Severin

63rd Soft and Wet 1 point - Chartjack 2 Artist – Prince Released – 1978 Album – For You UK Chart Peak – DNC Aq7ddhSGOSE Kicking off those that received votes is this effort which garnered a solitary point from Chartjack 2. Soft and Wet was Prince’s debut single, recorded in 1977 and released on his 20th birthday – June 7 1978. The lyrics were written by Chris Moon, the producer who discovered Prince back in Minneapolis. It was not released as a single in the UK.

10 Max Verstappen 02 Sergio Perez 05 Lewis Hamilton 07 George Russell 08 Charles Leclerc 08 Carlos Sainz Jr 07 Lando Norris 07 Oscar Piastri 09 Fernando Alonso 03 Lance Stroll 09 Pierre Gasly 06 Esteban Ocon 02 Logan Sargeant 06 Alexander Albon 05 Daniel Ricciardo 07 Yuki Tsunoda 06 Zhou Guanyu 06 Valtteri Bottas 07 Nico Hulkenberg 06 Kevin Magnussen 07 Oliver Bearman 06 Liam Lawson 06 Franco Colapinto 05 Jack Doohan

The Pogues Wizzard The Waitresses John & Yoko Pretenders Band Aid Darlene Love Ronettes Slade Darkness Would definitely have added Greg Lake, The Greedies and Cristina personally

I was pleasantly surprised too. One of the inspirations for this was a conversation a few friends and I had about what was his best song and there was no general consensus in the room. Perhaps the reverse is that even when not at his best, there enough talent and breadth of styles that different people will pick up on different songs. And yeah, Eye Hate U probably deserved more than some others yet to come.

+5 Band Aid – Do They Know It's Christmas? +4 Band Aid 20 – Do They Know It's Christmas? +2 Band Aid 40 – Do They Know It's Christmas? [2024 Ultimate Mix] +3 Band Aid 30 – Do They Know It's Christmas? +1 Band Aid II – Do They Know It's Christmas? 1994 version - Assuming we're sticking to UK/Ireland artsits as per the others, due to success or status in the preceeding two years, I'd have invited - Bono, George Michael, Elton John, Marti Pellow, Tony Mortimer, Gary Barlow, Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Gabrielle, Siobahn Fahey (gotta get that 'nana in there), Andy Bell, David Bowie, Paul Weller, Neil Tennant, Kate Bush, Dolores O'Riordan, Jay Kay, Paul Heaton, Jacqui Abbott, Peter Cunnah. The following get solo lines - Bowie, Michael, Bono (THAT line of course), Barlow, O'Riodan, Bush. Harmonies for these - Pellow, Gabrielle, Bell, Weller, Gallagher, Albarn. Chorus for the rest. McCartney on bass, Knopfler on guitar, Midge can do synths, Elton John on piano and Phil Collins on drums. Don't think a current one would work so easily.

I'm a big fan of the following - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary [scene] It's Grim Up North (Part 1) [Doctor Blind] Led Zeppelin - Ramble On [scone 1] Madonna - Frozen [Roba.] Metallica - One [Y'all Starlight] Muse - Feeling Good [awardinary] Nightwish - Amaranth [iz] Pulp - Common People [Jester] Radiohead - Creep [Mangø] Taylor Swift - All Too Well [conorw] The Cure - In Between Days [jimwatts] The Killers - Mr Brightside [ChrisJK]

=64th Breakfast Can Wait 0 pts Artist – Prince Released – 2013 Album – Art Official Age UK Chart Peak – DNC CzWX1gv6u2s Originally released as a download single on Prince’s website, the track was effectively the lead single from his 34th studio album, Art Official Age. The single received some minor attention in the UK but did not make the UK chart at any point. The single’s artwork featured comedian Dave Chappelle taken from a TV sketch show, dressed as Prince and holding a plate of pancakes. This concludes the list of non point scorers.

=64th Fury 0 pts Artist – Prince Released – 2006 Album – 3121 UK Chart Peak - #60 0_l4vY5Sh9c The 3rd and final single from the album 3121 would be prince’s last UK top 75 single, (excluding posthumous hits) and was a typical Funk/R&B style track reminiscent of some of his mid ‘80s work. The song was performed as part of prince’s set at the 2006 BRIT awards where his band featured former Revolution members Wendy & Lisa as well as percussionist Sheila E.

=64th Supercute 0 pts Artist – Prince Released – 2001 Album – The Chocolate Invasion UK Chart Peak - DNC -xOTnkhhsNQ Released as a standalone single during his 2001 HitNRun US tour, Supercute would eventually be added to the tracklist for his 2004 album The Chocolate Invasion. The song was originally recorded for the aborted yet fully complete album, High.

=64th The Work Pt. 1 0 pts Artist – Prince Released – 2001 Album – The Rainbow Children UK Chart Peak – DNC HKhu_rebRGE The first single from the album, The Rainbow Children was Prince’s homage to James Brown and may include references concerning his then recent conversion to becoming a Jehovah’s Witness. The song was released via file-sharing website Napster whilst the site was embroiled in several legal fights. Prince saw the site’s fight as being similar to the one that he experienced with Warner Brothers a few years prior. There has never been an official Part 2.

=64th The Greatest Romance Ever Sold 0 Pts Artist – Love Symbol Released – 1999 Album – Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic UK Chart Peak - #40 _44h6fL9sgU Prince’s final UK Top 40 hit was the first and only single from the album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and was the only one released on the Arista label. The album had a more Pop and R&B flavour than previous efforts and received mixed reviews, although the single often received praise and was compared to some of his work on Diamonds & Pearls.

=64th The Truth 0 Pts Artist – Prince Released – 1999 Album – The Truth UK Chart Peak – DNC KcOEd72IxeM Released on prince’s own NPG imprint, this song was written sometime in the ‘90s and recorded in 1996. Released to minimal promotion, it was the first single following the Emancipation era and highlighted a more Folk and acoustic style rarely seen from Prince. Reminiscent of Tracy Chapman’s work, the song and accompanying album was praised for exploring fresh territory for him as an artist It was performed live only once in his entire career.

Without further ado, once the wild cards were added there were a total of 70 songs to be voted for, which was a pleasantly appealing round number. The songs ranged from 1978 to 2014 and so encompassed the entirety of his career. Posthumous songs were neither included nor nominated as wild cards, keeping things nice and neat and tidy. Whilst we will get to the winner eventually, the following songs received no votes but did receive the dignity of a small description each amd are listed in purely chronological order - =64th Eye Hate U 0 Points Artist – Love Symbol Released - 1995 Album – The Gold Experience UK Chart Peak - #20 3iQ1iC56i8g Once described as The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’s ‘evil twin’, the song is reportedly about the model/actress Carmen Electra, who Prince had taken under his wing as a musical protege and entered into a relationship with at once stage. It is a break up song with the lyrics aimed at an unfaithful woman cast as the object of prince’s ire. After Prince’s death Electra claimed Prince had told her the song was about her, written after he discovered she went out with another guy. Electra states the evening was platonic, but that Prince channeled his jealousy into writing this song. Eye Hate U was Prince’s last original single to reach the Billboard Top 40 hit during his lifetime.

There were 9 voters in the end

The votes are in and counted, so thank you to every one who took the time to listen and evaluate 70 of the most well known singles from His Purpleness, it is much appreciated and wouldn't work without you. The results countdown will begin tonight but first here's a reminder of all the songs you rated - THE SONGS - Soft And Wet I Wanna Be Your Lover Why You Wanna treat Me So Bad? Dirty Mind Controversy 1999 Little Red Corvette When Doves Cry Let's Go Crazy Purple Rain I Would Die 4 U Take Me With U Raspberry Beret Paisley Park Pop Life Kiss Mountains Anotherloverholeinyohead Girls & Boys Sign o' the Times If I Was Your Girlfriend U Got the Look I Could Never take the Place of Your Man Alphabet St. Glam Slam I Wish U Heaven Batdance Partyman The Arms of Orion Thieves in the Temple New Power Generation Gett Off Cream Diamonds and Pearls Money Don't Matter 2 Nite Thunder Sexy MF My Name is Prince 7 The Morning Papers Peach The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Letitgo Get Wild I Hate U Gold Dinner With Delores Betcha By Golly Wow The Holy River The Truth Come On The Greatest Romance Ever Sold The Work Pt. 1 Supercute Musicology Cinnamon Girl Black Sweat Fury Guitar Dance4Me Rock N Roll Love Affair Breakfast Can Wait Pretzelbodylogic Fallinlove2nite Wild Card Additions - Sometimes it Snows in April (chartjack2) The Cross (jimwatts) Scandalous (Bjork) A Case of U (dandy*) Starfish and Coffee (popchartfreak) Delirious (Julian T) Let the speculation begin...

The supportive governments have allowed F1 to keep raising the fees though, as they know there's a bucket load of cash available so they've steadily upped the cost over the years, to the point that independent circuits can't compete anymore. Silverstone has had the same issue before but the found a workaround. Hosting fees may not be the direct reason but if the circuit can ony break even with a three day sell out the fees are part of the problem as they eat up so much of the income before you start

Double post

Not in my book. Given how hard he had to work to get where is whilst under the tutelege of a father who was borderline abusive to him as a child, I don't see it that way myself. Sure he believes he's the best but they all do and he spent his early career breaking nesrly every record. If that doesn't make it earned what does? Russell's early career meanwhile saw him finish behind drivers like Stroll, Giovinazzi, De Vries, Leclerc and Gunther yet got fast tracked in to Mercedes. He's clearly developed as a driver since then and is there on merit but those early years seem to have given him an attitude that Hamilton (for example) never got.

Also this exchange in the F2 press conference raised a few eyebrows after Isack Hadjar was asked about his future - Hadjar: “I mean, there’s obviously confirmed and yet to be confirmed, right? So, obviously, I literally can’t tell you what I’m doing next season, because it’s not been [made] official.” Bortoleto: “You know already?” Hadjar: “If I say I know, then maybe you guys know what’s going on, so…” Bortoleto: “Oh, so he doesn’t have pressure anymore, so none of us have the pressure of the last round anymore. Good.” Hadjar: “I don’t like these questions. Just got to wait, man.”

Well this is fun... Russell's somewhat hysterical response not only misunderstands Max's issue with him, in that it wasn't asking for a penalty that was the problem but how he went about it, and this kind of proves Max's point. Russell has a rather unpleasant sense of entitlement about him and does indeed behave like a drama queen. Frankly, I don't need Max or anyone else to tell me that since it's been obvious for years. Verstappen has subsequently denied he was as angry in his response as Russell has said. For me, Max is many things, not all of them are admirable but if one thing is clear it's that he's a straight talker. He won't apologise for his transgessions (the Dutch have a reputation for not doing that anyway) but I don't figure him for being a liar either and whilst I'd stop short of calling him a bully he does seek to intimidate others, on track anyway and has been known to lose his temper in the past. I completely believe it when it was reported Max told George he'd have the lead back by the first corner and Im sure he may have phrased it in a more colourful way but I'm less inclined to believe he genuinely threatened to drive him into the wall. Adding in that there's been suggestions by others in the sport that Russell does indeed have a different personality for the cameras compared to away from them and I'm inclined to think George is still playing the media game for his own benefit. As other driver's have suggested, notably Alonso, Verstappen does appear to be the target of media bias - George is both pushing that angle, trying to needle Max and looking to impose himself as team leader for next year, no doubt believing he'll be a title contender. It's not new - Piquet, Mansell, Senna and Prost stand out as others who've utilised the dark arts but this seems to be going a step further and leaves a bad taste in the mouth. For the record Masi did receive death threats in 2021 in Lewis lost, but George has neglected to factor that in and preferred to insinuate a more insidious kind of threat.

1991: The Year Punk Broke, as they say. Or if you prefer it was the height of the Indie Wars... and we started to feel like we were going to win. So much had been bubbling up from the UK and US underground and was just starting to gain traction against a chart dominated by crap dance music, tedious old farts who'd not been interesting for years and the arse end of the SAW era. The excitement of Madchester had imploded in to dire Baggy rip offs and self parody. Acts like Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, KLF, R.E.M., Pop Will Eat Itself, Massive Attack, 2Pac, My Bloody Valentine, Metallica, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Manics, Hole, Faith No More, Mudhoney, Pulp, Tribe Called Quest, The Orb, Nine Inch Nails, Levellers, Prodigy, Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction etc were all starting to to be mentioned in the the wider media or actually break though to a wider audience. Reading 1991 had one of the greatest one day lineups ever for those in the know and added a massice dose of Hip Hop to its roster. If the late 80s Madchester scene had gently prised open a crack in the previously locked door of success for Indie and Alternative music, in November Nirvana kicked in the whole rotten facade, launching an era of unparalleled success for Alternative US Rock, forcing Metal to look to the already emerging new styles instead of the turgid LA scene, and inadvertantly helping to kick start Britpop. The mainstream may have been as tedious as ever but the scene in 1991 felt like an ever growing wave that threaten to sweep away all the crap. For a while after 1991 things continued to surge with Britpop kicking off proper in '92, Metal finding itself a new direction, Hip Hop reaching even greater heights and dance music learning to add intellect to its beats. Industrial, Dance, Rap, Metal, Hip Hop and Indie all began to blend their different sounds together and the possibilities seemed endless but by the end of '97 both the US and UK scenes had become pale imitations of past glories. Hijacked by corporate major labels trying to tell us that the watered down dross they were feeding us was the future. The Indie Wars had been lost. Bought out by the Major labels. Leading lights like Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur, Biggie and Richey Edwards were gone along with many of the best bands and most of those still going were embarking on the slow decline. Those no longer with us were to be replaced by less interesting alternatives in a scene that was beaten in to mediocrity by the Pop steamroller of boy and girl groups and the rise of Nu Metal. A few odd new acts aside (Eminem, Slipknot, Muse) and some genuine survivors (Blur, Radiohead, Oasis) it wouldn't truly find its vibrancy and diversity again until the arrival of The Strokes and The Libertines in the early 2000s 1991 may not have had the outright best albums but it was the moment it felt like something was really, actually happening and it was an exciting time, making it my top choice. A time when the future of the scene looked so bright, so diverse and so promising. And it was for a good five or six years before the rot set back in.

Hooray. We can bin off a challenging track with history, character and a passionate crowd that regularly packs the grandstands in favour of one more street race in the US or Middle East! The worst thing is that the circuit had to make this decision, which tells you everything about hosting fees

If Red Bull lack the faith in Tsunoda, Lawson, Hadjar and Iwasa, then they'll look elsewhere. It would take a lot of peacemaking (and cash) to convince Sainz or Verstappen to agree to Carlos joining. Colapinto raised a few imoressed glances and it would be unfair to write him off on the back of a pair of difficult races. Crashing at a soaking Brazil is no shame when far more experienced drivers did the same and a cold and slippery Vegas track is also a tricky one. Yesterday wasn't his fault at all. But frankly if you're not convinced by Tsunoda then Colapinto isn't your man. That leaves three obvious candidates - Magnussen, Bottas and Zhou. All are available and two come with bags of experience and all three are likely to be willing to play second fiddle just for a chance in that car. If it's not Tsunoda (my preferred choice) I'd definitely consider Bottas myself. He won't set the world alight but he will be a solid backup and keep the seat warm while you decide. He certainly won't do worse than Checo has this year and he'd probably have done enought to challenge for or win them the Constructors.

Lando's penalty may seem harsh but it is the standard punishment for the crime - Raikonnen in 2017, and Mazipin and Latifi in 2021 all received the same 10 second stop-go penalties for failing to slow under double yellows. Unfortunately, not seeing them isn't an excuse. That there wasn't a SC or VSC is wrong but in this case not the issue

This race is a joke