Suedehead2

And it finishes 10-0. Auckland's xG reached the dizzy heights of 0.03. What a farce.

It's 6-0 at half-time. Auckland still haven't had a shot and have an xG of 0.00.

Bayern Munich v Auckland is proving to be the joke that most people will have expected. Less than 30 minutes into the "match", Bayern are 4-0 up and Auckland haven't had a shot.

There has already been a national enquiry. The last government didn't implement any of its recommendations. You've been told that before. Why are you still ignoring the facts?

If the new enquiry finds nothing new, I hope the Daily Mail will offer to pay for it.

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

After many weeks when Alex Warren’s Ordinary finished well clear of all rivals at the top of the singles chart, he finally faced a real challenge this week. It came from Sabrina Carpenter with her new single Manchild. In Monday's update, Manchild had a fairly clear lead over Ordinary. However, by Wednesday the lead had narrowed leaving the final outcome in doubt. The lack of an additional update yesterday (Thursday) was perhaps a hint that Sabrina Carpenter’s lead had either stabilised or even increased. Whether the lack of news on Thursday was a hint or not, Alex Warren has finally been toppled. Ordinary is down to number two after a far from ordinary twelve weeks at the top. Only four songs have had a longer continuous run at the top. Two of them are by Canadian solo artists, Drake and Bryan Adams. One is by a Scottish band, Wet Wet Wet, and the other is by an English singer, Ed Sheeran. That finally leaves the way for a new chart-topper. Sabrina Carpenter had three number one singles last year. Manchild is her first of 2025. All four songs have used only one word in the title although one of them did use that word three times. Neneh Cherry’s song of the same name reached number five in 1989. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not is back down to number three. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number four. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for pointing out that Pink Pony Club is the ninth song to spend eighteen consecutive weeks in the top five and the first by a female solo artist. Sombr’s Undressed falls one place to number five. He is also at number seven with Back To Friends. Ed Sheeran’s new album is still a few months away. Sapphire, a new single from the album, enters at number nine. The song has a slightl;y odd start before becoming one of Sheerans lively songs. It is his 43rd top ten, and 65th top forty, hit. His 42nd top ten hit Azizam is one place lower, at number ten. The cover art for Sapphire is very similar to that of Moby’s album Play. Play just happens to be the title of the forthcoming Sheeran album. As a follow-up to The Days, Chrystal has made a shameless pitch to receive some free stuff by teaming up with MK to release a song called Dior. That has to be more attractive than a weekend in Milton Keynes. The song is a new entry at number seventeen. Teddy Swims’ Lose Control has spent the last five weeks outside the top forty. In that time, it hasn’t dropped any lower than number 45. This week it is back up to number 40. Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe returns at number 38 and Gracie Abrams’ That’s So true re-enters one place higher. It is very easy for me to find out when I first saw Pulp perform live. It was the day that Arsenal played Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup final, 15 May 1993. How is that significant? It was at the Highbury Garage, Arsenal were still playing at Highbury and Pulp were a band from Sheffield. At the time, Pulp were a band who had been together for 15 years but were still playing at small venues. The Garage had a capacity of just 600. However, they were finally starting to get noticed and the following year they had their first top forty single with So You Remember The First Time? Back at the Garage gig, it was immediately apparent that Jarvis Cocker was a brilliantly flamboyant front-man. By August the following year, they were playing on the main stage at the Reading Festival and I was in the audience once again. Unusually for a festival set, they played a new song. So new that Jarvis Cocker had only finished writing it the day before. That song was Common People, the one that gave them major chart success the following year. Indeed, it was at number three this week thirty years ago. Jarvis Cocker also demonstrated his stage presence in one of my favourite Top of the Pops performances. Cocker had written Walk Like A Panther for Sheffield band All Seeing I. The song featured vocals by another Yorkshireman Tony Christie. However, when the band were asked to perform on Top of the Pops Christie was unavailable, so Cocker stepped in to take his place (although Christie’s vocals were also in the background). Pulp have disbanded and re-formed twice, re-forming most recently in 2023. The first re-formation was purely for live dates with no new album. This time, though, Jarvis Cocker decided that he had enough material (some written several years ago) to treat fans to something new. The result is More, an album which is very Pulp-like, meaning that it is mostly great. It becomes their third number one album after the classic Different Class (1995) and This Is hardcore (1998). The Official Charts Company (OCC) have reported excitedly that Addison Rae has scored her first top five album this week with Addisn at number two. As it is her debut album, the bit about it being her first in the top five is not really big news. Still, they have to generate headlines somehow. What is rather more noteworthy is that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number four. While two places below its more customary spot, its 42 successive weeks in the top five is a record for a solo female artist. Her previous five albums didn’t get anywhere near the top five although the EP Fruitcake did spend a week at number five last December, a year after it was released. Carpenter announced this week that she will be releasing a new album in August. Somebody at the OCC seems to have come across the word multihyphenate this week as it has been used to describe both Addison Rae and Little Simz. It doesn’t mean someone who uses lots of hyphens. Instead it means someone with several professions or skills. Little Simz is an actor as well as a rapper which apparently qualifies her as a multihyphenate .Her sixth album Lotus is at number three. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection falls three places to number four. Marina Diamankis, now performing simply as Marina having dropped the Diamonds bit, is at number seven with Princess Of Power. With two Larsens and a Poulsen in their line-up it is no surprise that Volbeat are a Danish band. Their ninth studio set God Of Angels Trust is at number 24, giving them a fourth top forty album. American punk band Turnstile are at number eleven with Never Enough. This week’s anniversary edition is My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. My Chemical Romance’s second album reached number 34 when it was released twenty years ago. This new edition is at number nine.

Most people involved in plane crashes do survive. It's just that crashes involving light aircraft with very few people on board don't get reported.

The special D Day edition of the weekly chart commentary, which doesn't mention D Day at all, can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums index page.

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

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?

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