3September

Former East German leader Egon Krenz was convicted of the manslaughter of people shot dead as they crossed the Berlin Wall. The government announced controls on the sale of asprin and paracetamol, ostensibly to prevent suicide by this route. The government won an injunction against the Hell on Sunday and David Shayler, preventing the former MI5 officer from spilling the truth about the secret service. Mo Mowlam invited the IRA to talks. Princess Diana called the Conservative party "hopeless" at disposing of land mines. NACRO said that bad parenting was to blame for crime, unemployment, and poverty. Bundeschancellor Helmut Kohl and French premier minister Lionel Jospin held a summit to discuss the European Single Currency. This summer's financial storm-in-a-teacup was in Thailand. A cinema announced plans to open on Christmas Day. A claim was launched against Oprah Winfrey after she commented about BSE on her television show. A drunken driver crashed his car in Paris, killing himself and two passengers. Neither Greg Rusedski nor Tim Henman lost in the opening week of the US Open.

This week's chart was not broadcast on Radio 1, and was replaced by ambient dub music. It struck us at the time that it was a gross over-reaction to completely censor the facts. The Independent Local Radio stations did not broadcast their chart, preferring middle-of-the-road generic tunes. We have somewhat fewer moral qualms about re-publishing a complete chart when the original was never broadcast; for many people, this is the Network Chart they've waited ten years to hear.

Highlights of the CIN survey from 75 to 41: debut for Felix Da Housecat, with Qwilo on Dirty motha at 66. Sunscreem's last new hit, Catch me (I'm falling) entered at 55; the hippie-rave group had their biggest hit at the start of 1993 with Broken English, and released a second album in 1996 to somewhat less acclaim. A 2002 hits collection passed us by. Capella's final hit, a cover of Be my baby entered at 53; they'd had a hit with Helyom halib in 1989, but their big breakthrough was 1993-95 - six top twenty hits, including the number 2 You got to let the music. Fuzz Townshend put Hello darlin in at 51, Future Breeze had Why don't you dance at 50, and Nu-Birth gave us Anytime at 48.

Eight new entries into the top 40 of the Network Chart, with Kim Mayzelle, the Levellers, Suede, Robyn, Peter Andre, Living Joy, OTT, and Missy Elliott yielding their places. It's the last we'll see of the Levs and Living Joy.

On the chart that Radio 1 was too precious to air, there were nine fallers in the bottom 10: N-Trance at 40, Peter Andre at 39, the Foo Fighters lemminged twenty places to 38, Sash! at 37, and Texas at 36. The one new entry in this section was the Cardigans's Your new cuckoo, the stopgap follow-up to Lovefool. The next album wouldn't be ready for another year, and My favourite game would spend forever in the charts without rising above 14. Comebacks in 2003 and 2005 failed to set the UK charts alight. Back to the fallers: Misy Elliott at 34, Living Joy at 33, Wet Wet Wet at 32, and Oasis at 31. It's the last time we'll see Living Joy, and the Wets won't be back for many years.

On the Network Chart, Paula Cole dropped to 40, and the Rembrandts came down to 39. It was the 37th week - in four runs - for I'll be there for you, and is the song's last week to date. In the era of 70% airplay and 30% sales, only one song managed a longer run, it'll be on for 40 weeks between mid-October 1997 and this week in 1998. But we'll come to that soon enough. Refugee Camp came in at 38, and there were drops for the Seahorses and Sheryl Crow at 37 and 36. Dario G's Sunchyme had charted on airplay alone the week before, but slipped three places this week to 35. Hanson, also appearing on airplay, put Where's the love? up 3 to 34. Down came the Verve to 33, En Vogue had a new entry at 32, and George Michael's You have been loved made 31 on airplay alone. We'll discuss the airplay entries in coming weeks, once they make the official top 10.

Hurricane #1 entered at 30 with Chain reaction, their third hit of the year, and the only one we've never heard, because Radio 1 ballsed up their public service obligations in a way that makes employing Jay Kay and Or Joel look like a minor error. Down came OTT at 29, Jon Bon Jovi plunged from 10 to 28, Ultra Nate's down at 27, and UB40 dropped to 26. In at 25 came the final top 40 hit for Gina G, Gimme some love. We've not seen her on the top 40 since, though there were two minor singles. More fallers: Boyzone at 24, Coolio at 23, Mary J Blige at 22, and Conner Reeves at 21.

Over on the ILRs, the Wets came down to 30, and Jon Bon Jovi to 29. No Mercy had a new entry at 28, Todd Terry dropped to 27, and the highest-charting airplay record, M People's Just for you, was also losing ground, down a place to 26. Please, please let this be the flop they so richly deserve. Eternal and Bebe Winans were still picking up tremendous airplay, dropping out of the top 20 after thirteen weeks - they've already fallen from the 75 best sellers. UB40 at 24, Tina Moore fell to 23, another airplay fave Oasis at 22, and the Notorious BIG at 21.

En Vogue were still basking in the glory of Don't let go, but Too gone, too long was the wrong sort of mawkishness for this week. It's in at 20, but the group won't return to the top 30 again. Meredith Brooks came down to 19, and the Refugee Allstars and Lauryn Hill put The sweetest thing in at 18. Apparently, this wasn't an official Fugees record, it just contained all three lead members. In at 17 were Bentley Rhythm Ace with Bentley's gonna sort you out. Mike Stokes and Richard March had been making slightly silly records since 1995, doing strange things with lounge music and non-thumpy dance beats. This was the duo's only significant hit. No Mercy were also on the second follow-up to a massive hit, and Kiss you all over could only make 16. Ver Dumper swallowed the group whole, they've not returned to the top 40 since. Out of the top ten came the Notorious BIG (9-15), Backstreet Boys (8-14), Dannii Minogue (6-13), Shola Ama (3-12), and Tina Moore (7-11).

Once more to the commercial sector, where Mary J Blige slips to 20, Coolio to 19, Conner Reeves at 18. No move at 17 for Boyzone, the Backstreets down at 16, Ultra Nate slips one to 15, Dannii's down at 14, Texas's Black-eyed boy slips one to 13, Shola Ama is down to 12, and Meredith Brooks holds station at 11 with Bitch, the most played record outside the sales top ten.

As is the case now, the Network Chart and Radio 1 chart shows use the same top ten, the ten best-selling singles in the land. This week, they weren't playing six records entering the top ten. The list began with Ginuwine's version of When doves cry; the song had originally been a top ten hit for Prince in 1984, and this song, a direct cover of Quindon Tarver's remake for Baz Luhrmann the previous year, was Mr. Wine's third top 20 hit of the year, and the first to make the top ten. It's most unfortunate week to have the charts censored in the week of your biggest hit; he would return to the ten in the smaller-selling March 1999 with What's so different? Gala dropped four to 9, and Radiohead entered at 8 with Karma police. Second single from the OK Computer album, a slow and depressing song (hmm, that doesn't rule much out, does it?) and the one with the video of a car going backwards down a road. That should help.

DJ Quicksilver was in Follow That! mode, Free was effectively Bellissima part two, and entered at 7. He'd have one more hit in February 1998, putting Planet love in at 12, but three versions of the same song was enough. Puff Daddy had now sold 1.3m copies of I'll be missing you, bettering the Spices and Fugees from last year, and closing in on the 1.5 million that Boring Bryan sold in 1991. Not since 1984 had a record shifted so many and not ended up the year's best seller.

Ocean Colour Scene came in at 5. That's except for listeners to the Network Chart, who found them rising from 39. Traveller's tune was just like every other Ocean Colour Scene song, a bit like listening to nails being scraped down a blackboard. For the only time in their career, though, they didn't win the Worst Record In The Top Ten award. Neither did the All Saints, debuting at 4 with I know where it's at. It's infectiously catchy British-influenced R&B, starting with a call-and-response section, and moving quickly into the sing-a-long bit. The group would only miss seven installments of the Network Chart between here and October 1998, and five of those came immediately after this single departed.

Highest new entry, however, came in at 3 for Mariargh Carey. This one was Honey, her first release after parting company with Tommy Mottola, and the sudden drop in quality was evident. While Mariargh had always been prone to histrionics and never knowingly using one note when she could use twenty, the songs she recorded were generally listenable. Given to a more competent vocalist, tunes such as Dreamlover, Vision of love, and Always be my baby can and do sound entirely pleasing. That's not the case for anything she's recorded since 1996; it's been ten years of screeching, yowling, and generally making a complete din. And the Grate British Public has cottoned on: in twelve singles from 1992's I'll be there to Honey, Carey had never missed the top ten. Since then, her increasingly rare releases - just sixteen in the decade since - have struggled to break the top ten, and she was carried by less poor acts for two of her three big hits - Whitney Houston on 1998's When you believe and Westside on 2000's Against all odds. Both of these records are generally accepted to be among the worst ever made. If Ocean Colour Scene sounded like nails being drawn down a blackboard, Mariargh is that sound.

All of which means there's no move at number 2 for Chumbawumba, and no move at number one for Will Smith. For all the fast turnover of the singles chart, having the same top two for three weeks running was not entirely unusual - it had happened in June when Hanson held off Eternal, and had occurred perhaps twice a year in the recent past. It'll happen three more times before June 1998, but then not again until Sonique and S Club 7 in June 2000, and then won't recur until James Blunt and Daniel Powter in the summer of 2005. Madonna-Westside in late 2005, Shayne Ward and Nizlopi at the start of 2006 (the last time the top two held for four weeks), and the Proclaimers over Avril last Easter bring the list up to date.

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