Tens of thousands of anti-communist demonstrators occupied the centre of Belgrade, celebrating the release of an opposition leader by President Milosevic. Five news editors resigned from RTS, saying that Milosevic was personally forcing them to broadcast a diet of rabid, alarmist, state-controlled scaremongering.. Yugoslavia's president Borisav Jovic stepped down after failing to declare a state of emergency; this threatened a constitutional crisis between Serbia and Croatia, and caused Mr. Milosevic to mobilise forces and threaten the rest of the country.

Albania freed all political prisoners and asked to open diplomatic relations with the west. Poland was allowed to write off half of its £17md (ECU 12md) foreign debt.

In Russia, a referendum took place on Mr. Gorbachev's plan to renew the USSR as a renewed union of equal sovereign republics with rights for all people. His plan was opposed by opposition leader Boris Yeltsgin, who suggested that a Yes would give the Kremlin an excuse to use force. Mr. Yeltsgin was denied television time to put forward his case, and pointed out that denying airtime to opposition views would not happen in a democratic Russia. Governments in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldavia said they would boycott the poll, and spend the time working on their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest when they got there.

In the appeal by the Birmingham Six, lawyers stated that the scientific evidence was wholly discredited, eight officers had lied, and six more were unreliable. The judges agreed, and quashed the convictions outright. They did not directly criticise Denning, who said in 1980

Just consider the course of events if their action were to proceed to trial... If they won, it would mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats; that the confessions were involuntary and improperly admitted in evidence; and that the convictions were erroneous... That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, 'It cannot be right that these actions should go any further.'

The BBC was referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission over its use of airwaves to promote its magazines; a complaint relating to News International was allowed to fall. The government wrestled with its budget - Mr. Lament was expected to borrow money for the first time since 1986 - and with the replacement for the community charge. Mr. Lament would give his tax-but-not-spend financial statement next Tuesday, with Mr. Heseltine outlining Son-Of-Poll-Tax on Thursday.

A consortium led by Terry Venables and Irving Scholar launched a takeover bid for Tottenham Hotspur, with the aim of keeping Paul Gascoigne at the club. Het Grauniad had a feature article about the new concept of automated voice mail systems, saying that almost 150 had been installed in the UK.

England won the Grand Slam decider, beating France 21:19 in the final match. Scotland beat Ireland 28:25 in the third-place play-off that no-one remembers.

Missing the top 75 were the charity single to support cormorants in peril, Gulf Aid's As time stood still; a re-issue of Boy Meets Girl's Waiting for a star to fall; Nikki D's Daddy's little girl, a radical re-versioning of Tom's diner; and Where does my heart beat now, the first UK chart miss for former Eurovision winner Céline Dion, back in the days when she still wore her accent with pride. Also missing was the Mayo record of the week, Elaine Paige from her penultimate assault on the UK's pop market. There was a time when Radio 1 promoted the hell out of Elaine Paige, and it really was within living memory.

The Apples crept in at 75 with Eye wonder; about the only thing we remember about this song is its mild perkiness, and the way it puts the group on the list of acts to spend one week at number 75 and nothing more. After twice failing in A Song for Europe, Hazell Dean had had top 10 hits in 1984 with Searchin' and Whatever I do (wherever I go), and in 1988 with Who's leaving who? Her high-energy disco retained a certain attraction, but Better off without you could only sell to number 72. The support act at one of her promotional dates in Manchester was a five-piece boy band that promoter Nigel Martin Smith had just put together.

Two dance acts next: Diana Brown and Barrie K Sharpe had Love of nothing at 71, and LA Mix had We shouldn't hold hands in the dark at 69. FPI Project's Everybody (all over the world) rose two to 65, and Brothers in Rhythm's Such a good feeling held at 64. Thin Lizzy re-released The boys are back in town, but popular feeling was against them, the song peaked at 63. King Bee's Back by dope demand was new at 61, and second hit of the year for Alexander O'Neal; What is this thing called love made 59.

Judas Priest landed at 58 with A touch of evil, the group's considered response to their experiences in a foreign court the previous year, when some lunatics reckoned that, by playing one of their records backwards, there was an invocation for the listener to kill themselves. This bonkers notion was, in a rare victory for common sense, laughed out of court, and was rightly and mercilessly mocked by Smashie and Nicey on the 1991 Big Red Nose Tape. (We're putting readers who download and like this on their honour to donate a few quid to Comic Relief or Sport Relief.)

Tom Jones climbed 6 to 57 with Carrying a torch. Third single for the World of Twist was Sons of the stage. World of Twist was a seven-piece art band, with credits to synthesisers, swirls and sea noises and visual effects, but not a guitar in sight. They'd signed to Circa in early 1990, and released the critically-acclaimed The storm in mid-November. She's a rainbow followed, but neither single nor parent album Quality Street sold in the quantity its quality deserved. The group was courted by Creation, whose boss Alan McGee reckoned the Twist should have been bigger than Pulp, but split before signing. Their song Sons of the stage was used by Oasis for many years, but never got the re-release. The album has been out of print for some years, there's been no Best Of collection, and no reunion, for lead singer Tony Ogden passed away in 2006.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, and Pat and Mick's fourth single. Pat Sharpe (yes, the Fun House host) and Mick Brown were DJs on London's Capital Radio, and made very silly sing-a-long records that sold to slightly drunk punters. It was all in aid of charity - in this case, the annual Help A London Child appeal. And it gave the blokes some national exposure - Let's all chant (11 in 1988) and I haven't stopped dancing yet (9 in 1989) reached their high positions on the merits of the interpretations, and 1990's Use it up and wear it out deserved somewhat better than number 22. For reasons we'll get to later, there's a limit to the number of quality jollity singles around at any one time, and Gimme some was rather overshadowed by another work. And it wasn't up to their usual standard, so only made number 53. After taking a year off, Hot hot hot made 47 in 1993. Pat Sharpe then left Capital, and his replacement, Neil Fox, preferred to spin the records rather than make them.

Beautiful South went up three to 51 with Let love speak up itself, and the fastest climber of 24 places to 50 for Mike + the Mechanics' Word of mouth. Ocean Colour Scene entered at 49 with Yesterday today; they won't have another top 75 single for almost five years, but then they'll have huge amounts of tedium to bore us with. New at 47 came Frankie Valli, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John with Grease - dream mix, a Jive Bunny (qv) style mash-up of songs from their musical. They were trying to repeat the remarkable success of the Megamix from December, but lightning never strikes twice, and the single fails to make the top 40.

See also: Bizarre Inc, whose Playing with knives climbs 15 to 43, but gets no higher this time round. Success for the Mock Turtles, Can you dig it? climbs eight to 39. Soft Cell were issuing their greatest hits album, and re-released Say hello wave goodbye. The song had originally made number 3 in early 1982; second time around, it made number 38.

We mentioned Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers a moment ago; they were new at 36 with Over to you John (here we go again). When the blend of 50s rock 'n' roll classics first reached our ears in summer 1989, Swing the mood was something radically different; not the manufactured pop of Sonia and Kylie, not the Eurodance of Little Louis and Blackbox. Five weeks at number one, then the follow-up That's what I like used the theme to Hawaii 5-nil to great effect, and Let's party was denied the festive top spot only by the Stock Aitken Waterman revision of Do they know it's christmas? The group - the brainchild of Leeds producer Andy Pickles - had two more top ten hits during 1990, but the critics were massing against them, as there's nothing they like less than populist works. Over to you John was the act's eighth hit, and all the profits were donated to the St John Ambulance appeal. Even so, number 36 was the Bunny's lowest entry since Swing the mood, and would be their last top 40 hit under that name.

Warrant's Cherry pie was up four to 35, and Jane's Addiction put Been caught stealing in at 34. Scritti Politti and Shabba Ranks went up 9 to 32 with She's a woman, and the Definition of Sound rose 11 to 29 with Wear your love like heaven. Jesus Loves You were up 5 to 27 with Bow down mister, and Megadeth's Hangar 18 rose four to 26. A fast climb - though not the fastest within the 40 - for Feargal Sharkey's I've got news for you, up 15 to 23. Queen's I'm going slightly mad rose two to 22, and Jesus Jones finally topped out - Who? Where? Why? had gone 34-24-23-21. The Banderas rose six to 20 with This is your life, there's no move at 19 for REM's Losing my religion, and the Happy Mondays climb 8 to 17 with Loose fit.

A new entry - but not the highest - for Simple Minds, as Let there be love comes in at 13. We'll have more on them next week. The Bee Gees proved that nothing appeals like a familiar song, as Chain reaction Secret love bounded up ten to 12. Three records had tremendous falls out of the top ten - Nomad went 10-18, Madonna 4-14, and the Simpsons 3-11; the latter song spent seven weeks in the top three, and nothing more in the top ten. Down three to 10 fell Xpansions' Move your body (elevation); down four to 9 went the Source with You got the love; Quartz and Dina Carroll went up one to 8 with It's too late.

The highest new entry, straight in at 7, for the Pet Shop Boys with the longest single title in history. Where the streets have no name / Can't take my eyes off you / How can you expect to be taken seriously?. The listed A-side was Neil and Chris's take on the self-contradictory U2 song Merryl Streep has no name. According to the pop masters, the original was just crying out for a disco beat, and led naturally into Andy Williams's paen to a very attractive girl, a top-5 hit in 1968. As was traditional for singles from The Joshua Tree, the cover of the U2 song was infinitely better than the original. Bono's tedious interpretation of Merryl... made number 4 in September 1987. I still haven't found what I'm looking for was a number 6 hit in June 87, a position matched by the gospel cover by The Chimes in summer 1990. And With or without you hit number 4 in April 87, and is knocked off the planet by Scala's interpretation.

A third week at 6 for Stevie B's Because I love you (the postman song), and Chesney Hawkes has a real and proper hit on his hands: The one and only storms up 13 to 5. Roxette's Joyride motors up three to 4, as high as it'll get.

The fastest climber within the top 40 is from Rod Stewart, Rhythm of my heart soars 17 places to number 3. He'd been having hits since the first issue of Maggie May in 1971, and every single release went top 11 through the decade, including chart-toppers You wear it well, Sailing, I don't want to talk about it / First cut is the deepest, and Da ya think I'm sexy? Though the string of hits came to a grinding halt on May 1979 when Blondes have more fun stalled at 63, Stewart continued to have hits through the 80s, including the number 1 Baby Jane and another flag-waving song Every beat of my heart. Rhythm of my heart was a song in a very similar vein, all bombastic chords and the sort of thing they'd play on The Art of Landscape while flying over the Canadian Arctic wilderness. John Capek was the songwriter - Czech by birth, Australian by nurture, Canadian by choice, and with a song recorded by a Scotch Cockney. The song's subsequently been recorded by Runrig, whose sound it fits just as well as Stewart's. We'll be looking at his career after 1991 in September.

Last week's number one is this week's number 2: The Clash decide upon going, rather than staying. Climbing that last place to the top are Hale and Pace and the Stonkers, performing The stonk. Here was the single to support the 1991 Comic Relief appeal, and (whisper it softly) probably the best funny Comic Relief song ever. (Again, we're putting readers who download and like this on their honour to donate a few quid to Comic Relief or Sport Relief.)

So far, the standard had been for comedians to join with singers on amusing covers of existing songs - Cliff and the Young Ones' version of Living doll, Mel Smith and Kim Wilde on Rockin' around the christmas tree, Bananarama with French and Saunders on Help. Now, something different: a song that stood on its own merits. The stonk was written by Hale and Pace with Joe Griffiths, and produced by Bryan May of Queen - he also contributed the guitar-playing on the track. The B-side was also a quality song, Victoria Wood's self-penned The smile song.

After this high point came Mr. Bean and the Smear Campaign's interpretation of Elected, Right Said Fred donated Stick it out, then Comic Relief stopped being funny. Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton had the fabulous Love can build a bridge in 1995, the Spices had Who do you think you are in 1997, and then the plot was lost. Bozone, Pestside, Gagagagagareth, and Creamy Muck Mcfly all vied to make a record worse than the last, culminating in the abomination that was Council Estate Slappers and the Sugababes. The BBC's Children And Terry Wogan In Need of Assistance appeal has released a song each year from 1999, and Sport Relief has also pushed out records on its four appearances. None of them match the early-90s tracks for quality.

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