21May

Former home office junior minister Ann Widdecombe revealed that she had sent flowers to the wife of Derek Lewis, fired in November 1995 over his handling of an escape from Parkhurst prison. Miss Widdecombe says that she was ticked off by her then-boss, Michael Howaerd. While waiting for a heavily delayed piece about David Blunkett's education policy, Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman asked Mr. Howaerd between twelve and fourteen times if he had threatened to over-rule Mr. Lewis. Five days later, Mr. Howaerd provided a two-letter answer; Miss Widdecombe will make a personal statement to the Commons next week. BBC retrospective

Robin Cook, the new Foreign Secretary, said that Britain would put human rights at the heart of its foreign policy. He also made it clear that his task was to promote jobs at home, a lot of whch are in Britain's arms export industries. The crisis in Zaire ended; President Mobutu left the state, letting Laurent Kabila demand that government forces surrender. Tony Blair offered Sinn Féin talks with government officials before declaring a cease-fire. The Russian and Chechen presidents signed a peace deal to end 400 years of hostilities. It collapsed in less than 30 months. John Bruton walked into the Valley of Votes and called a new election in Dáil or No Dáil.

The new Labour government presented its legislative programme, with plans to introduce devolution, youth unemployment, health, raid the national lottery, and the first annual criminal law reform. The home office denied any link between hunger strikes by asylum seekers in Birmingham Prison and its decision to let an Algerian detainee remain in this country. The M6 in the West Mids was closed for five hours on Friday; no bombs were involved, this followed a collision between two lorries. The Albatross, a cruise ship, became stranded off the Scillies.

When something is beyond my understanding I'm scared

Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a best-of-six chess match. Barcelona beat Paris Saint Germain 1:0 to win the Cup Winner's Cup for a record fourth time. Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2:0 to win the F.A. Cup. Manchester United captain Eric Cantona surprised everyone and announced his immediate retirement. The death was announced of author Laurie Lee.

Just five new entries in the lower reaches; Audioweb at 70 and Y-Traxx at 63 we remember nothing about. Belle and Sebastian's debut Dog on wheels was in at 59. The second and final hit for White Town - Undressed - made 57, a far cry from Jyoti's big hit of just four months earlier. And new at 44 came a record we had blotted out of our memory - the Middlesbrough Football Club featuring Bob Mortimer and Chris Rea performing Let's Dance. Sorry to bring back such dismal memories, everyone.

Sixteen newcomers into the top 40, though two of them were old songs made familiar. Not so for Sandy B, whose Make the world go round had peaked at 73 exactly a year ago. Dissatisfied with this result, the song was re-released, making number 35. Still not happy, they'll re-re-release the song in February 1998, giving a number 20 hit. Even that wasn't enough - the track came back in May 2004, but only making number 51 was a hint that we'd had enough.

Beck came in at 30 with Sissyneck, the fourth release from the album. Soulster Maxwell was in at 28 with Ascension, and Monica's For you I will was a number 27 hit in the UK - far bigger in North America, natch. The Super Furry Animals were the Welsh band who did have top 40 hits, and Herman loves Pauline entered at 26. Gillian Anderson of television's Future Fantastic was the credited co-vocalist on HAL's Extremis at 23.

Duran Duran's biggest years were well behind them, the group split after recording 1984's Seven and the Ragged Tiger album, and two albums in the late 80s had only part of the original line-up and a small fraction of the creativity. They'd had a mini-renaissance in 1993, but squandered the goodwill on a very dubious covers version album containing a poor cover of Perfect Day and an even worse remake of White lines (don't do it). Out of my mind was the 1997 comeback single, stalled at number 21, and suddenly they're going to remain silent until 1999. The Durannies had yet another comeback in late 2004, but haven't produced anything of lasting merit since 1993.

The Orb followed up their well-remembered Toxygene with the not-at-all remembered Asylum, new at 20. Pausing for last week's top ten; North and South drop from 7 to 12, Gary Barlow plunges 6-19, the Eels slip 9-25, and Primal Scream barely manage to remain in the top 40, going 8-38. 911 and Blackstreet drop just one place, at 17 and 18 respectively.

More new entries, then. Ginuwine's Tell me do you want to enters at 16. Aaliyah's If your girl only knew came in at 15; along with the Monica track at 27, a chart-topper over the Atlantic that didn't get the respect it deserved here. Placebo came in at 14 with Bruise pristine, their second hit of the year. The group would have two more top five hits in 1998, and continue to rack up top 30 hits every time until 2006; fourteen in a row over almost ten years is nothing to sniff about.

Elvis Presley had originally released Always on my mind in late 1972; it made number 9. Willie Nelson's country cover peaked at 49 in summer 1982, but the definitive rendition came from the Pet Shop Boys, whose 1987 electropop rendition gave them the festive chart-topper. After being used in a television commercial, Elvis's version is re-issued, and makes number 13.

Originally a number 3 hit in 1995, the Rembrandts's I'll be there for you had scarcely been off the radio in the two years since. The reason was very simple: it was the theme to the hit television comedy Friends. With a few weeks until the third series began to air, and we found out if Chandler really was going to get back with that Janice person, the theme tune was re-issued, and entered at 11. We got it more for the B-side, That's just the way it is (baby) a song that had originally been released in 1991 to no sales.

Into the top ten, and DJ Quicksilver holds up the ten for a second week. Toni Braxton is new at 9 with I don't want to. It's the follow-up to Unbreak my heart, a smash hit from most of last winter, and is in a similar vein. R. Kelly is down three places to 8, that's 11 ahead of Gary Barlow and 28 up on Michael Jackson, the two songs that followed him at number one. Shola Ama drops three to 7, Damage comes down three to 6, and the Cardigans undo three buttons at 5. New at 4 comes No Mercy, performing Please don't go; it's the follow-up to their smash from the start of the year, Where do you go, and is very nearly the same song over again.

Fastest climber honours to Katrina and the Waves's Eurovision winner, Love shine a light has overcome its stock problems and is up ten places to 3. Highest new entry comes in at 2 for Sarah Brightman and Andrea Boccelli. Time to say good-bye (con te partiro) is part-Italian, part-soprano, part-English, part-tenor, entirely schmaltzy. We'll see in the coming weeks if this is entirely down to plugging on the telly.

Second week at number one for Olive's You're not alone, and it's worth while working out why this was one of the slowest-growing number one songs we've ever encountered. On first listen, we didn't get it. On second listen, didn't get it. By the time the end-of-year recaps came about, we were wondering, when are they playing Olive? It's the instrumental backing, surely, the mixture of bleeps, staccatto drum rolls, and gently descending keyboard lines. Much as we have grown to love Olive's song, it's not our favourite number one of the year...

| Permanent link