Suedehead2

Almost all the councils won't start counting until Friday morning. Therefore, if Farage's mob do win Runcorn, that will be the headline for hours. The Lib Dems should do well in the South East in particular. However, if it is anything like the coverage of the general election results, those gains might be mentioned once or twice at most.

This week's commentary can be found in the Blogs section or from the index page in the Forums section.

Alex Warren spends a sixth week at the top of the singles chart with ordinary. The last song to get at least six weeks at number one was Sabrina Carpenter's Taste which had a run of nine weeks from the end of August last year. The last song with exactly six weeks at the summit was Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero which went to number one in October 2022. Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle had a six-week run starting in April 2023 but that came after a previous two-week run. Once again, the top three remains unchanged. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is still reading at number two. Ed Sheeran’s Azizam is still at number three. Then comes the exciting bit of the top five with some actual movement. WizTheMC with Bees & Honey climb to number four with Show Me Love while Doechii falls one place to number five with Anxiety. There is a dearth of new entries in both the singles and albums charts this week. The singles chart lives up to its name by having just a single one. In the week of Easter Monday it comes from Addison Rae Easterling. She had a top ten hit last year with Diet Pepsi (a title the BBC felt unable to mention in full) and now gets a second top forty hit with Headphones On at number 24. Thankfully for Auntie Beeb, the song doesn’t mention a particular brand of headphones. In my opinion, this new one is the better of her two hits. Once again, there are more re-entries than new entries, something that should really only happen around Christmas and New Year. Two new entries are by Teddy Swims - Lose Control is back at number 40 and The Door is at number 37. Lose Control has now spent 63 weeks in the top forty. Just nine songs have spent longer there. Thanks to Jim Watts at Buzzjack for that information. Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra has magiced its way back in at number 36. Anniversary editions of albums have become a regular presence in the charts for some time. However, the time between the original release and the new edition has generally been long enough to be able to say that it is aimed at new buyers. The same cannot be said of this week’s example. Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department just a year ago. It went to number one and spent two weeks there. A combination of new versions on vinyl, cassette, shellac and a version where all the instruments have been replaced by kazoos (I may have made some of these up) and quiet release weeks saw it append a total of ten weeks at the top by the end of the year. Now her people have decided that this is a suitable time for an anniversary edition with some new signed copies. The album is back at number one. It almost seems superfluous to say that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is ast number two. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number three. Another compilation album is at number four. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop collection was released in November 2018 and reached number five the following May. This week, its 336th in the chart, it hits a new high of number four. This is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the chart rules which favour a Greatest Hits set with a number of very popular songs rather than a few songs which are streamed far more than the rest. Yet another compilation, The Weeknd’s Highlights,is at number five. The arrival of 5ive in the albums chart may have been a cause of excitement for some and dismay for others. However, it is not a new album by the boyband although that may yet happen. It is the arrival of an album of that name by David Akeleke, known simply as Davido, at number six After a headlining set at the Coachella Festival, Lady Gaga is back at number 36 with her debut album The Fame. Fontaines DC are back at number 24 with Romance following the release of a deluxe edition featuring new tracks. The final new entry isn’t exactly new. Doechii released her debut album Alligator Bites Never Heal was released at the end of August last year. Thanks to the success of Anxiety and a vinyl release, it now makes its top forty debut at number 40.

If anyone still doesn't realise that the country is actually run by the Daily Mail, not whoever happens to have a Commons majority, Starmer's response should dispel any doubt.

According to the ruling, a trans man remains a woman. Therefore, a woman can have a penis.

I started my current spell at my Catholic school in January 2022, shortly after former Pope Benedict had died. A student asked if there could be a minute's silence. For Pele. As Francis was the current Pope rather than a retired one, I assume it will be marked a little more. After all, none of our students were alive the last time a sitting Pope died. Even some of the staff are too young to remember it.

Supporters of Sunderland and Middlesbrough have far too much of a sense of entitlement, despite the fact that they have won nothing for decades. I would prefer to see someone else go up.

As an atheist working in a Catholic school, I had been wondering what I should do if this news came through when I was in a classroom. If it had happened 24 hours later, I would have had that decision to make. Francis has been a far more progressive Pop[-e than his predecessors, so I had a lot of respect for him. He made a number of important statements on the environment and was far more understanding of sexual minorities. I hope his successor continues in the same direction.

I keep having to remind myself of May's statement as so many people now act as if it never happened, including almost all Tories.

No votes for Long Haired Lover From Liverpool then?

For the last few years, people have been trying to catch out politicians (mostly Labour politicians) by asking whether a woman can have a penis. Despite their triumphalism over the Supreme Court verdict, the answer to that question is now Yes. A post-surgery trans man has a penis yet, according to the ruling, is still a woman. As far back as the 1970s, trans women were accepted for who they were. Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos was one of the pioneers of electronic music in that decade and her gender reassignment was just accepted. She was probably more accepted for who she was than gay men were at the time. This verdict is a massive step backwards.

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

This week's musings on chart matters can be found from the Blogs section or from the Forums main page.

Alex Warren remains well clear of the opposition at the top of the singles chart. Ordinary’s fifth week at the summit makes it the longest-running number one single of the year so far. The last five-week number one was Gracie Abrams’ That’s So True in November and December of last year. This means that this year’s Easter number one matches the song that was replaced by last year’s Christmas number one. Ordinary heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two. Ed Sheeran’s Azizam is at number three for a second week with Doechii’s Anxiety at number four. Therefore, we still have an X, three Ys and two Zs in the titles of the top four singles. There is just one E and no Ss. Tate McRae drives her Sports Car up to number five. Many charting singles from films aimed at children have been of a particularly low quality. Think of Let It Go for example. Some of them do at least have the virtue of being short. Such is the case with Jack Black’s Steve’s Lava Chicken from the Minecraft film. Yes, it’s diabolically bad, but at least it is only 34 seconds long. It is a new entry at number 21 and so becomes the shortest song ever to enter the UK singles chart. Listening to Lana Del Rey’s new single Henry, Come On is a much more pleasant experience than listening to that chicken thing. Del Rey first entered the chart with the sublime Video Games in 2011. Her chart performance since then has been a little patchy. Henry, Come On is her 38th top 100 hit, but only the 13th to make the top forty, a strike rate of only one in three. As a new entry at number 30, it is only her second top forty single as the lead artist since 2017. She has, however, had no fewer than three number 87 hits in that time which is three more than Ed Sheeran has had in his entire career. Ghanaian singer-songwriter Moliy made her UK chart debut in November 2021 as the featured artist on Amaarae’s Sad Girlz Luv Money. Perhaps as punishment for crimes against spelling (not that Slade ever suffered), she has had to wait almost three-and-a-half years to get another hit. Her drought ends this week as Shake It To The Max (Fly), which features someone called Silent Addy who we haven’t heard from before, enters at number 35. The battle for supremacy in the albums chart was between Welsh band Those Damn Crows and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet. Those Damn Crows were ahead in the midweek up[dates but their lead on Wednesday was a fairly slender one. In the event, they did hold on and God Shaped Hole, their fourth album, becomes their first number one. It completes a run of higher peaks for each album after starting with an album that didn’t make the charts at all. Sabrina Carpenter, therefore continues her residency at number two. Last Friday (11 April) was the latest Record Store Day which meant another long list of special releases, available only in independent record shops. Some of the releases are limited to so few copies that they have no chance of entering the chart while others are simply a new edition of an album that is already widely available. One such this time round is Oasis’s Time Flies compilation, originally released in 2010. The album was at number seventeen last week. This week, thanks to the new edition, it climbs to number three. One of the brand new releases for Record Store Day was a six-track EP from Sam Fender, Me And The Dog. Two of the tracks are new releases and there is also a live version of the title track from his latest album People Watching. It is at number fourteen. Two other Record Store Day releases also enter the top forty. Liam Gallagher has an Acoustic Sessions collection at number 33 and CVharli XCX is at number 37 with Number 1 Angel. Record Store Day has also had an impact on the singles chart. A vinyl edition of Taylor Swift’s Fortnight was also among the items on sale and the song returns to the chart at number 29 just under a year since its one week at number one. It is now nearly twenty years since Justin Vernon formed his band Bon Iver. In that time they have generally enjoyed more success with the critics than with the wider public. Their latest album, Sable Fable, is at number four. Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour collection is at number five.

Another hard right government resurrects Thatcher's Section 28.

I've seen both 147s now. The first one was particularly good. It must be quite dispiriting to make such an excellent break in front of just a handful off spectators.

£147k when Thorburn did it is now worth around £500k. That's an indication of how a 147 isn't particularly special now. That's not to take away anything from Page's achievement of doing it twice in one match.

Back in the day before Cliff Thorburn got the first televised 147, £147k was the standard prize on offer for a maximum.

He still believes in them, but still doesn't understand how they work. The world's economy is at the mercy of an imbecile.

i assume we are also getting Dreaming for Clem Burke.

I've added one to my Best list.

Best The Weeknd - Blinding Lights Harry Styles - As It Was The Weeknd and Ariana Grande - Save Your Tears (Remix) Worst Cardi B - WAP (feat. Megan Thee Stallion) Drake - Toosie Slide Drake - Way 2 Sexy (feat. Future and Young Thug)

Most of Ferguson's players had a lot of natural ability. The reason why the best players rarely make the best managers is that they struggle to understand why players with less natural ability find some things so difficult. I've found something similar working in education. It took me a while to understand how students (adults as well as children) struggled with mathematical concepts that I had always found easy.

Almost every poll rating the party leaders in recent months has shown Ed Davey on top. Has that been reported? Most polls now show the Lib Dems polling higher than they have done since before the 2019 election. How many "news" providers have reported that?

All that, and a the return of timey-wimey.