The army in Yugoslavia threatened to impose its own state of emergency as political leaders declined to do so. Blood was being stirred by evocation of the civil war of the 1940s. The world held its breath, and the army backed down. Lithuania organised the distribution of vouchers to all citizens allowing them to buy state assets. Vouchers will not be tradable, unlike similar schemes proposed in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The P&O Company threatend to lower the Red Ensign, and re-flag its ships under foreign colours. The Nationwide Anglia building society unilateraly reduced its mortgage rates by 0.7%, new borrowers will now pay 11.75%.

Paddy Ashdown called for the other parties to clarify their policies on European unity, particularly with a new treaty possible by the end of the year. Jacques Delors proposed a compromise over economic and monetary union: the UK should sign up to the general goal, but would not actually join the single currency until the Commons decided so. A by-election in Monmouth was turning into a battle on the NHS, with press stunts at the local hospitls. Chancellor Kohl smoothed over the differences between his CDU and the Bavarian sister party the CSU.

John Parrot won the World Snooker Championship, beating Jimmy White 18-11. David Dein of Arsenal said that the proposed Premier League would maximise commercial revenue, while Chelsea expressed scepticism at any plan that would create an elite within an elite. The Football League accused the FA of being unfair, unethical, un-British and unworthy. Rangers retained the Division A title, defeating Aberdeen 2:0 in a winner-takes-all decider. In England, Sunderland and Derby were relegated, with Oldham, West Ham, Sheffield Wednesday, and one other side joining the expanded 22-team Division I. Westbromwich fell to Division III.

Sixteen new entries this week, beginning with Wendell Williams's So groovy at 74. Shabba Ranks came in at 70 with Trailer load a girls, and new at 69 for Australian act the Divinyls with I touch myself.

Karl Wallinger's World Party released Thank you world, new at 68. As we discussed a month ago, Wallinger had left the Waterboys in 1985, and debut single Ship of fools just missed the top 40 in 1987. Wallinger went on to produce Sinéad O'Connor's album The Lion and the Cobra, before securing a minor hit with Message in the box from 1990 album Goodbye Jumbo. Thank You World was a nine-track mini-album, presaging 1993's hit album Bang!, and their biggest hit single, Is it like today. The next World Party album wasn't until 2000, and promotion for Dumbing Up was curtailed when Wallinger suffered ill-health.

Susannah Hoffs was up three to 65 with Unconditional love, and Joey B Ellis released his second single, Thought u were the one for me. It was just as bad as the theme from Rocky 74, but didn't have the promotional tool, so crashed in at 59. Clive Griffin is up 10 to 56 with I'll be waiting. New at 54 come Saint Etienne with the double-header Nothing can stop us / Speedwell, two of the more memorable tracks from their pretty darned good album Foxbase Alpha.

From the sublime to the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, up 5 to 52 with When the year ends in one. Elvis Costello's The other side of summer is down seven at 50, and the Soul Family Sensation are up four to 49 with I don't even know if I should call you baby. The Blessing have this week's The Fastest Climber, climbing 16 places to 47 with Highway 5. It's destined for much greater things, surely. Luther Vandross climbs one to 46 with Power of love - love power, and Bob Marley is new at 45 with a re-release of One love, promoting the tenth anniversary of his death.

Cor, remember when Paul Weller had hits. He was one-third of the Jam, the most visible force behind the Style Council, and a visible agitator against the reconstructionist policies of former British prime minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher. But time had moved on from them both, and neither had done much of note after 1987. The Style Council released records to an ever-dwindling band of fans, and Mrs. Thatcher governed to an ever-dwindling band of fans. While the politician was hounded out of office owing to her general unpopularity in the country, Weller simply vanished into his own apathy. By 1990, he was out of contract, and had to release Into tomorrow on his own record label. It's a minor miracle that it managed to reach number 36, credited to the Paul Weller Movement.

Like Mrs. Thatcher, Paul Weller continued to wield influence even though his best days were clearly behind him, and his recordings were dated and clichéd. An eponymous 1992 album was met with muted criticism, and the music press fell over themselves to love him for three albums in the mid-90s. Weller used his newfound influence to promote such useless tosspots as Ocean Colour Scene (the Michael Portillo of this analogy) and was praised by Noel Gallagher (the Tony Blair equivalent). Ultimately, though, the country discovered that it could do better without the old farts: Weller's released six albums since 2000 to diminishing attention. Mrs. Thatcher has entirely retired from public performances, leaving the comparison clear for such modern acts as McFly and Boris Johnson.

New at 35 come REM with Shiny happy people, the first time they've managed to string together two top 40 hits. Flowered Up are up 7 to 34 with Take it. They were London's answer to the Happy Mondays, taking huge amounts of drugs and releasing tunes to trip out to. They'd passed through indie stable Heavenly records, but turned to London for their first album proper, A Life With Brian, which was generally seen as a complete load of rubbish. Flowered Up returned to Heavenly in early 1992 after London declined to release the thirteen-minute Weekender, a slab of self-indulgent toss that critiqued the part-time sensibilities of those who went to clubs and (gasp!) held down day jobs. Out of every storm comes something useful: keyboardist Tim Dorney would go on to form the under-rated Republica.

T'Pau are back! Back!! BACK!!! at 31 with Whenever you need me, and Samantha Janus finds that nothing fails like complete mediocrity, A message to your heart stalls at 30. She'll not be back. Up 10 to 29 go Wilson Phillips with You're in love. Carnie and Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips had broken through with Hold on, a decent enough sound, but one that became rather tedious rather quickly. It went top ten. No such boredom from the follow-up Release me (number 36) and Impulsive (42). This was the fourth and final single; next up was another minor classic, You won't see me cry (15 in June 1992). The trio had some fantastic harmonies, able to chime together in a way that reminded us of their fathers, all Beach Boys in the 1960s. The group went on hiatus in 1993, reuniting for the California album in 2004, and even more fab harmonies to make the knees go a-quiver.

New at 27 come Color (sic) Me Badd (sic) with I wanna sex you up. Amy Grant climbs eight to 26 was Baby baby. Cor, remember when Jason Donovan had hits? The utterly brilliant Too many broken hearts was the apex of his career, the first of four top two hits he had in 1989. But fashion fades quickly, and his 1990 releases struggled badly, the most recent - I'm doing fine, which we couldn't hum at the time - only made 22. The new song is RSVP, which sounds like it should be a Five Star cover, but isn't, and only enters at 25.

Michael Bolton climbs another, agonising, place to 23 with Love is a wonderful thing. Denny Minogue is in at 21 with Success. Cor, remember when New Kids On The Block had hits? Eight top ten smashes during 1990, but their second release of this new year, Call it what you want, can only come in at 20. This way to Ver Dumper, lads. T-99 are up 13 to 14 with Anasthasia, and Roxette's Fading like a flower is the fastest climber within the top 40, up 14 to 12. Bit of a clear-out from the top 10, with Vic Reeves and the Roman Numerals (6-15), James (9-19), and Chesney Hawkes (5-11) ceding their places.

A new entry for Soft Cell Featuring Marc Almond at number 10 with Tainted love. Originally, the song was a number 1 single for Soft Cell in 1981, and was re-released to promote the combined singles collection of ver Cell and Almond. It did far better than March's re-release of Say hello wave goodbye, which stalled at 38. Tainted love has been the subject of countless covers - indeed, the song was originally recorded by Gloria Jones. Such hitmakers as the BA Baracus Band, the Inspiral Carpets, Marilyn Manson, PJ Proby, and Tiffany have turned their attention to the tune. Our favourite version is Alex Parks's, both because it was her strongest vocal performance, but because the stage show was quite remarkable for 6.30 of a Saturday evening.

Electronic dip a place to 9 with Get the message, and Blur's There's no other way advances 2 to 8, as high as it'll get. Zucchero and Paul Young's Senza una donna drops three to 7. Beverley Craven storms up 9 to 6 with Promise me, and the oh-so-tedious Touch me (all night long) is up two to 5 for Cathy Dennis.

Down a place to 4 came Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, with Sailing on the seven seas. Cor, remember when they had hits? Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey had been performing synthesiser-pop since the late 1970s. Their breakthrough was 1980's Organisation album, led by haunting single Enola Gay. The group was prolific enough for its three subsequent albums - Architecture and Morality (1981), Dazzle Ships (1983), and Junk Culture (1984) - to track the remarkable progression of synthesisers and recording technology through the early 80s. Their first album was made on four-track tape; by 1985's Crush, almost everything was mastered digitally. Perhaps that's where OMD fell down - 1986's The Pacific Age was just that little bit more clinical and polished than the fans were used to. At heart, OMD were an analogue band, and they had difficulty adapting to the new digital era.

The classic line-up split in 1988, and the new OMD was Andy McCluskey, Lloyd Masset, and Stuart Kershaw. Their comeback (or debut) album was Sugar Tax, and it concentrated more on proper songs than technological noodlings. Though the album would yield another top ten hit (which we'll come to later in the year), it was something of a swan-song for the group: Liberator (1993) and Universal (1996) gave two and one hit single respectively, though Dream of me and Walking on the Milky Way were both fantastic tunes. Almost inevitably, there's been a reunion and comeback tour.

From the sublime to the earwig: the highest new entry, straight in at number 3, is Crystal Waters's Gypsy woman (la da dee), so named for people who only knew the track from its very large hook. Those who remembered the song from its stabbing keyboard section were less lucky. Simon Mayo had made this song his record of the week, saying that it divided people into those who loved it, and those who hated it. Turned out that the former had the asendency; Waters followed Vanilla Ice as acts to begin their chart career at number 3, and like Ice, this was as good as it got. A swiftly-released follow-up barely troubled the top 20, and a mix of her two hits peaked at 39 in the quiet weeks early in 1992. A remix of Gypsy woman also troubled the charts later that year. There would be a brief revival: 100% pure love made the top 20 in 1994, but she wouldn't bother us again until her vocals appeared on Alex Gaudino's Destination Calabria, a top 5 hit in 2007.

All of which leaves no change at 2 for the KLF's Last train to trancentral, and a third week leading the way for Cher's Shoop shoop song.

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