9July

Chinese troops marched onto Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The British government offered no resistance to this illegal occupation of her territory. The UK government was accused of being slow to provide assistance to her dependency of Monserrat, where a volcano had been erupting for over a week. The Pathfinder space probe landed on Mars, and the Rover Sojourner began to roam about the planet.

British finance minister Mr. Gordon Brown delivered an out-of-schedule Budget statement, allocating additional money for schools and training, while imposing a windfall tax on privatised utilities and increasing stamp duty on house purchases. And you can read coverage of that budget on the B.B.C. website. A report into cash-for-questions criticised former M.P.s Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith. The government ruled out legislation to stop motorists using mobile telephones while driving. Six I.R.A. terrorists were convicted of trying to blow up the London electricity supply. The orange order marched through Drumcree; there was violence when they went down the Garvaghy Road, inhabited by catholic faithful. Roller-bladers were advised not to hang on to the back of buses. Peter Snow retired from Newsnight after seventeen years.

Discussions began to replace the Alexandra-road level crossing in Tipton, closed for more than half the working day. An underpass is expected to open by October 2009. The government rejected plans to expand the Merry Hill shopping centre. Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis won the Wimbledon tennis tournament; British hopes ended when Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski fell in the quarter-finals. Chris Boardman won the opening time trial in the Tour de France.

The songs we don't remember at all: Linoleum Marquis (73), Bedrock Set in stone (71), The Lost Boys Love, peace, and nappiness (57), Subcircus 86'd (56), D*Note Waiting hopefully (46), For Real Like I do (45).

There was a tremendous discrepancy between the melodic light rock popular in North America in 1997 and the more hard-edged material doing the business in the UK. How else can we explain the poor showing given to Live, whose biggest hit in the UK had been Lakini's juice in March of 1997, ahead of actually-remembered tracks such as Lightning crashes (33 in January 1996) and I alone (48 in February 1995). Their new hit from this week ten years ago was Freaks in at 60. In at 54 came Jakob Dylan and his band the Wallflowers, whose one and only UK hit One headlight could reach no higher than number 54. It deserved an awful lot better, but the group sailed completely under the radar in the UK –indeed, we picked up our copy of parent album Bringing Down the Horse for three quid in late 1999. The Flowers have recorded three albums in the years since, but have yet to trouble the top 75 singles chart.

More melodic light rock from Scots band Gun, whose chart swansong came with My sweet Jane at number 51. The group had pulled five minor hits from their rather fab 1989 debut Taking On the World, but are mainly remembered for the completely atypical cover of Cameo's Word up, a top tenner in summer 1994. Phil Collins continued with his slightly bizarre strategy of releasing one single too many from each album, as Wear my hat entered at 43. It's the third album in a row where the final single missed the top 40.

Three records did just tickle the underbelly of the top 40 –the Supernaturals with Love has passed away (38), Robin S performing It must be love (37), and Laurnea's Days of youth (36). Fourth hit in nine months for the Supernaturals, and Robin S was following up her re-release of Show me love from the early spring. Three Colours Red were also churning out the hits –Copper girl (30) was their fourth hit of the year, and it's only half-finished. Sadly, the group rather slowed down after this, and it would be almost five months before their next release.

Some strange moves up and down the chart –it was no surprise to see the Pet Shop Boys drop 16 places to 25, until we remember that their last song had plummeted from 9 to 43. The Red Hot Chili Peppers managed to hold on to position 27, Paula Cole's Where have all the cowboys gone? moved back up four places to 24. Diddy entered at 23 with Give me love, but was beaten by the previous week's number 31. The Rembrandts' I'll be there for you bounced back up nine places to 22, as Channel 4 began showing the third series of Friends, answering the question of whether Chandler and Janice would get it back together.

Teenage Fanclub had first appeared in 1991 as part of the shoegazing scene that celebrates itself. They'd had a handful of hits, the biggest was the number 31 position 1992's What you do to me. Though promotion for Grand Prix, their release in 1995, had avoided the Britpop bandwagon, there was no such reticence for 1997's Songs From Northern Britain. It yielded the group's only top 30 hit, Ain't that enough (new at 17), and a top ten album, but cost them the credibility they'd carefully built up over the previous years. So great was the new debt that the group has yet to have a top 40 single since; their highest place was their last place.

Two more records dropped out of the top ten –The Course's cover of Ain't nobody from 8 to 14, and Mr President's Coco Jamboo from 10 to 13. In at 12 came Alisha's Attic, performing Air we breathe, and completing a hat-trick of number 12 hits. One place higher was the Ghostface Killer's All that I've got is you; he was a member of rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, but this song was a quieter, more reflective piece than normal for his solo or group careers. No surprise to find the queen of calm soul, Mary J Blige, gets a writing credit.

Into the top ten, and No Doubt drop from 3 to 10. Eternal come down two to 9, and new at 8 is Sheryl Crow. It looked as though the singles from her eponymous album had dried up when Hard to make a stand missed the top 20 in March, but the success of A change would do you good took us by surprise. It's very similar to all of Crow's roots rock work, and has gone down as her second biggest hit, behind only her 1994 breakthrough All I wanna do.

Hanson dropped three to 7, the Verve came down one to 6. New at 5 came Todd Terry's Something going on. He'd hit the top five the previous summer with Keep on jumping, but hasn't even threatened to bother the top ten since. With so many larger records beginning to fall down, Ultra Nate's Free moved back up another two places to 4, tying her highest placing from four weeks before.

Highest new entry honours went to 911, whose The journey came in at 3. A top three hit that we had to seek out to remember anything about, and a quick read of the lyrics confirms the song's utter vapidity. In these days, record companies could rely on 50,000 ten year old girls investing two quid in pieces of shiny plastic. It's a strange way of making a living, but it worked for a time. Second week at number 2 for Sash!, and third week at the top for Puff Daddy's I'll be missing you. He'll face a tremendous battle to retain the top spot next week, as the first new single from Oasis in eighteen months is out next week, and has been in the top 20 airplay charts for the past fortnight.

| Permanent link