Tony Blair met with Gerry Adams; the protestants were not happy. Gordon Brown confirmed that the UK had met the criteria to join the European Single Currency, but said it was very unlikely that the UK would enter. He refused to clarify the government's position ahead of a statement to the Commons at the end of the month. General Motors threatened to close its British factories if the UK remained out. British commissioner to the EU Leon Brittan said the government's policy shifts were unwise. The government back-tracked on a commitment to introduce a British Court of Human Rights. Piers Merchant resigned as the MP for Beckenham, after further details of his relationship with Anna Cox were published. The Indian government prevented Liz Mountbatten from delivering a speech in Madras.

It emerged that the British Library building was over-budget; Eamon Butler from the Adam Smith Institute promised Jeremy Paxman that, within ten years, everything would be on the world wide web anyway. The trial of two British nurses in Saudi Arabia came to a conclusion: Frank Gilford waived his option to kill Deborah Parry and Lucille McLaughlan, convicted of his sister Yvonne's death, but accepted a charity donation for £750,000. Louise Woodward stood trial in Massachussets, accused of murdering an 18-month-old baby. Romano Prodi withdrew his resignation as Italian prime minister after surviving a confidence motion. Che Guevara was re-buried in Cuba, thirty years after his death in Bolivia.

Radio 1's new breakfast presenters began broadcasting; Kevin Greening was hampered by a woefully under-prepared and out-of-place Zoe Ball. Vermin 1215 employed Chris Evans at breakfast on a ten-week contract. The death was announced of John Denver, killed when his plane crashed into the sea. The British Athletics Federation announced debts of over half a million pounds.

UK Singles Chart for w/c 18 October 2007

Number One	Spice up your life - Spice Girls - 1st week (Number 776 in seq.)
Highest new entry	Spice up your life - Spice Girls - number 1
Fastest climber (within top 40)	You've got a friend - Brand New Heavies - up 2 to 9 Never gonna let you go - Tina Moore - up 2 to 15
Fastest climber (within top 75)	D'ya know worrah mean? - Oasis - up 8 to 55
Lemming-like fall	Closed for business - Mansun - down 27 to 37
Top 40 debuts	2K, Aqua, Belle And Sebastian, Jimmy Ray, Smash Mouth
Top 40 exits	2 Eivissa, 2K, Bellini, Coolio, Nuyorican Soul, Lalo Schiffrin, Sly And Robbie
Top 75 debuts	2K, Aqua, De Bos, Cecil, Lynden David Hall, Poppers Presents Aura, Jimmy Ray, Smash Mouth
Top 75 exits	De Bos, East 57th Street, Hardfloor, Omar, Poppers Presents Aura, Sparks, Universal

At this point, we note Sweeping the Nation has published the Radio 1 playlist from this week. If you don't want to know what's going to be a hit, open this in another tab.

Sparks came storming in with the Number one song in heaven; down here in Blighty, it peaked at number 70, and was their last hit to date. Beaten by Cecil's Hostage in a frock (68), and Hardfloor's Acperience (60). In at number 58 came the Corrs performing Only when I sleep. This was the group's third single, following two releases of Runaway (49 in February 1996, 62 in January 1997). They'd have two more singles before the big breakthrough - I never loved you anyway would make 43 in December, and What can I do (to make you love me)? stalled at 53 in March '98. Only when Dreams came out that May did the Corrs hit the big time; the Fleetwood Mac cover was the first of four consecutive top 6 hits, the group would hold down the top two album positions for much of summer 1999, and they'd remain fixtures on the chart until releasing a slightly premature Best Of at the end of 2001. Since then, though, success has been mostly missing; 2004's Borrowed Heaven received mixed reviews, and the following year's Home was mostly ignored. A second Best Of came out last year, and struggled to number 67 on the albums listing.

Vanessa-Mae put Storm in at 54. Readers may recall her as the violinist who played while waist-deep in a lake; this was a photoshoot for her 1995 commercial breakthrough album The Violin Player. Though she wouldn't attempt to release singles after 1997 - a decision that made Storm her smallest-charting hit - she's continued to record since, including greatest hits collections in 2002 and 2003; a new album, her first in four years, is scheduled for release in 2008. In retrospect, the Singapore performer was the first showing of the classical-pop crossover that would make stars out of such mediocre talents as Bond, G4, and All Angels. Vanessa-Mae did at least try to bring something a little different, with most of her works featuring a techno rhythm.

Which brings us to De Bos, a Dutch group who put On the run in at 51. Martha Wash, the former Weathergirl, had Carry on '97 at 49; this was a re-working of a single that peaked at 74 in November 1992. Solo success was never Martha's strong suit, her only solo top 40 placing came when Give it to you snuck a week at number 37 in February 1993. The Supernaturals' Prepare to land was far too good for the top 40, so entered at 48. Lynden David Hall put Sexy Cinderella in at 45 - a re-release a year later would hit number 17 - and Poppers's Every little time made 44.

Travis continued to graze the bottom end of the big leagues, Happy made 38, their fourth minor hit in six months. April's More than us would put them in at number 16, but it's not until 1999's Writing to reach you that Travis hit the big leagues, where they've remained since. Ancient film composer Lalo Schiffrin had Bullitt in at 36, and Belle and Sebastian cracked the higher places with 3... 6... 9... seconds of light at 32. The resulting album would suffice to give the group Best Newcomer at the 1998 BPI awards, much to the chagrain of Pete Waterman and Steps, but there wouldn't be another single until Legal man made 15 in June 2000. Third and final hit from the Nuyorican Soul project, I am the black gold of the sun made 31. We've been listening to this album a lot recently, it's certainly stood the test of time.

In at number 28 came 2K, performing ***k the millennium. This was the final dabbling in music by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, the art-rockers who had made their money from their KLF project. The number one hit Doctorin' the TARDIS (1988) had been shamelessly commercial, and spawned the seminal book The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, advice followed (inter alia) by Edelweiss, whose Bring me edelweiss made number 5 in 1989, and more recently by the Pipettes. The KLF released five singles between August 1990 and February 1992; all made the top 5 in the UK. They'd go on to burn One Million Pounds, Cash, on a Scottish island, award a prize for the most ludicrous work of art (which, strangely, always went to the Turner prize winner), and proposed a People's Pyramid of recycled bricks; this didn't get planning permission, though someone else's equally outlandish plan to put a Ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames did come to fruition.

2K was Drummond and Cauty's response to the millennium celebrations, scheduled for two years hence. The duo worked with Jeremy Deller, who had turned acid house tracks into brass band arrangements, including the KLF's What time is love?. A one-off concert at the Barbican on 17 September included Cauty and Drummond in motorised wheelchairs, a male choir performing K cera cera, Viking society lifeboatmen, and the Liverpool dockers - who had been striking for over a year - chanting Fuck the millennium, we want it now. The single was (officially, but not really) recorded at the live event, and included the Acid Brass remix of What time is love?. As we said about Sparks, there has been no return to the chart for the duo in the decade since.

From two artistic geniuses to another: in at 26 came Rolf Harris, with a re-release of Sun arise. The Greatest Living Australian, and certainly the greatest living son of Welsh parents, had first come to public attention with his novelty record Tie me kangaroo down, sport, a top 10 hit in 1960, featuring the wobble board, something he had made when drying a piece of wood by applying heat. Rolf had one more big hit in the early 60s, when Sun arise made number 3. By then, he was a regular television entertainer, doing a bit of art here, a bit of singing there, and coming up with such whacky characters as Jake the Peg. His last single for many years was a cover of Two little boys, the Christmas number 1 for 1969. Rolf later said that he heard the song through the entertainer Ted Egan, who in turn had learned it from his mother. Mrs. Egan is surely thanked by many Hartlepools fans.

Rolf concentrated on his television career after that, hosting such long-running shows as Rolf on Saturday and Rolf Harris Cartoon Time. His next single release wasn't until 1993, when his version of Stairway to heaven appeared at number 6. An interpretation of Bohemian rhapsody stalled at 50 in 1996, and he would go on to have a number 24 smash with Fine day in 2000. Rolf has since found a lasting role on the BBC's Animal Hospital programme, and painted portraits of more minor celebrities, such as Babs Windsor and her sister, Liz.

Jay Zed had to enlist the help of Babyface and Foxy Brown on Sunshine, and even then couldn't rise above number 25. Little Kim had a second shot at Crush on you, barely sixteen weeks after its first release, but number 23 was as high as it got, and higher than it deserved. Third single from Primal Scream's latest album, Burning wheel, made 17. Out of the top ten went Mansun (10-37), the Lighthouse Family (9-18), the Propellerheads (7-14), and Janet Jackson (8-12).

Two slightly comedic singles came into the top 20: Smash Mouth's one-listen wonder Walking on the sun came in at 19; new at number 13 was Jimmy Ray, with Are you Jimmy Ray? The Mouth was a band from St. Joseph's in Arizona, dribbling on about the hippie culture they'd been exposed to in that over-cooked part of the planet. Though popular far beyond their limited talents over there - five albums before they were dropped - the group's hits here were restricted to two: this, and All star, a number 24 hit in 1999. They were last spotted being mocked by Rufus in an episode of Kim Possible, proving that gophers always have impeccable taste.

Jimmy Ray was a London act, managed by the hit-making phenomenon Simon Fuller, and manufactured as a latter-day Buddy Holly. This was his debut single, namechecking such stars as Fay Wray and Stingray. Second single Goin to Vegas fell short of the top 40 in early 1998, and Ray was dropped in favour of Fuller's other projects. He was never mocked by Rufus in an episode of Kim Possible, though we expect the leprechauns on Live 'n' Kicking had something to say.

A new peak for Clock, as U sexy thing climbs a place to 11. Ash come in at 10 with A life less ordinary, a stopgap release ahead of the Ulster act's second album proper, notable only as the first sighting of Charlotte Hatherley. By scrivens, a gal! Nu-clear Sounds has been disowned by just about everyone; not until 2001's Free All Angels did they live up to the promise of debut 1977 (1996). Answering a question from last week, here's what the Brand New Heavies have to do to make the top ten: spread their sales over two weeks. You've got a friend finally does the honourable thing, climbing two places to 9, and making the group's 54th week on chart their first in the upper echelons.

Two big new releases this week, so there are two-place falls for Chumbawumba, Eternal, the Backstreet Boys, Dario G, Sash!, and Elton John. Last week's 6-1 become this week's 8-3. New at 2 comes a debut act, Aqua. Lene, Rene, and The Other Bloke Who No-one Ever Remembers dressed up as their envisioning of the famed plastic waif, with unrealistically large breasts and thin waist. The song had already spent a week as the best-seller in Norway, and two in Sweden, and would go on to be a massive smash all over the world. Doesn't stop it from being a complete load of nonsense, of course. We will, regrettably, have more on this in the coming weeks.

Which leaves just one song, and there can be only one. Five weeks of Mawk give way to seven days of Spice: the girls' fifth commercial single becomes their fifth number one single as Spice up your life sells 250,000 copies in a week. It's not the most inspiring song ever recorded, desperately Spice-by-numbers, but it's a breath of fresh air compared to the insufferably cloying naffness we'd had in the weeks before.

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