8October

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).

(More: Paul Weller and the Jam, the Lighthouse Family, and a young man with drive and ambition)

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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A slightly belated follow-up to Sunday's poll of marginal seats. Mark Senior, commenting at UK Polling Report works out the movements are C +5.5, Lab -1.6. Playing about with the swings, and assuming a +1% Con-LD transfer (on recent form, that's not unreasonable) that translates into a national figure of C 39% Lab 34.5% LD 18.5%; in turn, the Tories the largest party in a hung parliament, able to form a coalition with the Lib Dems only by relying on Sinn Féin continuing to abstain.

What if there had been a little less ice? A geological enquiry has wide-ranging outcomes.

A pedant writes: It was Maggie Philbin, not Keith Chegwin, who got the joke about evaporated milk. Or didn't get it, seeing as how she had been evaporated not ten seconds before.

Phillip Blond writes on the party questioning capitalism and tax dodgers.

Speaking of dodgers, Alisher Usmanov has been flying journalists to Moscow on his own private jet. Only about 10% of those journos disclosed that they hadn't paid their way. Mr. Usmanov has been linked with Arsenal FC, but he's got a long way to go to match Mr. Abramovitch of CSKA Kensington; he's gone and bought one of those new A-380 planes, large enough to carry his ego and a small fraction of his money. Meanwhile, Mr. Usmanov has been reaching for his libel lawyers again. His latest target: left-wing clearing house Indymedia. Meanwhile, those arch-commies at the Sunset Times have been getting in on the act, reporting that Mr. Usmanov has been sued in Colorado over ownership of a diamond mine in Siberia.

Lance Price suggests that Mr. The Soup Dragon is still living in the shadow of Mister Tony Blair. There's some merit in his argument: The Soup Dragon owes his majority in parliament to Mister Blair, but so did Mr. Calorgas owe his (somewhat slimmer) majority to Mr. Wilsonthebutler, and Mr. Joe 90 owed his to Mrs. Bouffant. The Soup Dragon correctly sees that the British public want a clean break with Misterblairism, but has no desire for a swift election.

Mr. Price doesn't discuss why The Soup Dragon continually goes on and on and on about change. We have a suspicion that The Soup Dragon has great difficulty handling any change, and will continue burbling on about it until he can reach a situation that doesn't offend him, and doesn't offend the people whose opinions he values. There's got to be a psychological term for this kind of thing, we're blown if we know it.

No time for flashy graphics, proclaimed the BBC about their plans for Election '07. Too right. Bring back the simple but incredibly informative Battleground from Election 1987.

Mariargh? You know, the note?

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Angel of mine: writers Rhett Lawrence, Travon Potts. It's a simple song, performed effectively by the Eternal group, and marking the end of an era. Not only was this the token new song from their singles collection, but would prove to be the group's final top ten hit - they'd put ten songs in the upper tier from twelve releases. The group slimmed down to Esther and Vernie Bennett for 1999's What'cha gonna do, it was utter rubbish, and stalled at number 16.

The song, though, would take on a fresh lease of life just over a year later. It was recorded by R&B starlet Monica, and was the follow-up to her smash chart-topper The boy is mine. It was no real surprise to see her version rise to the top of the Hot 100 for a month in early 1999. There was a UK release in late July, but it was for completists only, and made number 55.

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British finance minister Mr. Alexander Chancellor delivered the Autumn Statement on Tuesday. He proposed a change to aircraft movement tax, so that it is a tax per aircraft, rather than per passenger. He proposed a retrospective increase in inheritance tax exemptions for widows and widowers. He proposed a review of how to raise tax from non-domiciled residents. And then he proposed that there should be a tax on finance ministers who base their entire Autumn Statement on the conference speech of Mr. Ozzy Osbourne the previous week.

Jonathan Freedland challenges Mr. The Soup Dragon to do less politicking and more governing. He correctly points out that The Soup Dragon has less than a year to make his mark before campaigning for the next election starts.

Commentator Hamish MacRae said that Mr. Chancellor was taking a giant gamble, praying that the economy would keep growing, that there would be no sudden need for spending or reduction in incomes, and that house prices would not fall.

Sports desk

Paul Rees writes on how rugby needs to change. One back-of-the-envelope idea: add Argentina and Romania to the Six Nations, split the contest down the middle into two balanced groups of four, round-robin, with group winners playing off for the title, runners-up for third, and so on. One fewer match, but of a higher quality. Add in Georgia and Canada, and it's a Ten Nations.

Other idea: make it mandatory for the top powers to play one home and one away game against the rising stars each year.

Arts news

Fiona MacCarthy despairs at Labour's approach to the museums. Government funding is insufficient, but where are the collection boxes? How can we give a fiver an hour to a good museum?

The Crack in Tate Modern is an example of modern art's occasional ability to amaze, writes Overgrown Path.

Bookworld asks for words in the English language containing the letters ch when pronounced "sh". Bonus points for words that don't have a French root.

Headsup reports the most stupid question in theological history. The answer, by the way, is no; we can think of two reasons in as many seconds. There are probably others.

Over at Foot in Mouth, there's the summary of a discussion about the future of dance, a digression into the early 80s, and the role of spectators and participants. Somewhere in there, an awful lot of food for thought.

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Second round for the newspaper reviews; after the Morning Star come its antitheses.

The Times, 23 September, £1.40

This newspaper is mostly in tabloid format; the magazine and arts sections are stapled magazines, the former on glossy paper. The paper comes wrapped in a plastic bag, and features three folded sections - a main section, and two tabloids inside. Each tabloid has two sections of the finished paper. It's a messy arrangement, feeling as though the paper explodes while reading. The typeface is a dull serif body, with a lifeless serif headline; only the arts magazine breaks this tedium, though its sans-serif fonts are scarcely less dowdy.

Sunday Times, 30 September, £2

This is a big paper, and we're glad that we had a bag on hand to bring it back. News, sport, business, personal finance, appointments, and news review are folded as four broadsheet sections; travel, men's consumption, housing, and two additional business supplements are loose tabloid newsprint, all folded within the news and sports sections. A plastic bag contains the arts magazine (stapled newsprint) and fashion and photo magazines (both on glossy paper). Though it contains more sections than its Saturday cousin, the Sunday edition feels larger to begin with, a paper that begs to be spread out. Typeface is a slightly more open serif than the daily; the broadsheet sections use sans-serifs for features and dominating headlines, large serif type for headlines on smaller stories. It looks decent. The tabloids mostly have sans-serif headlines.

(More: Full reviews of these papers)

Next: The Guardian.

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Ian Blair is over-stepping his mark. Again. The discredited chief of London police is playing politics, demanding even more months to detain suspects without charge. Our two points will not surprise any regular reader. 1) Politicians make laws; police enforce them. Police do not make laws. 2) The role of police is to keep the peace. It is not to do the terrorist's work for them. The right to be charged or be released is key to a free society.

While researching something else, we've come across this from John Campbell, writing in the Sunset Times immediately before the 1992 election:

The lesson of 1974, reinforced by 1977-78, is that a third party can exploit its position in a hung parliament only if it alone holds the balance; and even then only by supporting an incoming government, not by propping up a defeated one. Policies and political sympathy apart, if there is a hung parliament next weekend the Liberal Democrats will in practice be able to support only a Labour government, not a Tory one.

Modern readers will, of course, need to reverse the last two party names.

For what it's worth, the three "ludicrous, extreme and unpopular" proposals that Mat GB and Alex Wilcock recall from the Lib Dems at the 1992 election were: a penny on the basic rate of income tax, hypothecated for education; increase petrol prices by 10p a gallon, hypothecated for environmental measures; and giving equality to homosexuals.

It's interesting to note that all three of these "ludicrous, extreme and unpopular" proposals have been co-opted by Labour: equality to homosexuals has come about by dribs and drabs, albeit grudgingly, and inspired mostly by rulings in courts; between 1992 and 2000, the fuel duty escalator increased petrol prices by almost 30p per gallon above inflation; and a penny was put on income tax, albeit hypothecated for the health service.

An opinion poll commissioned by the Royal Mint showed Canadians are split over whether to retain the one-cent coin. The Canadian penny, worth about 0.7 of a euro cent, is often invoked by the strange habit of adding sales taxes to the display price, rather than the price one sees being the price one pays. The next largest coin in value is the 5-cent (3.5 euro cent).

Alisher Usmanov's attempts to surpress free speech have come to the attention of Roy Greenslade. Nothing much gets past our Roy, it's just that he's so busy that he often takes forever to blog about it.

Tony Benn on the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Post Office. Over in France, there's a wheeze to maintain the right to strike: turn up to work, but don't charge for services.

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14October

Magnus Uggla is the new leader in Sweden performing Pärlor åt svin, with Mange Schmidt's Jag talar ut straight into the top 10. Sean Kingston is new at 2 in France, Bob Sinclar and Zazie both come into the top 10, with Faf Larage a place outside.

20 19 Ora Mate - Kamate
19 NE Enrique Iglesias - Tired of being sorry
18 NE Nelly Furtado - Do it
17 20 DJ Ötzi - Ein stern
16 16 Ich + Ich - Von sielbern stern
15 14 Culcha Candela - Hamma
14 18 Monrose - Strictly physical
13 12 Mika - Relax (take it easy)
12 10 Mika - Big girl (you are beautiful)
11  7 Stacey Ferguson - Big girls don't cry
10 11 Scouting For Girls - She's so lovely
 9 NE Feist - 1, 2, 3, 4
 8  9 K T Tunstall - Hold on
 7  8 Sean Kingston - Beautiful girls
 6  6 Robyn - With every heartbeat
 5  5 24 New Pence - Ayo technology
 4  4 Sugababes - About you now
 3  2 Timberyokel - The way oi are
 2  3 Plain White Ts - Hey there Delilah
 1  1 James Blunt - 1973

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14October

For the third time in two years, a new format for the Top 40 on Radio 1. That's new in the sense of what Goodiebags did was about right. The top 40 in full, apart from the records they miss out completely (missing out the Foo Fighters? The Stereophonics? Sounds like an improvement from here!), and no talking over the records. OK, they don't name all the new entries before playing them, but we have what Radio 1 just played and the whole thing is better than Jay Kay and Or Joel. Whatever the pre-teen scribblers on the chart commentary sites might say about Fearne's bones. [Polishes halo.]

Gwen Stiffeny's new single is a hit, but only at 75. Kenny Rogers hasn't been in the chart since 1983, but The gambler - which just missed in 1985 - enters at 70. Week 58 for Chasing cars, down three at 68. Rihanna's Hate that I love you enters at 57, and Orson can only make 55 with Ain't no party. Like an S Club party, wethinks. Not entirely sure why Michael Bublé's Everything should re-enter at 52. A Killers b-side, Tranquilise, enters at 49 on two days' downloads. Just four places higher is X-Factor failure Chico, in at 45, and out on his ear before we can call time. Dave Gahan's solo career is stumbling, Kingdom makes 44, but he doesn't need the hits any more.

The New Musical Express has had a huge campaign to right a perceived injustice recently. The NME believes that it was grossly unfair for the Sex Pistols' God save the queen to peak at number 2 in the official chart for June 1977. Two points arise here: first, the reason it was at number 2 was because it sold far fewer copies than the number 1. And second, the NME chart of the time did actually put the Pistols at number 1. What's your chart of record, eh? Notwithstanding these embarrassing facts, the NME has used its huge amount of muscle to promote God save the queen to the giddy heights of number... 42. A re-release in 2002 made number 15, fercryinoutloud. The Hives get a physical release of Tick tick boom, it makes 41.

Into the 40 goes Nicole Scherzinger's Baby love, which would be a good record, if it didn't feature an unnecessary rap and so much pointless warbling. Second straight number 35 hit for The Wombats, performing Let's dance to Joy Division. It's another pogoing song, really far better than a number 35 hit has any right to be. Timberyokel's Apologise makes number 32. It's rubbish, of course, but the vocal is rather nice. Trouble at the mill for Katherine Nash, whose new single Mouthwash dips to 31. A career trajectory of 2-25 looks awfully like someone who is only going to be remembered for one hit. Is Lily Allen And Chums (Nash, Penate...) going to be a microcosm of the Britpop explosion of 1996? If so, Katherine looks like being the White Town of the boomlet.

Biffy Clyro come in at 29 with another instantly forgettable song. This one's called Machines. Roisin Murphy was the voice of Moloko, who recorded from 1996 to 2003, but are only known for their two top ten hits Sing it back and The time is now. Her solo debut is Let me know, in at 28. In at 26 is Samanda, the gestalt entity formed from Big Brother contestants Samantha and Amanda Dullasplanks. They are like the most famous two-headed-one-entertainer gestalt entity, Antan Dec, in one respect only: they have two heads. Don't entertain. Indeed, they/it have covered Aqua's Barbie girl. The song was guilty of many sins, which we'll be discussing at great length in the coming weeks elsewhere on this blog, but we never expected Putting Two Talentless Fools into the chart to be added to the rap sheet.

Akron climbs to 23 with Sorry blame it on me, a new peak in its fifth week in the top 40. Aly and AJ are the more listenable pair of sisters in the chart, their Potential breakup song is the second-fastest climber, up 11 to 22, and is inexplicably omitted from Radio 1's show. Bad call; if it goes up, it goes on. Freemasons come in at 21 with a cover of Uninvited, originally recorded by Alanis Morissette in 1998 and released on the soundtrack to City of Angels (see also: Iris.) It's only been available on Morissette's 1999 Unplugged album, and her 2005 singles collection. We also note that Morissette has had only two top 20 singles since recording this, Thank you and Hands clean; even channelling the spirit of Angela Chase for the cover of 2004's So-Called Chaos didn't work. (Exhibit 1 Exhibit 2. Crikey, is that album worth 20 quid? And would anyone pay so much as 20 pence for our unofficial soundtrack?)

Mika has the fastest climber, up 13 to 16, and there's a new peak for Phil Collins' In the air to-night, a top 14 hit for the third time. This week's Elvis re-release is A big hunk o'love, and storms in at 12. We note the Plain White Ts chart run so far is 6-5-6-3-2-2-3-6-5-6, a ten-week palindrome. Highest new entry honours to the Hoosiers, whose second single, Goodbye Mr. A storms in at 5. It's not dissimilar to their last bouncy hit, Worried about Ray, which is still in the top 40. Shayne Ward slips to 4, as Amy Whingebag's Valerie climbs from 7 to 3. Ida Corr holds at two, and the Sugababes spend a third week at number 1. Result!

All change on the albums chart, as Change from - yes - the Sugababes comes in at 1. The Complete Eric Clapton's in at 2, and Ketevan Melua outsells Bruce Springboard for number 3. Jack Penate's Matinee enters at 7, and former UB40 singer Ali Campbell's tribute to Iron Maiden, Running Free, makes 9. Aled Jones covers Rod Stewart on Reason to Believe, new at 15, while Mika and Mark Ronson have climbs. Stevie Wonder's Number Ones and Leann Rimes's Family crack the top 40, as does Feist's The Reminder - she's now in her 13th week of release. Alter Bridge, Colbie Caillat, and Beiruit also land in the top 75.

 1  1 Sugababes - About you now
 5 NE Hoosiers - Goodbye Mr. A
 9  8 Feist - 1234
10  9 Scouting for Girls - She's so lovely
16 29 Mika - Happy ending
21 NE Freemasons - Uninvited
22 33 Aly and AJ - Potential breakup song
30 24 Robyn - With every heartbeat
35 NE Wombats - Let's dance to Joy Division
36 34 Hoosiers - Worried about Ray
38 27 Jack Penate - Second minute or hour
40 30 30 Seconds to Mars - The kill (rebirth)
41 73 Hives - Tick tick boom
42 re Sex Pistols - God save the queen
44 NE Dave Gahan - Kingdom
49 NE Killers - Tranquilise
50 50 Newton Faulkner - Dream catch me
59 60 Mika - Big girl (you are beautiful)
62 51 Enemy - You're not alone
64 64 Åvril Lavignnesøn - When you're gone
66 41 Babyshambles - Delivery
71 55 Hard-Fi - Suburban knights

.. 22 Manic Street Preachers - Indian summer
.. 38 Jonny Trunk and Wisby - The ladies' bras
.. 44 Coral - Jacqueline
.. 56 KT Tunstall - Hold on
.. 61 Joy Division - Love will tear us apart
.. 67 Reverend and the Makers - He said he loved me
.. 68 Leann Rimes - Nothing better to do
.. 70 Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

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14October

This week, we've been watching and hearing...

• Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency (Radio 4) Not entirely sure about Harry Enfield, but a good casting.
• Old Harry's Game (Radio 4) is more like it, taking pot-shots at deserving targets, including suicide bombers and CORGI engineers.
• Have I Got News For You (Hat Trick for BBC-1) No.
• Not Going Out (Avalon for BBC-1) A very good little show.
• The Cult of the Suicide Bomber (Many Rivers for Channel 4) A blatant piece of propaganda from the woefully-misnamed CIA, who even provide the presenter Bob Baer. The programme began by making completely unfounded claims about the June traffic accident at Greenock Aerodrome, and complete bullshit pretending that it's easy to make your own bombs at home by following the recipes of Deli al-Smith. Then a long piece on Israel's defence against Palestinians, bottling up Palestine until it really explodes. Lots on the apartheid wall, but nothing on the way it's actually been ruled illegal, or on the cost to the Palestinians. A piece from Kabul, and an argument from anecdote about some slightly batty twerp who believed the hype before being shopped to the cops by his Mumsey. Our solution is simple, if rather brutal: make organised religion a capital offence, and don't believe the hype that this fashion is a threat to anything other than the perpetrator's sanity. Only in the last seconds of the 43-minute show does the speaker mention the underlying problems.
• Feedback discusses the sudden appearance of BBC News on Radio 4. Guess what: it's the result of a public survey. Can we see the results, Mr. Head of News? Er, evidently not. Also words with Jane Garvey and Fi Glover on how to transfer from one network to another.
• E4 School of Performing Arts (Silver River) another curate's egg of a show.

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14October

Prochain ancien British prime minister Mr. The Soup Dragon proposed to reduce the British occupation force in Iraq from 5000 to 2500 by next March. He refused requests to set a firm timetable.

Israel announced plans to seize a further 3% of the West Bank. Palestininans described the proposed annexation as an attempt to consolidate Israeli control over the most critical parts of the occupied West Bank, including all of Palestinian East Jerusalem and vital land and water resources, all of which severely undercuts prospects for establishing a viable, independent Palestinian state.

Vladimir Poutine opined that there is no proof Iran has, or is developing, nuclear weapons. He did call for the regime to embrace openness, and co-operate with the IAEA.

A general election in Newfoundland returned an overwhelming majority for the Progressive Conservatives. The party secured almost 70% of the popular vote, and 43 seats out of 48 in the national legislature. Premier Danny Williams said that he would continue to oppose the Canadian government of Stephen Harpy; the two men are personalising a disagreement over oil revenues.

A general election in Ontario returned an overwhelming majority for the Liberals. The party secured 42% of the popular vote, and 71 of the 107 seats in the provincial legislature. The Green party took 8% of the vote, but gained no seats. A proposition on electoral reform was soundly defeated, 63% preferred the undemocratic first-past-the-post, 37% the MMP.

Reports emerged from Burma of the military junta's ill-treatment of protesters. First the monks were targeted, then the thousands of ordinary Burmese who joined the demonstrations, those who even applauded or watched, or those merely suspected of anti-government sympathies.

A study in Nature found that human activity had increased humidity levels by 2.2% in thirty years.

Australia will have a general election on 17 November. John Howaerd confirmed that his Coalition Party will be seeking a fifth successive mandate; the Labour opposition, under shiny new leader Kevin Rudd leads in all opinion polls.

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14October

A week of settled weather; sunny spells earlier in the week tended to die away over the week-end, but temperatures were very high for mid-October.

08 Mo sunny spells      10/17
09 Tu rain to sun       10/15,11.0
10 We cloud             11/17, 0.5
11 Th mist, sun          5/16
12 Fr cloud             14/17
13 Sa drizzle, cloud    14/17, 1.0
14 Su cloud             lo/hi

Rainfall in October: 15.5mm; monthly average: 69mm

Degree heating days: 4½
2006-7: 0/499
2005-6: 0/684
2004-5: 2/556
2003-4: 4½/754

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