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From last night's Last Night Of The Proms BBC Proms - To Dolly, With Love - BBC iPlayer ❤️❤️❤️

New music time!

Great to see Fontaines DC still in the chart

Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest AFC Bournemouth 2-1 Brentford Chelsea 2-0 Hull City Crystal Palace 1-1 Ipswich Town Liverpool 2-0 Fulham Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton Sunderland 1-3 Arsenal Coventry City 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Manchester United 2-2 Manchester City Leeds United 2-2 Newcastle United

Unfortunately, a domestic emergency means that I have been unable to write a Chart Commentary this week. John (popchartfreak) is also unable to provide his usual replacement commentary. I'm very sorry about this. Normal service will be resumed next week. In the meantime, congratulations to Sienna Spiro on her first UK number one single.

Bastille have announced their new album Misfits Together - no release date yet.

Farage has claimed that he "wasn't listening" when he appeared to be agreeing to the dodgy funding and polling arrangements made by two party apparatchiks. Not a good look for someone who thinks he should be PM.

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

Three times in the last six months I have been able to report that Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In has fallen from number one. There are at least two reasons why this week’s report that it has happened again is historic. First, as Rein Me In is the first song in history to get four spells at the top in a single chart run, it is now the first song to fall from the summit from the summit for the fourth time in the same chart run. That piece of chart history was clearly going to happen when Rein Me In climbed back to number one ten weeks ago. However, this time it is different. Apart from a spell in December, for obvious reasons, streams of Rein Me In have not declined for three successive weeks in a chart run lasting over a year. Until now. That three-week decline in streams means that Rein Me In is now on the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR). The value of its streams has been halved. Without that change it would have been at number one yet again. As it is, the race for the top was one of the closest for many years with several songs in contention. After Dolly Parton’s death last month, two of her songs, Jolene and 9 To 5, were among the contenders. They occupied the top two positions in early updates, but had slipped down the chart by Wednesday, suggesting that they were no longer serious contenders. For many months the slow rise of Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas has led to jokes about it either finally getting to number one just before Christmas or the start of next year. It entered the top forty in February (the week before Rein Me In first topped the chart) and has been climbing ever so slowly since then. In normal circumstances, it would not be unusual for a number one to be succeeded by a song that entered the chart at about the time that song first climbed to the top. However, Rein Me In is no ordinary number one. The next contender was Hugel, Imael Angel and Ultra Nate’s controversial Movin’ To The Sun. The reason for the controversy is the part that AI played in the composition of the song. Hugel created a new version of the song himself, but it seems unlikely that the song would exist without AI. Movin’ To The Sun is a relative newcomer having entered the top forty at the beginning of June. Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation is the freshest of the contenders, joining the top forty in July. After all the numbers were crunched, Ella Langley was declared the winner with Choosin’ Texas topping the chart in its 31st week in the top forty. Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation climbs to number two, one place ahead of Hugel, Imael Angel and Ultra nate’s Movin’ To The Sun. Stella Lefty stays at number four with Boston. Dolly Parton is at number five with 9 To 5 (sadly it didn’t climb there from number nine) while Jolene is at number six. Both Parton songs have reached new peaks this week. In its sixteenth week in the top 100 Noah Kahan’s Willing And Able enters the top forty for the first time at number 39. Rein Me In falls to number seven after a total of 23 weeks at the top. The fact that it is now on ACR means that it is unlikely to return to the summit, although it may well remain in the chart for many more months. Dua Lipa’s 2024 hit Training Season is a re-entry at number eighteen. Slovakian singer Adela re-enters at number 26 with Ain’ In LA, beating its previous best position of number 32. She may not be in LA but LA is in Adelam right at the end. As well as giving a whole host of acts their first radio airplay, John Peel also had a reputation for playing records at the wrong speed. Part of Ain’t In LA sounds like it is being played too slowly. In the week that the longest-running UK number one in history vacated the summit there is a reminder of another long-running number one. Alex Warren’s Ordinary spent a total of thirteen weeks at the top last year and is still in the singles chart this week. Ordinary was on Warren’s debut album, itself a number one, released in July last year. His second set, Wildchild, was released last week and it is at number one today. As well as the title track, there is a song called Passenger. Is Alex Warren an Iggy Pop fan? Lovers of chart trivia will forever be amused by the fact that The Courteeners’ biggest hit Bot Nineteen Forever is their highest-charting single, peaking at number nineteen. The Scottish band’s albums have all reached the top ten. That run continues this week as their seventh collection, Pink Cactus Café debuts at number two. The Essential Michael Jackson is at number three, one place ahead of Olivia Rodrigo’s You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. Dolly Parton’s Diamonds and Rhinestones: The Greatest Hits Collection climbs one place to number five, a new peak. Bananarama were always more of a singles band than an albums band. Only one of their studio albums reached the top ten with their 1986 release True Confessions limping in at number 46. Forty years on there is an anniversary edition at number six. We don’t get many Mexican acts in the UK charts but there is one this week. Rock band The Warning make their UK chart debut with their fifth album Everything’s Falling. It will probably be falling next week. Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery, former member of Genesis and current member of Marillion respectively. Enter at number 24 with The Roaring Waves. Former Beastie Boy is at number 28 with Thank You. American heavy metal band Mastodon are at number 27 with Marrow Deep. Their fellow Americans Interpol are at 33 with This Mirror Weighs A Ton.

Friday 4th September Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool (20:00) Saturday 5th September Newcastle United 2-2 AFC Bournemouth (12:30) Brentford 2-1 Sunderland Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Leeds United Fulham 1-0 Crystal Palace Manchester City 4-1 Coventry City Nottingham Forest 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur Hull City 1-3 Aston Villa (17:30) Sunday 6th September Everton 2-2 Manchester United (14:00) Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea (16:30)

One of the saddest things my parents ever said to me was that they were somehow relieved that they would be dead before the real effects of climate change became apparent. Going further back, they were conflicted between wanting grandchildren and fearing for their grandchildren's future if they happened. Ultimately, my parents had four grandchildren and I really fear for their future, I'm assuming I will miss the worst effects of climate change although I'm less sure now than I used to be. Most of the people who deny the very existence of climate change are also those most hostile to refugees. However, climate change will lead to more refugees as some countries either become uninhabitable or cease to exist because of rising sea levels. Are these loons really going to tell people whose country no longer exists that they can't come here?

There had been reports that a reshuffle w2as about to happen, so I suspect Dimly's resignation was a reaction to that, not the cause. Appointing one of the people responsible for Truss's disastrous Budget as Shadow Chancellor is an interesting move.

Best Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumours Eurythmics - Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power Of Love Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok Sal Solo - San Damiano (Heart And Soul) Worst Kool And The Gang - Fresh Black Lace - Do The Conga Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is

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Which led to two paragraphs being cut from my chart commentary!

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

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean continue their record-breaking run as Rein Me In tops the chart for a tenth consecutive week, and the 23rd overall. The ascension of Last Christmas to the title of longest-running UK number one has now been delayed by two or three years. Of course, if Fender and Dean record a Christmas song of their own, that moment could be postponed for even longer. Dean was at number eight this time last year with Man I Need. This week the song is …. at number eight. Sakira and Burna Boy’s Dai Dai has now moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR). With its streams now worth half their previous value, its five-week run at number two is over. It is replaced in the runner-up spot by Hugel, Imael Angel and Ultra Nate’s Movin’ To The Sun. Stella Lefty is at number four with Boston. There is more American geography at number three in the shape of Ella langley’s Choosin’ Texas. Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation is at number five. Dublin band Fontaines DC got a deserved first top forty single last year when It’s Amazing To Be Young from their excellent album Romance reached the dizzy height, for them, of number 59. While it was by no means their best single, it did at least gain them a little more recognition. For reasons best known to themselves and/or their record company, Fontaines DC released Marianne, the first single from their next album, on a Tuesday. Even without the benefit of a full chart week, it still reached number 60 in last week’s chart. This week, the song - which is wonderful - climbs to number nineteen. The band are headlining at the Reading Festival tonight. Their set is on BBC1 at 22:40. After a six-year wait Ashe gets her second top forty hit with the rather lovely Stop The Wedding at number 38. It is one place below Raye’s Where Is My Husband. Given how long she has been looking for him, perhaps she should have stopped the wedding. Sienna Spiro enters at number 40 with Pure. It is nowhere near as good as the Lightning Seeds song of the same name. Even though it had already been reported that Dolly Parton was suffering from ill health, it was still a shock to hear on Tuesday that she had died at the age of 80. The coverage of her death demonstrated how much she was loved as a person, including by those who weren’t particularly fans of her music. Her incredible generosity and support for good causes added to her reputation as a truly wonderful woman. One of her biggest causes was to get children reading and enjoying books, partly inspired by the fact that her father was unable to read and write. I’m going to divert briefly to mention an anecdote in a book I read over the summer by former children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce. He was visiting a primary school where a little girl wanted to show him her writing. She scrawled something totally unintelligible on a piece of paper, so Cottrell-Boyce asked her what it said. “I don’t know”, she replied. “I can write, but I can’t read yet”. Anyway, back to Dolly Parton. Given her fame, it is a surprise to many people just how modest her singles chart history is. Before today she had had just two top forty singles, Jolene (number seven in 1976) and Islands In The Stream with Kenny Rogers (number seven in 1983. One of her best known hits, 9 to 5, peaked at number 47. Islands in The Stream, a song I don’t really like at all, is back at number thirteen this week. Forty-five years after it failed to reach the top forty, 9 to 5 comes in at number twelve and Jolene is at number nine. Unsurprisingly, my two favourite Dolly Parton songs are missing. I rate her version of I Will Always Love you far better than Whitney Houston’s overblown version and I have been a fan of Love Is Like A Butterfly since it was used as the theme tune to 1970s sitcom Butterflies. In the albums chart, Diamonds and Rhinestones: The Greatest Hits Collection soars to number six, easily surpassing its previous peak of number 32. Three of the most distinctive vocalists released new albums last week. Two of them have done very well, the third not so much. As the music world, and much of the music world in general, mourns the loss of Dolly Parton, the two successful albums have a very strong country influence. Paul Heaton first made an impact on the UK charts as a member of the Hull-based Housemartins, alongside Norman Cook. After that group disbanded, he formed The Beautiful South. Both Housemartins albums reached the top ten, as did eight of The Beautiful; South’s ten studio albums. Two Beautiful South albums made it to number one. A compilation album, Carry On Up The Charts also reached the top of the pile. Paul Heaton’s solo career didn’t go well until he teamed up with fellow former member of The Beautiful South Jacqui Abbott. He has recorded four albums with her, all of which reached the top five, two of them getting to number one. His next purely solo album also performed well. Now he has scored his first solo number one album with his sixth attempt Jenius. Many of the tracks on Paul Heaton’s album have a distinctly country flavour to them, and the same can be said of Brandon Flowers’ latest work. Unlike Heaton, Flowers’ solo albums have performed well from the start. Both Flamingo (2010) and The Desired Effect (2015) topped the chart, adding to Flowers’ seven number ones from seven Killers studio albums. However, Heaton has the last laugh as he stops Flowers from getting a Perfect Ten. Thrasher is at number three. Rock band Westside Cowboy were formed in Manchester although I suspect at least two of the members (Aoife O’Connell and Paddy Murphy) may possibly have some Irish roots. According to their Wikipedia page (interpret that as you will). Westside Cowboys were people riding horses in front of early American trains to prevent people being hit by this new-fangled mode of transport. Two Westside Cowboy EPs failed to trouble the charts, as did a string of singles led by I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You). That somewhat lengthy title does not appear on the album, although it does close with You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor. The album It Goes On, which could describe some of their song titles, is at number five. The Essential Michael Jackson is at number two. Ilivia Rodrigo is at number four with You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. Of the albums released last week that I listened to, the most disappointing has to be that from Australian band DMA’s. That has nothing to do with the fact that they still haven’t dropped the grammatically incorrect apostrophe. They have even compounded the error by calling the album DMA’s as well. It is because it just isn’t very good. I have enjoyed their previous releases, but I didn’t make it to the end of this one. Their previous four albums have peaked at progressively higher positions. That ends this week as this set enters at number nine. It has been a relatively disappointing week for The Smiths. Sam Smith, the third vocalist with a distinctive voice to release an album last week can only reach number 21 with Hazel Eyes. All of their previous albums hit the top two. After three top ten albums Jorja Smith is at number seventeen with her latest release What Are The Odds. Antony Szmierek makes his top forty debut with Decoding Birdsong at number 30. Back in the 1970s, it was possible to buy albums of bird songs. I’ll sign off this week with some words from Dolly Parton - “If you see someone without a smile today, give them yours”.

Certainly looks like it. It also makes a lot more sense.

Crystal Palace 0-3 Manchester City Liverpool 3-1 Nottingham Forest Bournemouth 2-1 Everton Coventry City 1-1 Hull City Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Newcastle United Chelsea 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Leeds United 1-2 Brentford Sunderland 2-1 Fulham Manchester United 2-0 Ipswich Town Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal

Google her name ❤️

My favourite Dolly quote has to be “It cost me a lot of money to look this cheap”.

The season should end now.

Quirky fact of the day - Hayden Hackney made his debut for Everton yesterday. Everton became the first club to have fielded both an inner London borough and an outer London borough in the English top flight. It took them a while. William Sutton played a single game, against Derby County, in 1895. Chelsea have fielded two London boroughs, but they were both outer London - Jack Harrow and Chris Sutton.

Great to see so much love for Madame Butterfly from the previous session. If only I'd got round to voting. Best Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Tesla Girls Bronski Beat - Why? Freddie Mercury - Love Kills Giorgio Moroder With Philip Oakey - Together In Electric Dreams Alison Moyet - All Cried Out Worst Chaka Khan - I Feel For You Lionel Richie - Penny Lover Status Quo - The Wanderer (such a lazy cover)

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