Suedehead2

With Reform in seco9nd place, it could be rather harder for the Lib Dems and Greens to win over Labour support. Many potential switchers will be reluctant to risk a Farage win.

The fact that Reform has lost 25% of their parliamentary party due to accusations of bullying, and that 25% of the remainder carry a conviction for domestic violence should make things difficult for Farage's fascists even with the reason for the byelection.

Mike Amesbury has resigned as MP for Runcorn following his conviction for assault. The first byelection of this parliament will be in a seat won by Labour in July with a majority over Reform of over 14,500.

The story about police stealing the identities of dead children was broken by the Guardian years ago. The rest of the media chose to ignore it.

Cee Lo Green - Forget You Lady Gaga - Bad Romance B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams)

Best Coldplay - Viva La Vida Shakira - Hips Don't Lie (feat. Wyclef Jean) Worst Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love Soulja Boy - Crank That (Soulja Boy) Usher - Love In This Club (feat. Young Jeezy)

Founder member of The Damned Brian James has died. He wrote the band's debut single New Rose which makes it a suitable choice for the RIP slot.

Saturday 8th March Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester City (12:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Fulham Crystal Palace 1-1 Ipswich Town Liverpool 3-0 Southampton Brentford 1-2 Aston Villa (17:30) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Everton (20:00) Sunday 9th March Chelsea 3-1 Leicester City (14:00) Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 AFC Bournemouth (14:00) Manchester United 2-2 Arsenal (16:30) Monday 10th March West Ham United 2-2 Newcastle United (20:00)

Not sure how I missed this connection!

This week's commentary can be found in the Blogs section. It's a bit messy at the moment as I have clearly done something wrong, but it is still readable. With luck, someone can fix it and make sure it doesn't go wrong again next week.

Chappell Roan finally gets to the top of the singles chart. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart. Chappell Roan was one of the biggest new stars of 2024 but still ended the year without a number one single to her name. Her success has continued into the early months of 2025; as of last week’s chart, she had spent a total of 29 weeks in the top ten with Good Luck Babem Hot To Go and, to complete the trio of three-word titles, Pink Pony Club. Still, however, a chart-topping single had eluded her. That finally changes this week as Pink Pony Club, originally released five years ago to general indifference bags the number one spot. Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us falls to number two after a fortnight at the top. Tate McRae’s Sports Car falls two places to number five. Sleepy Hallow, whose name sounds like a soporific version of a Harry Potter book, has the week’s highest new entry at number fifteen with Anxiety. The song was originally released independently by Doechii in 2109, but in this version she has been relegated to the role of featured artist. Thankfully, the song is a lot better than Denial Is A River. Benson Boone gets his fourth top forty hit with Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else at number 30. Much as I like his number one beautiful Things, I also like the more restrained vocals on this one. It also has rather more of a sense of fun. Beautiful Things is at number four this week. Brit School graduate Olivia Dean made her chart debut in 2021 with her version of The Christmas Song. A little over three years later, she gets a second hit with It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be. If that refers to the song, it isn’t perfect. It comes from the soundtrack of the latest Bridget Jones film. Ravyn Lenae Washington this week joins the list of top forty singers who have used their two forenames as their professional name, dropping the surname. She makes her top forty debut this week with the perfectly pleasant Love Me Not. The singers of those two new entries will be supporting Sabrina Carpenter on tour. One purpose of the midweek chart updates is to allow any potential acts of chart rigging to be spotted early. There have been occasions in the past of songs being disqualified from the chart for breaches of the rules. It is, therefore, a little surprising to see Jimin’s Who re-enter once again at number 24. There is no obvious reason why this song has done so much better than other solo songs by members of BTS. Furthermore, it has developed a habit of getting a sudden increase in streams each time it is in danger of going on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) whereby the value of streams is halved. Again, there is no obvious reason such as the release of a new mix to explain these conveniently-timed surges. There are several re-entries in the lower reaches of the chart, but also one in the top ten. Myles Smith performed his catchy hit Nice To meet You at the Brit Awards last weekend. The song had been subject to ACR, meaning it dropped out of the top forty. However, the increase in streams this week has seen it restored to the standard ratio, It is back in the chart at number eight. Alex Warren has a re-entry at number 37 with Burning Down. The song has now spent four weeks in the top forty (starting last autumn) but has yet to climb beyond number 34. Warren’s Ordinary is faring rather better. That climbs to number three this week. Just a week after slipping out of the top forty, Teddy Swims’ Lose Control is back at number 32. Tate McRae’s It’s Ok I’m OK returns at number 35. The story of the top of the albums chart this week is a curious one. At the start of the week the battle was presented as a two-horse race between new albums. By the end of the week, neither of those albums made the top two. Instead, the top two comprises an album returning to the summit and a third new album. The album returning to the summit is Sabrina Carpenter's Short ‘n’ Sweet, helped by her exposure at last weekend’s Brit Awards. It is the fourth time the album has gone to number one. On each of the three previous occasions it lost the top spot after a week. With a new Lady Gaga album out today (Friday), we can expect the same to happen next week. Brighton band Architects surprisingly topped the chart in 2021 with their tenth studio album For Those That Wish To Exist. Only three of their previous albums had reached the top forty with none of them getting into the top ten. Album number eleven The Sky, The Earth And All Between lands this week at number two. The album topping the chart in both Monday and Wednesday’s updates (albeit by a very narrow margin) was the fourth album from The Lathums, Matter Does Not Define. Their two previous albums each topped the chart (including one that edged out Public Service Broadcasting), so they were always expected to be contenders for number one. The album is decent enough although it is not exactly vastly different from the last two. It enters at number three. In those early updates, Doves were at number two album number six Constellations For the Lonely. There seems to be a scientific trend in the names of this week’s high new entries. Doves’ comeback album The Universal Want (2020) went to number one. This one is at number five. Last week’s number one Sam Fender’s People Watching, is at number five. There are just two more new entries from totally new albums and they are both debut solo albums by people previously associated with a band. Vamps had four top forty albums between 2014 and 2020, including two number ones. The band still exists, albeit rather quietly at the moment, but Bradley Simpson has found time to record a solo album. The Panic Years is at number seven. Blackpink member Lisa makes her solo debut in the albums chart at number twenty with Alter Ego. There is, however, one more new entry. Lola Young’s debut album This Wasn’t meant For You Anyway went almost unnoticed when it was released last year. It failed to reach even the top 100. However, the success of Messy, and a Brits performance, sees it make the chart at last at number sixteen. A week after Oasis had a re-entry in the singles chart with Whatever, they have one in the albums chart with a new edition of 2000 album Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. It is at number eleven, ten places below its original peak.

That put-down showed how much better remarks like that are when said spontaneously rather than reading from a script. Starmer can seem quite wooden when delivering a scripted barb, but this demonstrated that he can also do spontaneity.

True, but she (and her advisers) have generally shown very poor judgement about what topic to pursue. Her inability to adjust her script in the light of Starmer's answers has compounded her failings. For most of today's session, she picked the right subject and performed well. She's still mostly rubbish though.

A much better performance from Badenoch at PMQs today. She used most of her questions to raise genuine concerns about Ukraine without trying to score political points.

Can you point to negative posts about Chappell Roan, Tate McRae, Sabrina Carpenter etc?

Is it now time to call the US burger eating surrender monkeys?

Four of the quarter-finalists have never won a major honour.

I'm not happy with Radio Times today. They say that the Cup is the most likely route to a European place for all four teams playing today. Man U are the only one of the four with little to no chance of qualifying by league position and even they are still in the Europa League.

And breathe. Brighton are through. I assume one QF will be Man C v Preston.

Best Outkast - Hey Ya! Worst Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl Usher - Burn Usher - Yeah! (feat. Lil Jon and Ludacris)

The fact that the end of Starmer's meeting with Zelenskyy has been shown is very telling. It is a very clear sign of Starmer distancing himself from the orange blob on this issue, notwithstanding the love-in earlier in the week.

That "discussion" is one of the most embarrassing things I can remember, and yet there are Americans claiming that Trump is acting like a strong leader. At the end Trump actually said "to be honest", not a concept he is familiar with. Trump opens his gob for two things - to stuff another burger in it, or to lie.

This week's ramblings can be found from our brand new Blogs section.

Kendrick Lamar holds on for a second week at the top of the singles chart. Sam Fender has the fastest selling album by a British solo artist for a few years. There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week with last week’s number one from Kendrick Lamar facing stiff competition from Chappell Roan. The Roan song in question, Pink Pony Club, was released five years ago. However, it made no impact on the chart until last year when it reached number thirteen. This followed the success of Hot To Go and Good Luck Babe which both reached the top five. Pink Pony Club returned to the chart at the beginning of the year, but only really took off this month (February) when her record company started to promote it as a “new” single. It climbed to number three last week and was in second place behind Kendrick Lamar in the midweek updates but only by a very small margin. Sadly, Kendrick Lamar was still at the top of the pile at the end of the week, giving Not Like Us a second week at number one. Pink Pony Club climbs to number two. Selena Gomez gets her 21st top forty hit with Call Me When You Break Up at number 28. Despite an impressive number of top forty hits, she has yet to make it really big. Indeed, in a fifteen-year career, only five of those songs have made the top ten. Call Me When You Break Up, in its very short running time, also manages to fit in Benny Blanco and Gracie Abrams. Like Selena Gomez, Tate McRae started the week with five top ten hits to her name. However, McRae has reached that total in well under five years and from ten top forty hits, including her latest I Know Love, a new entry at number 25, a song that features Kid Laroi. Curiously, two of McRae’s top ten hits have peaked at number three; the other three peaked at number eight. One of those number eight songs was Sports Car which drove into the chart in that position last week. This week, it climbs to - guess where? - number three. However, that chart oddity is spoiled for now at least by the presence of new entry Revolving Door at number ten. The phrase “”Revolving Door at number ten” is a good summary of British politics in recent years. Blackpink member Jennie enters at number 37 with the weirdly-titled ExtraL. She is joined by American rapper Doechii who made her top forty debut this year with the diabolical Denial Is A River. ExtraL is pretty rubbish too. It is Jennie’s third top forty single as lead artist but she has yet to get into the elite top 36. Her biggest hit to date is as a featured artist on The Weeknd’s One Of The Girls. Regular readers may remember that I have made a number of favourable comments about Irish band Fontaines DC. So far, those comments have all been in the albums chart section. Today, that changes as they reach the top forty singles chart for the first time with It’s Amazing To Be Young at number 39. The song does not appear on their highly successful Romance album which suggests that a deluxe version of the album is on its way. The album gets its nineteenth week in the top forty this week, re-entering at number 36. When Oasis announced in 199 that they were going to release a 6 ½-minute single, more than a few eyebrows were raised. While the band were very much on the way up, such a long single, complete with a string section, seemed to have the potential to be something of an indulgence. Thankfully, the song in question was the excellent Whatever, still one of their very best singles. It went to number three and spent four weeks in the top ten. Now, just past the song’s thirtieth anniversary, a highly expensive new vinyl version has been released. Sales of the song were enough to see it at the top of the chart in Sunday’s update. However, most streaming data from Saturday is missing from that chart, so a song with high actual sales will always over-perform. By the end of the week, Whatever was at number 36. In January Imogen Heap got her first top forty hit with a song almost twenty years old, Headlock. Now, in its seventh week in the top forty, it becomes her first top thirty hit by climbing to number 30. Aitch and Boo spent a week at number 40 a few weeks ago with Raving In The Studio. Thankfully, it dropped out the following week. This week it is back at number 22. One year ago Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things was at number two. This week it climbs to number five. There are some weeks where it is easy to predict which new release will top the chart, almost regardless of the competition. That was the case this week with the release of Sam Fender’s third album People Watching. His 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles topped the chart and spent its first nineteen weeks in the top forty. The follow-up Seventeen Going Under (2021) also topped the chart and gave him his first top hit single with the title track which eventually got to number three. People Watching, then, was released with high expectations. It easily lived up to those expectations, in sales terms at least. It accumulated over 100,000 chart units, more than the combined first-week sales of Hypersonic Missiles and Seventeen Going Under. Its sales were the highest for an album by a British artist since Harry Styles released Harry's House in 2022. Its 43,000 vinyl sales are the highest for a British act this century. Sam Fender also gets his fifth top forty single with Little Bit Closer at number 24. The title track rebounds thirteen places to number thirteen. Tate McRae gets her highest position to date in the album chart as her third album So Close To What enters at number two. Her first two albums also reached the top ten. Pitbull’s greatest Hits album has spent a total of three years in the albums chart without ever polluting the top forty. The announcement of some London shows in the summer (why?) sees the album climb to number 28. In the week that Fontaines DC finally managed a first top forty single, fellow Dubliners The Murder Capital enter the albums chart at number 31 with Blindness.