychedelic-sounding singles Tattvah and Govinda, but lost any coolness they had when the best-known thing about the band was the fact that singer Crispin Mills was a member of the Mills acting dynasty rather than any of their songs. A Nepo band before the term was invented. It, therefore, came as something of a surprise when people started to hear songs from Kula Shaker’s new album and found that they were rather good. As a result, Wormslayer is at number thirteen. It is their highest charting album since their second set Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts reached number nine in 1999. While Status Quo have enjoyed sustained success over many decades, their singer Francis Rossi’s solo career has been less than stellar. That continues this week as The Accidental enters at number 25. He can at least console himself with the fact that it has performed better than his previous solo efforts. Michael Jackson’s Number Ones collection was released on vinyl for the first time lsat week, coinciding with a new biopic about him. It returns to the top ten at number seven. Chart rules dictate that streams of a song can only contribute towards “sales” of one compilation album. Therefore, The Essential Michael Jackson drops out of the chart from last week’s number ten position. Phil Collins also returns to the top forty with a hits collection. A coloured vinyl; edition of The Singles was released last week to mark his 75th birthday. The album is at number 37, its first appearance in the top forty for a little over nine years. Last week he reached a total of 800 weeks in the UK albums chart from 20 albums. He has another 479 weeks as a member of Genesis.

The Day Before You Came is one of my favourite Abba songs. Sadly, it was released at a time when their popularity was in decline so it was only a minor hit. Blancmange recorded a brilliant version, with added quirkiness, whichh did slightly better than the original. Now, Pulp have recorded what may be an even better version for Radio 2's Live Lounge. This really should be released as a single in the hope that the song can finally be a big hit. Pulp - The Day Before You Came (ABBA Cover) in the Radio 2 Piano Room - YouTube

I work full time, so this is written in my spare time, mostly after I get home on a Friday. That is why the commentaries tend to be more polished when they are written in the school holidays when I have more time.

Suede - Disintegrate (so I can relive part of last night's gig) Sparks - Do Things My Own Way CMAT - Jamie Oliver Petrol Station

Best ears For Fears - Mad World Abba - The Day Before You Came Ultravox - Reap The Wild Wind The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust Tie-break - Save A Prayer Worst Wonder Dog - Ruff Mix Barry Manilow - I Wanna Do It With You The Kids From 'Fame' - Starmaker

Saturday 31st January Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Everton Leeds United 0-2 Arsenal Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 AFC Bournemouth Chelsea 2-1 West Ham United (17:30) Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle United (20:00) Sunday 1st February Aston Villa 2-1 Brentford (14:00) Manchester United 2-0 Fulham (14:00) Nottingham Forest 2-0 Crystal Palace (14:00) Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Manchester City (16:30) Monday 2nd February Sunderland 2-0 Burnley (20:00)

This week's musings, celebrating an unusual chart double, can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums Index page.

As mentioned in last week’s commentary, Harry Styles is the nearest current equivalent to Robbie Williams, someone who started life in a boyband and who has then achieved huge success as a solo artist. Like Williams with Take That, Styles was just sixteen when he became part of One Direction. Any member of a band who starts a solo career faces a difficult choice. They can continue with songs in a similar style to those released by their band, or they can do something different. As a boyband’s fanbase’s musical taste is likely to change as they get older, the latter route makes a great deal of sense. Even so, the contrast between One Direction’s output and Sign Of The Times, Harry Styles solo debut, was something of a surprise. Harry Styles has continued to explore different musical styles (sorry), and that continues with his new single Aperture. It uses its near six-minute runtime well, gradually building into a really good song. Not surprisingly, it has gone straight to number one, becoming Styles’ third chart-topping single. Sign Of the Times spent just a week at the top while As It Was had a marathon ten-week run. Time will show whether Aperture comes close to one of those extremes, or sits somewhere in the middle. It is the first song with the word Aperture in its title to reach the UK singles chart. The release of a new Harry Styles single saved us from a completely static top five. Instead, last week’s top four have all fallen one place. Dave and tens’ Raindance falls to number two after a week at the top. Djo’s End Of Beginning is at number three, one place ahead of Raye’s Where Is My Husband. Taylor Swift, once romantically involved with Harry Styles, is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia. It is twenty years since Arctic Monkeys released Whatever You Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. It received rave reviews and became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week. Singer and lead songwriter Alex Turner celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this month, so he has been in the band for over half of his life. There is currently no news of a new Arctic Monkeys album, but they have released a new single. Opening Night will appear on Help 2, an album to be released on ^ March to raise funds for the War Child charity which works to help children who are affected by war. The first Help album was released in 1995 and featured songs from acts such as Suede, Blur and a band calling themselves Smokin’ Mojo Filters whose members were Paul McCartney, Paul Weller and Noel Gasllagher. The original album was put together so quickly that the CD cover art didn’t have a track listing. Smokin’ Mojo Filters’ version of the Beatles song Come Together reached the top twenty. Arctic Monkeys have chosen to release an original song and it enters at number sixteen. Lil Uzi Vert came very close to entering the top forty last week with What You Saying. Instead, it fell just short, leaving us with a grand total of zero new entries. This week, it has climbed into the top forty at number 27. Louis Tomlinson’s solo career away from One Direction started with two top ten singles, but only one more single has even reached the top forty. He has, however, continued to enjoy success in the albums chart. Faith In The Future (2022) reached number one and he has now done the same with his third solo album, How Did I Get Here. Whether this week’s chart double (the number one single and album being by former members of the same band) is unique, I don’t know. If I had a super-sophisticated database linking people to their former bands, I could find out. Sadly, I don’t have such a database. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving remains at number two. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop compilation stops at number five. The delightfully-named Megadeth (guess what their genre is) released their first album in 1985. They had to wait until the release of their sixteenth studio album in 2022 to reach the top three for the first time. They have now matched it with album number seventeen which has also reached number three. They seem to have run out of inspiration for album titles. This one is called Megadeth. Callum Beattie was born in Scotland in 1989, some four years after Megadeth released their first album. His first two albums topped the Scottish albums chart, but performed less well in the UK as a whole. A;bum number three has done a lot better. Indi is at number four. Lebanese-born Mika (aka Michael Penniman) made a big impact with his first hit single, Grace Kelly. He had a few more top ten singles but has never matched the success of that song. Hyperlove, a new entry at number fourteen, is his first appearance in the top twenty for over a decade. New Rose by The Damned is generally regarded as the first single released by a UK punk band. Even with a cover of Help by The Beatles (linking back to War Child) as the b-side it wasn’t a hit, but it does have its place in UK music history. They did go on to have a number of hit singles, including a fabulous version of Barry Ryan’s Eloise. The follow-up to that was a reissue of New Rose but it only reached number 81. The Damned’s last two albums both reached the top ten. Their thirteenth studio album, Not Like Everybody Else, is at number 23.

I've been saving it up for a song contest since before Buzzjack existed!

I thought Julian would have voted for Peter Gabriel. I forgot to allow for the possibility that it was his entry

He is a right-wing loon even by Reform standards. Reform claim to be upholding democracy. Here is a list of the people who had a vote in the selection of a byelection candidate. Farage, N That looks remarkably like the list of voters who chose the leader of the party in Scotland. A search of membership lists in Gorton and Denton and in Scotland found no members called Farage, N.

Saturday 24th January West Ham United 1-2 Sunderland (12:30) Burnley 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur Fulham 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Manchester City 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers AFC Bournemouth 2-2 Liverpool (17:30) Sunday 25th January Brentford 2-1 Nottingham Forest (14:00) Crystal Palace 1-3 Chelsea (14:00) Newcastle United 1-2 Aston Villa (14:00) Arsenal 2-2 Manchester United (16:30) Monday 26th January Everton 2-1 Leeds United (20:00)

If Andy Burnham wants to what is best for the Labour party, he will say that he is going to concentrate on his current job, and that he isn't interested in standing in any parliamentary byelection.

Thanks for that Colin. I would also add that this is Robbie Williams' 50th week at number one in the main charts. The Beatles have a total of 246 weeks. Williams' achievement is impressive, hence the amount of space I gave him. However, his success shouldn't be overblown.

This week's chart round-up can be found from the Blogs page and the Forum Index page/

Dave’s Raindance entered the top ten last November and was one of the few non-festive songs to remain in the top forty for the whole of December. After climbing to number three last week, it now climbs to the summit to give him a fourth number one single. It also helps Tems, the featured artist, to get her first chart-topping single. Solder readers will remember that the UK experienced a lot of rainfall throughout Rihanna’s ten-week stay at number one with Umbrella. Judging by this week’s weather, Raindance is threatening to repeat the trick. Djo’s End Of The Beginning slips to number two after a fortnight at the top. Raye’s search for her husband goes on. She climbs to number three in Where Is My Husband’s sixteenth week in the top ten. Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia is at number four. Bruno Mars climbs to number five with I Just Might. There is a distinct lack of new entries this week, but there is a re=entry for a particularly brilliant song which is over 45 years old. The Cure released Boys Don’t Cry in 1979, but it wasn’t a hit. They had to wait until the following year for A Forest to see them in the top forty for the first time. In 1986, they released a new recording of Boys Don’t Cry. By this time they had become regular visitors to the singles chart and the remix reached number 22. A video accompanied by the song has become popular on TikTok which means that it is back in the chart at number 39. The week’s other re-entry is a song that entered the chart last summer. Gunna and Burna Boy went on to spend two weeks at number 22 with Wgft before it fell out of the chart along with almost everything else at the end of the year. It is now back in the top forty at number 30. The story of Robbie Williams’ solo career has been recounted many times. After leaving Take That he reached number two with his first two solo singles in 1996 and ‘97. The next two singles did less well, suggesting that he might struggle to achieve a successful solo career. Indeed, I was able to get a ticket to see him at the 1,700- capacity Southampton Guildhall just a few days before the date of the gig. By the day itself, it was not a sell-out. Everything changed for Robbie Williams when he released Angels as a single in December 1997. While it didn’t get to number one, it became a massive hit, spending twelve weeks in the top ten. The host album, Life Thru A Lens, had only reached number eleven and soon left the chart. The success of Angels gave the album a major boost, sending it into the top ten for the first time and, eventually, to number one in April 1998. Since Life Thru A Lens, Robbie Williams has notched up a further fourteen number one albums, the most recent of which was the Better Man soundtrack last year. That fifteenth number one album saw him draw level with The Beatles as the artist with the most number one albums. At the time, he made no secret of the fact that he wanted to beat the record. The first reports of Robbie Williams latest album, Britpop, suggested that it was due for release last autumn. The existence of a Taylor Swift release has been suggested as a reason for its delay, although there was never an official autumn release date. Until last week, the album was expected on 6 February, but Williams sprung a surprise by releasing it last Friday (16 January). He has described the album as the one he would have liked to release as his solo debut, and there are certainly strong mid- to late 1990s indie vibes on many tracks. The album has been written without his regular writing partner Guy Chambers. Instead, Williams has collaborated with a number of writers including his former bandmate Gary Barlow and Gaz Coombes of Supergrass. There was never any real doubt that Robbie Williams would succeed in his aim of getting a record-breaking sixteenth number one album. There was simply no serious opposition to overcome. The artist best placed to take his record is the aforementioned Taylor Swift who has, so far, had fourteen chart-topping albums. Singer-songwriter Madison Beer’s first two albums both entered the chart at number 28 before dropping straight back out again, never to return. Her third set, Locket, has already outperformed them by entering at number three. Whether this one gets a second week in the chart remains to be seen. Nathan Evans remains best-known for his unexpected number one single Wellerman in 2021. He now gets his most successful album with Angels’ Share, a collaboration with Saint Phnx Band, at number four. It is at number one in the Scottish Albums Chart. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving falls to number two after spending the last three weeks at the summit. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop collection is at number five. As misleading band names go, Sleaford Mods is up (or should it be down) there with the best. They aren’t really a mod band at all. They are at number six with The Demise Of Planet X. Still on the subject of misleading names, ASAP Rocky doesn’t make rock music, although he has given the writer Official Chart Company’s summary the chance to use their favourite word - multi-hyphenate - again. He is at number eight with Don’t Be Dumb. Bristolian singer Elles Bailey got to number twelve in 2024 with her seventh album Beneath The Neon Glow. Its predecessor, Shining In The Half Light, was her first album to reach the chart but it fell just short of the top forty. She is now back in the chart with her latest album, Can’t Take My Story Away, at number fourteen. Following the announcement of a new album and tour, two old Harry Styles albums return to the top forty. The most obvious successor to Robbie Williams as a former boyband member enjoying a hugely successful solo career is at number 32 with Harry’s House and number 37 with Fine Line.

If that happens, the whole world order is f***ed. What price would we accept to be bought by Russia?

Best Sylvian Sakamoto - Bamboo Houses Blondie - War Child Pink Floyd - When The Tigers Broke Free Dire Straits - Private Investigations Depeche Mode - Leave In Silence Worst Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five - The Message The Kids From 'Fame' Featuring Valerie Landsberg - Hi Fidelity Kool And The Gang - Big Fun

For the RIP slot, Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees in memory of drummer Kenny Morris.

Best A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song The Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird Japan - I Second That Emotion The Clash - Rock The Casbah Worst Imagination - Music And Lights Brat - Chalk Dust - The Umpire Strikes Back* Junior - Too Late

Saturday 17th January Manchester United 2-2 Manchester City (12:30) Chelsea 2-1 Brentford Leeds United 2-1 Fulham Liverpool 3-1 Burnley Sunderland 2-0 Crystal Palace Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 West Ham United Nottingham Forest 0-2 Arsenal (17:30) Sunday 18th January Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Newcastle United (14:00) Aston Villa 2-1 Everton (16:30) Monday 19th January Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 AFC Bournemouth (20:00)

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

After climbing to the summit last week, Djo gets a second week at number one with End Of Beginning. It is the first song to get a second consecutive week at number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which topped the chart for four successive weeks last November and December. That song is at number three this week, continuing its annoying habit of finishing the week one place below where it was in the midweek updates. Dave and Tems move up to number two with Raindance, a song that would sound a lot better if Tems was the sole vocalist. Raye slips to number four with Where Is My Husband. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) stays at number five. While Bruno Mars had two number two hits in 2024 and ‘25 in collaborations with Lady Gaga and Rose, he hasn’t had a solo hit since That’s What I Like in 2017. That isn’t to say he has been idle; he has had several other hits alongside a variety of artists. That ends this week with the arrival of I Just Might at number six. It is the 24th top forty hit for the man born Peter Hernandez in Hawaii forty years ago. One of Bruno Mars’ aforementioned number two hits, Lady Gaga collaboration Die With A Smile returns to the chart at number 28. His 2012 number two hit Locked Out Of Heaven is back at number 36. His 2010 album Doo-Wop and Hooligans re-enters the chart at number 31. American singer-songwriter Zach Bryan had two top forty hits in 2024, including one that had originally charted the previous year. Now he is back, at number 29, with Plastic Cigarette.There have been a few top forty singles with the word cigarettes in the title, most famously Oasis’s Cigarettes and alcohol but this is the first with just a single gasper in the title. The Land Of The Midnight Sun is a term usually used for the area within the Arctic Circle which has constant daylight for part of the summer. That means that the release of Zara Larsson’s single Midnight Sun last June made some sense. However, it has taken until now (when people in that part of the world haven’t seen daylight for a while) for it to be a hit. It is a new entry at number 39. On Saturday 13 December 2003, I was part of the audience for Suede’s final gig before they split up. The 27-song set proved to be an emotional occasion for many of those attending. Elsewhere in London on the same night, Blue played to an audience of adoring fans. The following year, they announced that they were going on hiatus. Waelier in 2003, Blue had their third number one album in three releases with Guilty. The hiatus for both Suede and Blue lasted for a similar time. Suede re-formed in 2010, initially to play a benefit concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust, but they have stayed together ever since. Blue re-formed the following year in order to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest. Blue’s first three albums after re-forming performed fairly modestly in the charts. However, their latest set, Reflections, has done rather better. It was at number one in the midweek updates, albeit with a fairly narrow lead. A string of promotional events and the availability of umpteen versions of each physical format made them definite contenders for the top spot at the end of the week. In the end, though, they didn’t quite make it. Reflections enters at number two, still their best showing since re-forming. There is still no sign of Blue collaborating with Pink to form Notso Deep Purple. Blue’s narrow miss means that Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a third consecutive week at number one. The last album to spend three consecutive weeks at the top was Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl in October last year. As well as getting his third top forty single this week, Zach Bryan also gets a third top forty album. The two earlier releases peaked at numbers sixteen and 22. With Heaven On Top easily outperforms them both by entering at number three. Indie band The Cribs also get a new albums chart peak, although in their case they have had to wait 25 years to reach the top five for the first time. Selling A Vibe is at number five. It is at number one in the vinyl albums chart. South London band Dry Cleaning are particularly notable for the fact that vocalist Florence Shaw speaks most of the lyrics rather than singing. Their debut album New Long Leg (not about cricket) deservedly reached the top five in 2021 but, sadly, the next release Stumpwork, also not about cricket, fell just short of the top ten. This week they have fallen just short of the top ten again as Secret Love enters at number twelve. The Kid Laroi (born with the posher-sounding name Charlton Howard) included the word Love in the title of a mixtape that reached the top forty albums chart. Thankfully, I can quote the title of his latest album, Before I Forget, in full. It enters at number 22. American rock band Alter Bridge reached the top ten with each of their last five studio albums. That run comes to an abrupt end this week as their latest set, unimaginatively titled Alter Bridge, can only get to number twenty.

Badenoch is surely enjoying her best period as Troy leader. She was able to portray Zahawi as throwing his toys out of the pram because the poor diddums didn't get a peerage. Now she has acted decisivley over Jenrick and can do her best to ensure he is seen as just a sore loser. I can't help feeling that someone close to Jenrick deliberately left a copy of his speech lying around.

Man C have reached at least the QF every season since 2018-19. Here is a list of the teams they have beaten to get there... Rotherham Burnley Newport Port Vale Fulham Sheff Wed Birmingham Cheltenham Swansea Swindon Fulham Peterborough Chelsea Arsenal Bristol C (the person in charge of the draw that year clearly didn't listen to their instructions) Huddersfield Tottenham Luton Salford Leyton Orient Plymouth And this season soi far, Exeter Salford or Swindon