17April
It is spring 1997, a specific moment in history, a moment when female celebrities who have tattoos and bolts through the tongue, who wear high heels and show off their knickers, hold a specific meaning for us. - William Leith
The chicken used by the Conservative party to illustrate Tony Blair's alleged cowardice in refusing a television debate was involved in a scuffle when it attempted to confront the Labour leader. Tony Blair told a meeting of businessmen that there should be no dogmatic belief in either the private or the public sector, beginning speculation into what the Labour government might privatise; a letter leaked on Thursday suggested air traffic control. The Conservatives suggested that council tax bills would go up, up, and up some more; Labour accused prime minister Major of lying about tax, after inflicting 22 rises on the UK. Mo Mowlam had treatment for a non-cancerous brain tumour. Labour wheeled out its campaign song, Things can only get better
, the best advertisement for the Blues all year.
The Battle of Knutsford Common
Appearing alongside Coronation Street actor William Roache, Christine Hamilton said, "It's just a complete nonsense for Bell to flip in here with a few hours notice and say, 'You know, Hamilton should go and I am going to stand.' He has actually done more to stiffen the resolve of our association. Its just a serious underestimation of the situation if he thinks that people are going to think, 'Oh my Goodness, Martin Bell, we'd better dump Hamilton.' He could not be more wrong." The Battle of Knutsford Common took place on Tuesday; here's the BBC's record of the event.
Martin BELL walks past press towards Knutsford Common; BELL walks across the Common towards HAMILTON; BELL talks to Neil & Christine HAMILTON as press look on; BELL talks to HAMILTON - "I really want this to be a clean battle so at the end of the day we can shake hands & I can either congratulate you or commiserate"; HAMILTON talks to BELL - "I've come along today to ask you one question, because you are presenting yourself at the Tatton constituency which I've represented for 14yrs to stand as an anti-corruption candidate which draws me to believe that you think I am guilty of corruption, I would really like you to tell me what allegations of corruption you think I'm guilty of". Martin BELL answers question - "I want you to run on your record, I want a clean election but trust is important; at the end of the day if the electors of Tatton feel they can trust you, then they should elect you"; Neil HAMILTON talks to BELL - "you must admit the title you've chosen as anti-corruption & the selection of this constituency must be a reflection on me"; BELL answers question - "I am standing as an independent candidate; if I am expecting people to vote for me they have to know where I stand on political issues; I will do that only after nomination"; HAMILTON standing on Common surrounded by press; Christine HAMILTON talks to BELL - "do you accept that a man is innocent unless proved guilty? you accept that my husband is innocent?" BELL answers - "I don't know, let's just see what happens; a lot of people have asked me to stand here"; Neil & Christine HAMILTON walk arm in arm away from the press; BELL on walkabout with friend Col. Bob STEWART.In other news
The official solicitor sold rights to make a television drama about mass murderer Fred West; the outcry was as predictable as the story was short-lived. The devices planted under the M6 turned out to contain about 1kg of Semtex. President Mobutu declared an emergency in Zaire, where more than a third of the country was in rebel hands; the country's prime minister was arrested on Wednesday. Scientists claimed that deer suffered stress when hunted, and the National Trust swiftly banned hunting on its land. The Turin Shroud was saved from a large fire.
Lord Gyllene won the delayed Grand National. Mr. Liam Gallagher, a hairy oik from Manchester, married his girlfriend Miss Pastry Kensit at a registry office in London. The couple would divorce in minutes. Scotland qualified for the 1999 world cup cricket finals, beating Ireland for the last place. Tiger Woods won the Masters golf event, his first major trophy. In the F.A. Cup semi-finals, Chelsea beat Wimbledon 3:0, Chesterfield and Middlesbrough drew 3:3.
What, there's a singles chart?
| Number One | I believe I can fly, R Kelly, 2nd week |
|---|---|
| Highest new entry | Song 2, Blur, number 2 |
| Fastest climber (within top 40) | Bellissima- DJ Quicksilver, up 3 to 4 |
| Fastest climber (within top 75) | as above |
| Lemming-like fall (within top 40) | We have explosive- Future Sound of London, down 24 to 36 |
| Lemming-like fall (within top 75) | Hondy- Hondy, down 27 to 53 |
| Top 40 debuts | Shola Ama, Erykah Badu, The Course, Natural Born Grooves |
| Top 40 ends | 3T, Fugees, Funky Green Dogs, Natural Born Grooves, Up Yer Ronson |
| Top 75 debuts | Shola Ama, Erykah Badu, The Course, HHC |
| Top 75 ends | Enigma, HHC, Hondy, Puff Johnson, Queen Latifah, Yvette Michelle, Sara Parker, Ultracynic, Geoffrey Williams |
Five new entries in the bottom end of the chart. Geoffrey Williams sang about his Sex life
at 71; like his career, it was over in three minutes. Enigma had had top three hits in 1991 and 1994, but their 1997 single TNT for the brain
stalled at 60. The group's hippy ambient dub schlock continues to sell, but only on albums. Just missing the upper end was Ultracynic's Nothing is forever
(47), going three places better than the original release in late summer 1992. Crystal Waters's Say... if you feel alright
(45) came six years after her big hit, and became her only single to miss the top 40. HHC's We're not alone
(44) was a one-week wonder.
Thirteen new entries into the top forty, so Blueboy's second week at 38 with Remember me
was a decent feat, particularly for a record in its 12th week on release. The Spice Girls gained advantage from Two become one
featuring on the previous week's Top of the Pops. Re-showing a clip from the 1996 christmas edition ensured the song slipped just 7 to 34. Last week on the top 40 for two acts who seemed to have great futures ahead of them, but vanished after careers lasting barely 15 months. The Fugees did achieve fame, but as solo performers; for 3T, the end was the end.
Up Yer Ronson came in at 32 with I will be released
; this was prophetic, but the song would have been more memorable had it been entitled I will be remembered ten years down the line
. MC Lyte's Keep on keeping on
came in at 27. New at 22 was Bryan Adams performing Eighteen till I die
. After the phenomenal success of That Bloody Song in 1991, Bryan found reasonably reliable success, though he's never strung together more than a short run of top ten hits. One place higher was Groovebird
from Natural Born Grooves, about whom we remember little.
Bruce Springsteen came in at 17 with Secret garden
; the song had originally come out a couple of years earlier, but made it no higher than number 44. For no reason other than it's a bit of a warm-and-fuzzy track, the song was re-promoted and almost became the hit it deserved to be. Erykah Badu was a short-lived hype; her mediocre song On and on
came in at 12, left the chart almost at once, and she's never bothered us since. We win!
The Top Ten
Let us look for last week's top ten. No huge falls along the lines of the Pet Shop Boys a couple of weeks ago, but plenty of downward movement. Makaveli, 10 to 25. Chemical Brothers, 8 to 20, narrowly missing becoming the second number one single (after Blur's Beetlebum
) to spend just two weeks in the top twenty. Depeche Mode, 5 to 16. Spices, 6 to 15. Sash!, 9 to 14. Smoke City, 4 to 13. Supergrass, 2 to 11. Seven new entries - the majority of this week's new songs - came into the top ten. This had never happened before, and was symptomatic of the front-loading mania in the singles market at this time.
First of our seven (count 'em!) new entries into the top ten is from Texas. Halo
was the second single from their White on Blonde
album, and one of the more lush and well-produced tracks from the album. We can't say the same about Suede's Lazy
, in at 9, which was a rather plodding single. Kavana was a boy band made up of precisely one member, and MFEO
(Made for each other, if we remember correctly) was his second and final top ten hit, in at 8. His greatest claim to fame is probably his place in Mark Radcliffe's contract for the Radio 1 breakfast show - Mr. Radcliffe would not play Mr. Kavanagh's records. We doubt if Mr. Radcliffe would play anything by Mr. Kavanagh if he were to win ITV's Grebo
contest.
Something a bit more decent came in at 7, Shola Ama's cover of You might need somebody
. If there's one song that perfectly encapsulates the warm and sunny spring of 1997, this is the tune. Ama's warm vocals brought an additional something to the Randy Crawford song, and it sold bucketloads. It'll be a fixture in these lists for some weeks to come. Ama is something of a one-year wonder, her 1999 follow-up didn't do much in the UK, though turned her into a large star in France. Does that make her the soul equivalent of Tina Arena? Perhaps. We should also note that the Young Mel B in the video clip to Mama
, down at 15, was played by Sadie Ama, Shola's sister, and subsequently a singer in her own right.
Don't speak
dipped from 3 to 6, the first time in two months that it's been out of the top three. New at 5 came the Course, with their version of Ready or not
. The Fugees song had been a UK number one barely seven months earlier, and we reckoned it was a bit soon to release a cover. The GBP disagreed.
Fastest climber at 4 for DJ Quicksilver's feelgood tune. Orbital came in at 3 with The saint
, lifted from the motion picture of a similar name. We forget which was the larger flop. In at 2, missing the top spot by just a few hundred sales, came Blur's Song 2
. You know, the one that goes Whoo-hoo all the way through. We never quite saw the attraction of this song, it's one of the weakest tunes on the album.
Still at number one, though, it's R Kelly, topping the lists for a second week by a wafer-thin majority - a few hundred sales in 70,000. A thousand fewer sales last week would have resulted in Supergrass plummetting from 1 to 11, just one place short of the all-time fastest fall from the top. Have Blur dodged a bullet by only making number 2? Find out next week.
