12June

Labour announced plans to force single mothers to work, and promised to make child-care more easily available. This was unpopular. Labour said that it would curtail debate on the Scottish and Welsh devolution bills, in order to force them through parliament before the summer. This was unconstitutional. Tony Blair apologised to the Irish people for the British government's failure to help during the potato famine of the 1850s. Culture secretary Chris Smith ordered directors of The Lottery Corp. to donate their bonuses to charity. Labour party workers were appointed to civil service posts; the government denied politicising the service.

Stephen Dorrell withdrew from the Conservative leadership campaign, and pledged his support, and that of his five or so supporters, to Kenneth Clarke. Former prime minister John Major said that it was clear Germany and France could not safely meet the convergence criteria by January 1999; EC president Jacques Santer said they could and would. Jonathan Aitken began a libel case against World in Action and Het Gruaidna. The Grobbelgaate (©WSC 1994) re-trial began in Winchester. The Bank of England raised interest rates by ¼% to 6½%.

The Canadian general election resulted in a narrow Liberal win; the Conservatives made gains in the east, while the Reform Party won enough ridings in the west to become the official opposition. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of planting the truck bomb in Oklahoma which had killed 166 people two years earlier. The Irish election campaign was dominated by allegations of political sleaze against both major parties. A school in Leicestershire began to use exercise books containing advertisements. The Halifax building society converted into a bank.

Oasis tried to clamp down on fans putting videos and songs onto the internet. Carlos scored a spectacular goal as Brazil beat France in a friendly match; the four-team Tournoi, also involving Italy, was won by England. Magdalen Oxford won the University Challenge final. The French Open tennis tournaments were won by Eva Majoli and Gustav Kuerten; both were significant upsets. Benny the Dip won the Derby. After bowling Australia out for 118 in the first innings, England won the first test by nine wickets.

Twenty-five new entries into the top 75, and a couple of re-entries - the previous hits from Damage and Backstreet Boys came back for a final week. Kaleef had just missed the top 20 the previous autumn with a needless cover of Golden brown; follow-up Trials of life anchors the top 75. We recall just about nothing of Phat 'n' Phunky (61) and Akin (60). Jewel is a familiar name in these corners, though not in these parts; Who will save your soul? was her first single, and in spite of its massive success in North America, only made 52 here. We'll have more on her later in the year.

Terry Hall deserves an article of his own, which is rather useful, because he got one last week. Suffice to say that Ballad of a landlord was taken from his second solo album, was new at 50, and remains his highest-charting solo hit single. Jesus Jones will get an article of their own next year, when 1997 Nostalgia transforms effortlessly into 1991 Nostalgia. The next big thing was a valid epithet for the group in early 1991, but not really right for June 1997; the song stalled at 49. Billy and Sarah Gaines entered at 48 performing I found someone; the very religious husband-and-wife duo were making their one and only appearance in the charts. Cable put Freeze the Atlantic in at 44, they were a one-hit wonder. Jon Secada's moment in the sun came in summer 1992 with the top-five hit Just another day. Half a dozen more releases peaked in the 30s and 40s, and his final hit Too late, too soon made it to number 43.

Beth Orton came in at 40, performing She cries your name. It's not entirely representative of her work; in the ten years since, Beth has found her voice in a heavily stripped-down acoustic mould, rather than the grand production of this number. Hit singles have remained elusive - this song had been released in 1996 and did nothing, and both Touch me with your love (60 in February) and Someone's daughter (49 in March) had failed to set the charts alight. A Mercury Music Prize nomination helped to put Beth in the spotlight, and her 1999 Central Reservation album gave two hit singles - Stolen car made 34 in March, and the title track 37 in September. Two albums since have failed to give a fourth play on the top 40 show, though 2006's Conceived was in heavy rotation and missed by just four places.

Though nominated, Beth Orton would be beaten to the Merc by Roni Size and Reprazent, whose Share the fall single was new at 37. They made hardcore jungle music, and their victory in a heavily commercial field was a surprise. Deni Hines entered at 35, performing It's alright; we had to look up this performer, it's an Australian soul singer who had received a modicum of attention when touring with Kylie Minogue in the early 90s. Hype of the year Erykah Badu could only make 30 with Next lifetime, and Code Red came in at 29 with Can we talk - the band was amongst the most unsuccessful boybands, having a couple of minor hits in 1996, and this was their most successful (or least unsuccessful) hit.

For the first time in three weeks, records fell from the top ten out of the top 20 - the Sneaker Pimps went 9-24, Toby Bourke 10-22; also out of the ten were the Cardigans (9-17), Olive (6-15), and the Rembrants (7-12). Dance gurus Chicane had their second hit of the year with Sunstroke at 21, and Allure came in at 18 performing Head over heels, not a Tears for Fears cover. The Mariah Carey protogées would have a number 12 hit at the start of 1998 with All cried out, not an Alison Moyet cover. Joe had been making sweet soul music for a few years, since his number 22 debut I'm in luv in early 94. He'd always get a hearing, and usually a place just inside the top 40. Don't wanna be a player was Joe's biggest hit, this week's number 16. We're partial to I wanna know, which only made number 37 here in April 2001.

Three from the file labelled Follow That! En Vogue's Don't let go (love)had been in the top ten for the first couple of months of 1997; Whatever made a very respectable number 14, though had no legs. Wet Wet Wet followed up the number 3 hit If I never see you again with Strange and had it land at 13, roughly average for their second singles from an album. Skunk Anansie's last single Hedonism had scarcely been off the radio in the four months since release, and follow-up Brazen weep charts at 11, becoming the band's biggest hit.

The Smashing Pumpkins had been on the fringes of success since the early 90s, but it wasn't until the 1995 release of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness that the group started to have regular hit singles. Bullet with butterfly wings led off the album at number 20, 1979 peaked at 16, and Tonight tonight gave the group two weeks in the top ten, peaking at 7. As a filler before the next album came The end is the beginning is the end, a granite-like slab of amorphous noise that would foretell the group's development. Though lead single Ava adore would make 11, the Pumpkins had lost the accessible touch, and tried the patience of their fans beyond breaking point.

Radiohead came down from 3 to 9, with German party band . President entering at 8, performing Coco jamboo. This was a remarkably bad (in a sort of addictive way) song that had been specially crafted to bury its way into ones head. We thought it would be the worst record in the top ten, but then we heard the new entry at 7, Love rollercoaster from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The fifth release from their 1995 album became the group's largest hit to date. Even though they've just put out the same album in slightly different forms on three occasions since, people still buy the Peppers' nonsense, and they've twice had number 2 singles.

Rosie Gaines continued her very slow progression down the chart, falling another one place to 6. Ultra Naté's Free was new at 5; the Italian house diva would go on to have one of the anthems of the summer, and a song that would remain on radio playlists for some months into the new year. Jon Bon Jovi secured the highest new entry at 4, Midnight at Chelsea was the lead single off his second solo album, and was a completely unremarkable record. Brightman and Bocelli climbed back up a place to 3, Eternal and BeBe Winans held at 2, and Hanson spent their second week at the top. We noted at the time that all of the top three sounded like familiar friends already; Nate and Gaines would swiftly join them.

Most unusually, this week's Network Chart Show didn't end with the number one single, nor with an announcement of England's surprise win in the cricket. Instead, the commercial stations' programme went on to play an exclusive record by the Spice Girls. Step to me was the main plank of the group's arrangement with a soft drinks maker, the same drinks company that sponsored the Network Chart Show. This single wasn't going to be available in the shops; the only way to get it would be to drink 6-and-two-thirds litres of this particular soft drink in cans, collect the pink ring-pulls, and send them off in exchange for the CD. Illegal downloading, at this early date, had yet to be invented. Home taping, however, had been invented, and Radio 1 breakfast show hosts Mark and Lard would leave nice long pauses before and after they played this song.

Though touted as an exclusive for the sponsors, the song would see official release as a bonus track in a repackaged version of Spiceworld issued in Japan. A good-quality copy of the promo CD is probably worth about £10, about the same cost as the cola consumed to obtain it in the first place. Gusworld reckons that this is a rather ephemeral track; it's a commercial, of course it's disposible. We agree that Generation next was rather good. That said, we reckon Step to me is certainly in the superior half of the Spice canon. We also reckon that this was the zenith for Spice power: by the time we received our copy of the single, in late August, the wind was going out of their sales.

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