30July

This summer's floods were in central Europe: over 100 were killed as the Oder and Danube burst their banks. Ian Paisley refused to talk with Sinn Féin. The CBI called for the UK not to join the European Single Currency in 1999. A plane crashed at the Ostend air show, killing nine.

The government planned to make the National Lottery "more popular and relevant to people's lives." In the years since, sales have fallen from £86 million a week to £52 million, and the majority of the money has been squandered on two local projects in east London. Labour invited the Lib Dems to sit on cabinet committees, and published its plans for devolution in Scotland and Wales. William Hague announced plans to reform the management of his party, including allowing members to vote on the leader. Well, most of the time.

Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France; along with his predecessor Bjarne Riis, and successors Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong, and Floyd Landis, Herr Ullrich has been suspected of using artificial stimulants, though nothing has been proven. The first floodlit cricket match in England took place, a friendly between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Graham Gooch retired from cricket. The death was announced of political journalist Vincent Hanna, of actor Brian Glover, and of golfer Ben Hogan.

This was another chart we missed at the time, joining just before the top 20. 22 new entries into the top 75, but nothing lower than Death In Vegas, who put Dirt in at 61. Other low entries we missed: Tokyo stealth fighter, Dave Angel, 58; Rootjoose, Mr Fixit, 54; Pussycat, Mulu, 50; So little time, Arkana, 46; Sun, John Lydon, 42. Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal had had a couple of hits in the 1980s, and came back with a cover of Baby come to me at 56. Prefab Sprout released their second single in ten millennia, Electric guitars landed at 53.

Another occasional hitsmaker was Go West, their handful of top 20 hits were spread between 1985 and 1993. Lead singer Peter Cox tried a solo career, but Ain't gonna cry again stalled at 37, and he didn't try again. Probably because one of his B-sides, Move on up, was being used by a shockingly poor Channel 5 quiz. Edwyn Collins had had one of the massive hits of summer 1995 with A girl like you, but the direct follow-up Keep on burning stalled just outside the top 40 in March 1996. A new album, a new lead-off single, and The magic piper (of love) could only make 32. Deserved better, and he won't be back in the top 40.

Omar and ODB's Say nothing entered at 29, one place behind Shena's version of Let the beat hit 'em. Norman Cook was in his silly mood, calling himself Da Mighty Dub Katz and putting Magic carpet ride in to position 24. We remember nothing about Bobby D'Ambrosio and Michelle Weeks's song Moment of my life, other than it entered at 23. Reef's moment in the sun had clearly gone – the fanbase from two top ten hits in late 1996 ensured Yer old got a hearing, helped by putting a live version of Place your hands on one of the CDs, but only to number 21. They'll come back with a couple of top twenty tunes in 1999, but their glory days were behind them. Much-hyped at the time, but now completely forgotten, boyband Universal came in at 19 with Rock me good, their first and larger hit. Morrissey entered at 16, performing Alma matters, his first single since 1995, and his first top 20 hit since 1994. We're still waiting to hear your version of Die Gerd Show, Mozza mate.

Some substantial falls this week – both Gary and Robbie fall 19 places to 30 and 27 respectively. Changing Faces drop 15 to 25, the Seahorses come down from 7 to 20, Kiddyfiddler Jackson's down from 9 to 18, and Sash! goes from 6 to 11. But there's little move for some long-runners – Eternal and Todd Terry hold at 17 and 15, R. Kelly and Shaggy drop just one place, and the Verve actually go back up two. Blast.

Five new entries into the top ten, beginning with Last night on Earth. It's the third single released from U2's Pop album, and the third top ten hit. New at number 9 came California dreaming, in the original version from the Mamas and the Papas. The classic tune had been the group's first UK release, back in April 1966, and staggered to number 23, rather overtaken by the next release, Monday Monday. That went top three, as did Dedicated to the one I love, but Dreaming remained one of those classics that never reached the top 20. Until now; a re-release, inspired by a television commercial, gave the tune the high placing it deserved all along, eclipsing the number 13 mark achieved by the River City People's version in 1990. Quite why two of the warmest summers of the century should be marked by a winter song is neither here nor there...

Ultra Nate came down three to 8, and Coolio was down three at 7. New at 6 came Meredith Brooks, performing Bitch, and we'll look at her again in the near future. The former number one from Oasis dropped from 2 to 5, and Gala was down one to 4. New at 3 came the Backstreet Boys with Everybody (backstreet's back). Though the group had been having hits in Europe for a couple of years, and opened the year with the number 2 hit Quit playing games, success in their native continent was slower to arrive. A careful strategy of consolidating two European albums into one American release helped, and the transatlantic schedule evened out with the near-simultaneous release of Everybody. The group was going global, and would remain so until they split in 2001.

Boyzone had the highest new entry at 2, with Picture of you. This was the last original song the group would record – from here on, everything would be a cover. They never did badly, only one of their 16 single releases missed the top three, but too many covers spoiled the broth for this group. All of which left Puff Daddy on top for the fifth week out of six. The song's a bit grating, but it's less tedious than Oasis or the Verve, so let's be thankful for small mercies.

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