Suedehead2

My recorded comments on that song stated that it sounded rather like Blancmange. I already loved the Hurts version (with added Kylie), so I was bound to like a version that sounded like Blancmange.

Thanks for hosting Severin, and congratulations to Bre. After the deadline, I was reminded of a fantastic cover that would have been less obviously my entry, but it was too late to change. That said, The Paraochestra and Brett Anderson's version of one of Echo and the Bunnymen's greatest songs is fabulous and I make no excuse for introducing it to a wider audience.

Can I cast negative votes for the three Drake songs instead?

Week 24 Best fun. - We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe) Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) Pharrell Williams - Happy The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face Worst Flo Rida - Whistle John Legend - All Of Me Pitbull - Timber (feat. Kesha) Week 25 Best Billie Eilish - bad guy Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! The Weeknd - Starboy (feat. Daft Punk) Worst Drake - God's Plan Drake - One Dance (feat. Wizkid and Kyla) Cardi B - Bodak Yellow

Someone set a challenge last week for me to find a third picture of him with a similar pose, so that's what I did.

Everton 0-2 Arsenal Crystal Palace 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Ipswich Town 0-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers West Ham United 1-2 AFC Bournemouth Aston Villa 1-2 Nottingham Forest Brentford 0-2 Chelsea Fulham 1-4 Liverpool Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Southampton Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City Leicester City 0-2 Newcastle United

This week's musings on the charts can be found from the Blogs section or the side of the Forums section.

Alex Warren gets a third week at number one with his Ordinary single. If he loses the top spot next week, Ordinary will be the first single this year to spend an odd number of weeks at the summit. Warren’s Carry You Home climbs one place to a new peak of number nine. Alex Warren heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two. Doechii’s Anxiety, which sounds even better each time I hear it, is still at number three. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things holds on at number four. The song has spent 25 weeks in the top ten since it first entered the upper tier in February of last year. Ariana Grande released a new version of her Eternal Sunshine album last week. Predictably enough, three of the new songs enter the top forty this week. Twilight Zone is at number five. It is the fourth song of that name to reach the top forty. The song generally known as Just A Song At Twilight is actually called Love’s Old Sweet Song. Moreover, as it was written in 1884, it has never been a hit. Dandelion is at number nineteen. The only other song with Dandelion in the title to be a top forty hit was by the Rolling Stones in 1967 as part of a double a-side with We Love You. Intro is at number 26. Sadly, The Intro And The Outro by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band has never been a hit. Grande has now had 42 top forty hits. His Apple Music profile (otherwise known as promotional puff from his record company) states that Sombr’s song Caroline was a viral hit. However, it wasn’t an actual hit. Undressed, on the other hand, has now become a hit. It is a new entry at number 37. In even better news for him. Another song, Back To Friends, enters two places higher. He will reach the grand old age of 20 in July. For some of us, the appeal of Central Cee’s “music” is one of life’s great mysteries on a par with “Why do people run marathons?” and “How can someone not like chocolate?”. Nevertheless, he has managed to recruit a string of fellow performers to record with him. This week their number has been boosted to include Manchester rapper Nemzzz. His moniker’s last three letters are highly appropriate. Their collaboration Dilemma is at number 39. The title does not describe my thoughts about the prospect of hearing it again. One of the biggest victims of the dominance of American playlists of Christmas songs are surely The Darkness. Their gloriously over the top Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) hasn’t even reached the top 100 since 2020. They do, however, still clearly have their fans. While two of their last four albums missed out on a top ten place, their eighth studio album Dreams On Toast enters at numb two. Its sales would have been enough to give them a second number one album (after their 2003 debut Permission To Land) in some weeks this year. Mumford and Sons, whose name still sounds like one you would expect to see on the side of a removal van, are one of those bands whose biggest album didn’t get to number one. Sigh No More was released in October 2009. It entered the chart at number eleven and spent just one more week in the top forty. However, after singled from the album enjoyed chart success, the album returned to the top forty the following January. It hit a new peak every few months before reaching number two in February 2011. Its eventual success also meant that the following two albums both topped the chart. Mumford and Sons’ fourth album Delta didn’t quite match that, reaching number two behind Michael Buble. This week, after a six-and-a-half year absence, they return with Rushmere and get a third number one album. As mentioned above, Ariana Grande has released a deluxe edition of her Eternal Sunshine album. On a day when the sun has indeed shone all day (in Brighton at least), it enters at number three. The original release spent two weeks at number one last spring. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet takes a break from its customary number two position to spend a week at number four. American singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus released albums in 2016, 2018 and 2021. Two of them failed to chart in the UK at all while the third stumbled to number 85. Just a month before her thirtieth birthday, album number four Forever Is A Feeling has given her a first big hit in the UK. It is a new entry at number five. Two rap releases complete this week’s new entries. Nemzzz is at number six with his mixtape Rent’s Due. Lil Durk gets his seventh top forty album in nine releases as Deep Thoughts lands at number twenty. Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) continues to climb. After finally entering the top forty last week, it is up to number ten this week. Ever since physical sales of albums were almost entirely concentrated in the first week or two of release, it has become common for the number one album to drop straight out of the top forty the following week. That has happened again this week with The Lottery Winners nowhere to be seen. However, thanks to the way an album’s streams are calculated, other albums have become almost a permanent fixture in the top forty. Many of them are compilations of some sort, in particular those whose streams are spread across several different tracks rather than one or two. This means that there are now a substantial number of albums in the chart which have topped the chart at some point, including some whose time at the top was many years ago. This week’s top forty contains 24 which have spent time at the summit in their (sometimes very long) chart history. Finally, many thanks to popchartfreak for providing last week’s commentary while I was heading along the south coast to Bexhill.

Those of us who are even older remember the Independent - Buy your Chesterfield in Thame Party candidate in the 1984 Chesterfield byelection. That byelection was used, successfully, by Labour to get Tony Benn back in parliament after he lost his Bristol seat in the 1983 general election. The Independent - Buy your Chesterfield in Thame Party candidate got 24 votes. Six candidates did less well.

Liberation day for US consumers from current prices. Welcome to higher prices.

Tuesday 1st April Arsenal 3-1 Fulham (19:45) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 West Ham United (19:45) Nottingham Forest 1-1 Manchester United (20:00) Wednesday 2nd April AFC Bournemouth 3-0 Ipswich Town (19:45) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Aston Villa (19:45) Manchester City 2-0 Leicester City (19:45) Newcastle United 3-1 Brentford (19:45) Southampton 1-1 Crystal Palace (19:45) Liverpool 3-1 Everton (20:00) Thursday 3rd April Chelsea 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (20:00)

Republican presidents typically cut taxes for the wealthiest, increase defence spending and make minor cuts to spending elsewhere. How does that make sense?

Anyone who thinks Trump's tariffs strategy is good clearly shares his total misunderstanding of how tariffs and sales taxes work. His Orangeness is a total imbecile.

Here in the UK, a man elected as a Labour MP has resigned his seat after being convicted of assault. Was that prosecution politically motivated?

Anyone but Palace or Man Cheaty

We have been using Yondr pouches since September. I wasn't convinced that they would work, but they have made a huge difference. A lot of the youngest students quite like it, as they have been used to not having phones in primary school, and most of the older ones accept it even if they don't like it. We also have a similar approach to rudeness etc. Most students are well-behaved, but there are always some for whom manners are an alien concept.

I now expect Bournemouth to neat Man C tomorrow. If Brighton had won today, I would have expected them to draw Man C in the semi and lose. Wins for both Bournemouth and Brighton, leaving each of them with a great chance to win the Cup, just wasn't going to happen.

The job of Leader of the Opposition is hard work at the best of times. It's even harder at the moment, so I can't see Johnson being interested. If they do try that nearer the election, let's hope he fails to win a byelection.

Voted.

It was obvious for at least a year before the election that the Tories were deliberately leaving an almighty mess for Labour to clear up. Unfunded cuts to NI and a string of unfunded spending commitments mean that Rachel Reeves has probably the worst inheritance of any Chancellor in my political lifetime.

Jim Ratcliffe is one of the richest Britons. He is also the owner of 29% of Man Utd. Despite being British, he now claims to live in Monaco which means he doesn't pay UK tax. He is estimated to have saved billions in tax since "moving" to Monaco. He is now asking the government to use the tax that he doesn't pay to help fund the building of a new stadium for Man U and the redevelopment of the surrounding area. He could pay the full cost of the new stadium and still be a billionaire several times over.

Marshmello and Bastille - Happier

I hope they end their set with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Growth has been pitiful since the 2008 financial crash. That's why Labour are making it such a high priority. Most incoming governments inherit a struggling economy. That's why their predecessors lost. However, this government inherited a worse mess than most.

I remain convinced that, based on the evidence they heard, the jury were right to convict Letby. Any reservations I have about the verdict are based on whether her defence team did their job adequately. For example, the defence didn't call any expert witnesses to counter those called by the prosecution. It wouldn't be a surprise of the jury concluded that there were no experts with a different point of view.