Chart Rewind

In Defence Of Christmas 1992–Part One

2
December 21, 2011
by James in
Two confessions before we start. I’d originally “scheduled” this chart recap to be the big Christmas countdown a year ago, but certain baby related events got in the way and the opportunity to do writing of any kind just didn’t present itself in the run up to the holiday. Hence we’re winding back a [...]

Bring 2003 To Life–Part Four

2
July 12, 2011
by James in
The final furlong! No context-setting ramblings from me really, other than to note that as the tape of the chart show wore on, I started to grow more and more into the way Wes approached the hosting of the chart show. In the opening few minutes when his initial script was full of throwaway [...]

Bring 2003 To Life–Part Three

3
July 7, 2011
by James in
As is traditional let us note the news stories making headlines in this week back in 2003. Hen-mania was in full swing but admittedly in its dying throes as Tim Henman marched into the Wimbledon quarter finals, but got no further. A seemingly innocuous two-way conversation on the Today programme in [...]

Bring 2003 To Life–Part Two

2
July 5, 2011
by James in
Now this is normally the stage in the proceedings where I recount where I was personally in life when this particular chart was being broadcast and somehow relate the music back to where I was at in time. Somehow this becomes harder the older you get. In summer 2003 I was cheerfully fixing a media [...]

Bring 2003 To Life–Part One

1
July 2, 2011
by James in
Heck it has been far too long since I’ve done one of these. Blame pressures of life, and the fact that once plans to do a Christmas retrospective at the appropriate time went out of the window, I have until failed to make the time to crack open the old Top 40 collection. Worry no longer because the [...]

Believe In 1998 – Part Four

2
November 10, 2010
by James in
Yes, this has indeed taken a while, so thanks for bearing with me. Unless you are reading this all in one go in six months time and pay no attention to the dates at the top of course. Welcome to our final march through the chart of October 25th 1998 and in this final rundown of songs we discover [...]

Believe in 1998 – Part Three

2
November 2, 2010
by James in
Looking back at the news headlines of the time, October 1998 was an enormously fun time. Not so much if you lived in the West Midlands however as what was billed as Britain’s wettest October since 1987 saw the rivers Severn and Wye burst their banks, cutting off Shrewsbury town centre with [...]

Believe in 1998 – Part Two

0
November 1, 2010
by James in
You know what, in October 1998 I was happy. Insanely happy. I was producer and co-host of an enormously successful local radio breakfast show in Bradford, working alongside a former Radio One presenter who essentially dumped everything he ever learned onto me and brought me on in leaps and bounds [...]

Believe in 1998 – Part One

4
October 22, 2010
by James in
A confession. This next series of retrospective articles is a tiny bit of a cheat. Regular visitors to these pages will be aware that the overarching concept for archive Top 40 reviews is as an excuse to dip into the vast collection of old Radio One Top 40 shows that I have stockpiled on cassettes [...]

One Step To 2002 – Part Four

2
May 29, 2010
by James in
I did say that would happen didn’t I? You post something even remotely disparaging about a Darren Hayes record and some intensely passionate fan is straight down your throat with outrage. Made me smile anyway. We are long overdue in wrapping this up, so time to press on and finish this chart of May [...]
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