8October

At the Labour Party, Gordon Brown pledged his party to full employment. Peter Mandelson was defeated in elections to the party's governing committee. The possession of pistols and other handguns was criminalised; this measure would do nothing to stem gun crime. Labour's conference confirmed plans to charge university students directly, and not to nationalise the railways. The French government banned half of all cars from Paris, citing air pollution. EU governments signed the Treaty of Amsterdam, opening the way to enlargement negotiations. Police in Tokyo suggested the introduction of carriages for women only, so that they could prevent groping.

The Northern Rock building society handed out £2000 cheques following its conversion to a bank. Worldcom announced a hostile bid for British Telecom; the Yankee company was already cooking its books, and would go bankrupt in 2003. The death was announced of pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Arsenal was eliminated from the UEFA Cup by PAOK Salonika. Greg Rusedski won the Basle Indoor tournament. Lennox Lewis retained his WBC heavyweight title, defeating Andrew Golota in the first round. Amongst the guests on this week's Blue Peter was a young go-karter, Lewis Hamilton. It is not noted if he ran his kart aground in Kari and Oke's litter tray.

UK Singles Chart for w/c 5 October 1997

Number One	Something about the way you look tonight / Candle in the wind '97, Elton John, 4th week, 774th in sequence
Highest new entry	As long as you love me - Backstreet Boys - number 3
Fastest climber (within top 40)	Sunchyme - Dario G - up 1 to 2 Men in black - Will Smith - up 1 to 8
Fastest climber (within top 75)	Picture of you - Boyzone - up 5 to 51
Lemming-like fall (within top 40)	Please - U2 - down 19 to 26
Lemming-like fall (within top 75)	Burning - Daft Punk - down 29 to 59
Top 40 debuts	Catch, East 57th Street Featuring Donna Allen, Filter And The Crystal Method, DJ Flavours, DJ Shadow
Top 40 exits	East 57th Street Featuring Donna Allen, Filter And The Crystal Method, House Traffic, Third Eye Blind
Top 75 debuts	East 57th Street Featuring Donna Allen, Filter And The Crystal Method, DJ Flavours, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Progress Funk
Top 75 exits	Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Pixies, Progress Funk, Rangers FC

Just six new entries in the lower part of the chart, and we remember nothing of Progress Funk (Around my brain, 73). Kaleef's third dubious sould cover was I like the way (the kissing game), in at 58. The original had been a top-five hit Stateside for hi-Five in 1991; here, it stalled at 43. Morcheeba had their second minor hit of the year, Shoulderholster landed at 53. Skye and her Sleeperblokes made a chill-soul sound, and ten singles yielded just three top 40 hits - 1996's Trigger hippie, 1998's Part of the process, and 2000's Rome wasn't built in a day. The group deserved more success.

Lo-Fidelity Allstars's Disco machine was their hit, in at 50, out next week. D-Influence had Magic at 45; the group had hits over a five year period, peaking with 1998's number 30 hit Rock with you. Strangelove was another of the very minor hitmakers of the Britpop tail, two number 35 hits was their peak, and this week's release Freak made 43. Filter and the Crystal Method had (Can't you) trip like I do at 39; they weren't related to the group whose Take a picture made the top 30 in 2000.

The Jam had been the most bloody-mindedly commercial act of the post-punk scene, using every single rule in the chart book to give themselves big hits. Going underground, for instance, was released on a Monday, rather than the (then-)traditional Friday, giving itself a full week's sales and a surefire number 1 single. Such tactics yielded twelve consecutive top 20 hits from 1978 to 1982, all but one of the last nine landing in the top four. The group split at the beginning of 1983, allowing Paul Weller to concentrate on his other ideas - first the Style Council, then his interminably dull solo career. The bitterest pill (I ever had to swallow) had originally made number 2 in 1982, and was now re-released to promote a singles collection. All the more money for Paul Weller, a socialist who knows how to make loads of wonga.

East 57th Street were in at 29 with Saturday; backing vocals were provided by Donna Allen, who had had a top 10 hit in her own right ten years earlier. Green Day entered at 25 with Hitching a ride. They'd had a top 10 hit at the start of 1995 with Basket case, but something in the mid-20s was more typical for the group. It wouldn't be until 2004 that the group gained promotion to the top 20 on a regular basis, and they only achieved that by making a record so dull that they changed their name.

In at 23 came Catch, perfoming Bingo. And thereby hangs a tale. Catch was a three-piece group, fronted by songwriter Toby Slater. He was in his early 20s at the time, and had already formed a band with guitarist Ben Etchells. Brattish (1994) didn't amount to much more than a few ideas in studios, but did give Slater enough of a reputation to DJ on the five-week wonder that was Romo (Dec 1995 - Jan 1996). Catch was formed towards the end of 1996 with the addition of Wayne Murray (bass), and the group mostly recorded songs Slater had written for Brattish.

Catch had many factors going for them. The rise of the Spice Girls had made it cool to be involved in pure pop music, and they had managed to get the Girls' producers, Stannard and Rowe, to produce their single. Toby Slater was - let's not beat about the bush - drop-dead gorgeous, and the other two were pretty hunky too. And the songs were there: three years of work ensured that Bingo and its B-sides were carefully-crafted pop.

Three factors conspired to ensure Catch were dropped. The first was they'd been beaten by Hanson. The American three-piece had a drop-dead gorgeous lead singer, catchy melodies, and decent - though clearly lesser - pop songs. Hanson had broken through in the early summer, and by October had become fixtures in the teen press, and gained respect from the senior music papers. There wasn't room for two clever-pop bands in that pool at the time. Problem two was the snobbery of the British press: Bingo was semi-autobiographical, and the song's content left Slater coming across as a rich public school oik. At the time, public schools were hideously politically incorrect, and Slater was damned even before he opened his mouth - that he was well-spoken with an RP accent damned him further. Problem three was The Mawk; Catch's video had been faded down on ITV so that Dermot Murnagahan could give news of a drink-drive accident in Paris, and the group's promotional activity seemed cursed thereafter. Bingo entered at 23, scraped a second week in the top 40, then was gone.

Catch released one further single the following February, Dive in made 41, and that was it. Toby Slater continued to record, touring as The Toby Slater Band and more recently as Kunta Kinte. The group's legacy, though, was to spearhead boy bands making intelligent pop with vaguely alternative sensibilities. There's a clear progression from Catch to the Dum Dums (1999), to Point Break (2000), and then to Busted (2002) and McFly (2004-present).

DJ Shadow put High noon in at 22; though a great remixer, he wouldn't have another solo hit until 2002. Paul Weller bored the pants off the nation again at 21 with Friday street, the second single in the top 30 to be the sonic equivalent of a mug of steaming cocoa. Roachford's biggest hit was Cuddly toy, a number 4 hit in early 1989; the group had had further hits in 1991 and 1994, but The way I feel became their second and final top 20 hit, and then only by the skin of its teeth. DJ Flavours had Your caress (all I need) at 19. Hit single number three for the Seahorses, Love me and leave me only made 16. Coolio had his last top 40 hit with Ooh la la, in at 14; since then, he's released a couple of poorly-received albums, but is mostly living off the kudos from Gangster's paradise. In at 12 came Foxy Brown and Dru Hill's Big bad mamma, Brown's fourth recording credit of the year so far, but her third and final visit to the top 20.

U2 had the big faller out of the top 10, dropping from 7 to 26. The Verve went 10-15, and M People moved 8-13. Only the Spice Girls and Brand New Heavies appeared in the Network Chart on pre-release, though Kylie clung on for a third week after she'd left the sales 40.

In the top 10, Louise dropped from 4 to 10, Janet Jackson from 6 to 9, Will Smith took advantage of the slack sales to move back up a place to 8, and Chumbawumba's slow decline continued - Tubthumping had eight weeks in the chart, and only now fell out of the top 5, down two to 7. New at 6 came the Lighthouse Family's Raincloud. Tunde and a rotating cast of Sleeperblokes made a very light jazz-soul combination, one that would have been offensive in its blandness if it hadn't got the lightest dusting of gospel to lift the spirits. It had been a difficult struggle: releases in 1995 built to give the group a toehold in the top 40, but the second re-release of Lifted finally secured the group's place on FM radio, making number 4 at the end of January 1996. Three more singles during 1996 meant the group became the most-played act on independent local radio that year. Raincloud was the first release from the difficult second album, and though it was a decent enough song in its own right, would quickly be forgotten because the next release was the absolute classic High, which would spend two months in the top 10 at the start of 1998. After that, it all rather fell apart; though the immediate follow-up Lost in space made the top 10, we wouldn't see a significant release from the Lighouse Family until 2001's (I wish I knew how it would feel to be) free / One merged the theme from Film 73 with a U2 classic. The group split in 2002, allowing Tunde to begin a solo career.

Oasis slipped from 2 to 5, and Eternal were new at 4 with Angel of mine. We'll have more to say about that on Thursday. Highest new entry honours to the Backstreet Boys, As long as you love me was a dripping-wet ballad, new at 3, their fourth top 4 hit of the year. All I have to give would be the final release from this album, making number 2 in February 1998; comeback single I want it that way was a re-make of both its predecessors, but managed to top the charts for a week in May 1999.

Dario G outperformed the Boys, and Sunchyme moved back up a place to 2. Elton John remained on top of the charts with his double-A sided single. Sales this week were the lowest to date, a mere 560,000, enough to move him past Band Aid for the honour of being the UK's biggest-selling single ever, but now only treble the average number 1 sale for 1997 so far. More tellingly, the mawk of Candle in the wind '97 was not radio's preferred side, Something about the way you look tonight was getting its deserved appreciation. Had the Spice Girls made the correct decision to delay their release a week? Time will tell.

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