The nation's favourite radio stations are both 40 years old today. In another life, I would probably have written loads about this, my Radio 1 calendars and taping of the charts every Sunday. However, due to a recently acquired Facebook addiction (seven days in and hopelessly hooked, until the next fad), a slight hangover and an invite out for a late Sunday lunch, I can't be bothered.

Look on the bright side. The hopeless Jerk and Jackoff leave the Radio 1 chart show next week, so we can start listening to it again from 14th October. Hurrah!

Labels: Radio 1, Radio 2

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Bugger.

Labels: Aston Villa, Carling Cup, embarrassment

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Congratulations are due to our chums down the road at Chig's second home, the Nightingale Club, who have scored a top forty hit single today in week one of their first release as a record label. Nightingale Records has been formed specially for the release of 'Beautiful Ones', the debut for boyband Billiam. (Catalogue number = NIGHTINGALE1.) The single was released last Monday (17th) and enters the chart today at #32. This seems quite impressive considering that;

(a) boybands aren't exactly flavour of the month these days
(b) it's a first release on a new label
(c) I haven't heard any mention of the single on TV or radio at all
(d) 'Billiam' is a really crap name

It seems that supporting Westlife on tour and doing loads of club PAs really can pay off. Oh, and getting your kits off for the gay mags.

Here's Billiam's video:

Labels: Billiam, charts, Nightingale Club

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Marcel Marceau has died. Here's Chig's fitting tribute:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labels: marcel marceau, obituary

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Psst! Don't tell anyone I told you, but if you can't wait for the charts to be revealed in the usual way on Radio1 this afternoon, no need to worry. For reasons I don't understand, Yahoo! Music has published them early! (It's 14:10 as I write this. These charts can't usually be published online until 19:00.) So, congrats to Sean Kingston (again), Plain White Ts (again) and James Blunt (new entry) on their number one singles, downloads and albums respectively.

Singles here, albums here and downloads here.

Labels: charts, leak

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So that was Summer. It ended at 09:51 this morning in the UK, with the vernal equinox; the start of Autumn. I still haven't had a proper holiday this year and the Summer never really started. How depressing...

Labels: season change

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Did you see the old couple on today's X Factor? I haven't seen her for over twenty years, but I'm 90% certain that Dorothy is the mother of my first ever boyfriend. Same surname, same area, she said she had sons (which fits) and she looks and sounds vaguely like I remember her.

I can't wait for boot camp now!

Labels: X Factor

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Music I've played this year on my PC
Originally uploaded by Chig66.

Here's an interesting graphic representation of all the tagged music I've played on my PC so far this year. It's best viewed by clicking on it to see it in flickr, as it's a huge file. (Go to 'All Sizes', then 'Original'.)

This was created on lastgraph, using the data from my profile (chig66) at last.fm. It's an interesting and colourful experiment, which shows that the music I've played on my PC this year peaked around Eurovision time in May. Funny that. As an overview of my musical tastes, it also shows the diversity quite nicely, but it's flawed because it doesn't show the music I play in other machines (CD players and the television - yes, really), which is more likely to be whole albums, rather than individual MP3s. It also doesn't show those albums, like Marc Almond's latest, Stardom Road, which aren't tagged properly and resolutely refuse to log their tracks when I play them on my PC.

Thanks to Signori Bitful for his assistance. His own graph is here.

Labels: bitful, last.fm, lastgraph, music

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Erasure - tomorrow night (Sunday) - Wolverhampton.

Want it? Please leave a comment.
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The thing about stereotypes is that they're usually based in truth, so was anyone surprised to hear that one of the Welsh rugby players, at the World Cup in France, has been found with a real live sheep in his hotel room? Dwayne Peel (left) is the player concerned. This has caused enormous shame and a great deal of embarrassment, but apparently the sheep has said she'll get over it.

(See also the last question here.)

World of Chig has secured an exclusive photo of guests arriving for the Welsh team's post-match party last Sunday:



Disclaimer: Chig is one quarter Welsh.

Labels: France, rugby world cup, sheep, Wales

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I stopped off in Oxford on Sunday, on the way back from Reading Pride. Sadly, I have to report that the standard of spelling in the heart of academia is in decline:

Labels: literacy, sign, spelling

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...because the inevitable has happened. Be very afraid. The Big Brother twins have recorded 'Barbie Girl' to unleash upon the world. (No mention of Samanda using Brian for the male vocals, as they performed it in the Big Brother garden.)

However, this is not our major concern. What bothers me is the utter tripe that comes in the press release for this today. Two quotes from Sony BMG. Both of them PR bollocks of the highest order:

"A spokesman for record company Sony BMG, which has signed up the twins, said: "It is a measure of how much viewers identified with the twins that they were the only Big Brother contestants never to have been nominated for a single eviction."

Excuse me? How much viewers identified with the twins? How did the viewers have any influence over who the housemates nominated? The person who wrote this must think that viewers choose who faces eviction in Big Brother. The fool. The lack of nominations just proved that they weren't unpopular amongst their fellow housemates, that's all. It had bugger all to do with how us viewers perceived them (and I would have voted to evict them at the first opportunity, had we been given the chance).

Second quote:

"They are also the only Big Brother contestants ever to have signed with a major record company. Superstardom beckons for them."

Only time will tell whether or not the twins manage to fulfil that final sentence and become the new Cheeky Girls, which we soooooo obviously need, but the first bit is rubbish. Obviously Sony BMG is massive, but WEA (Warners) isn't exactly small, and that's who released Craig's Top 14 Christmas smash, 'At This Time Of Year', after he won the first Big Brother in 2000.

But hold on, which label released his housemate Nichola Holt's 'The Game'; the very first single released by a Big Brother contestant? (It set the world on fire for one week at #72.) Well, well, well, it was only RCA/BMG (as it was then). Not only are Sony BMG telling porkies today, they're lying about themselves! It's a valuable warning, that we should never believe any PR guff from the music business any PR company whatsoever.

Footnote: Chig is unable to establish whether or not Deano & Bubble's football anthem 'Standing Tall' was on a major label, because:
(a) There's an inexplicable gap between the Deacon Blue and Death In Vegas singles, where this one should be.
(b) Incredible as it may seem, their England anthem didn't trouble the Top 75, despite my misguided purchase, so it's not listed in the Guinness book or on everyhit.com.

Let's watch the video instead:

Labels: Big Brother, Birmingham Pride, bollocks, Craig, Nichola Holt, Samanda, Sony BMG

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It's the final weekend of the UK's Mardi Gras & Pride season, so please say hello to Chig's friends Miss Brenda Bendover and Shandy Doris, who will be putting me up tonight as I venture deep into the Home Counties for my first ever Reading Pride this afternoon. It's Reading's third annual pride event, but the first time they haven't scheduled it against Cardiff Mardi Gras, so the first chance I've had to go. In fact, apart from visiting a former schoolfriend in 1985 at the university and occasionally changing trains at the station, I've never been to Reading, so I'm looking forward to it.

I have a feeling that, with these two as my hosts - a job that they also do at The Wynford Arms - it's going to be a hoot! The stripper they have there tonight is quite interesting as well. Sexecute, pictured here, has a website that actually makes interesting reading (or you can just look at the pictures).



Saturday trivia:

At some point this afternoon, the England cricket team, the England rugby team and the England football team will all be playing at the same time. (Not against each other - that would be foolish.) I wonder when that last happened?

Labels: Reading Pride, Sexecute

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Bienvenue en France pour la coupe du monde de rugby, qui commence aujourd'hui.

Actually, this Frenchman was in Cardiff last weekend for the Mardi Gras rugby tournament, not in Paris for today's Rugby World Cup opener. He wore that fluffy Tour Eiffel quite a lot.

Forty-eight international rugby matches between today and 20 October. (Yes, October!) Marvellous. Allez les rosbifs!


(L-R: Jonny Wilkinson, Olly Barkley, Jason Robinson.)

Labels: France, rugby world cup

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Rejoice, music lovers! Celebrate, chart fans! Radio 1 has finally sacked JK and Joel from the chart show. In fact, the morons are leaving the station completely, being replaced on their early morning show by an unknown 21 year-old student. I can't think of any other unprofessional pair of idiots who so richly deserve such an embarrassing slap in the face.

I hope Jerk and Jackoff will be very happy together at Magic FM, or wherever else it is they're going where you don't have to have any interest in music.

Well done Radio 1, for rescuing us from their inanity and ineptitude, but what took you so long, Andy Parfitt?

Labels: chart, JK and Joel, Radio 1

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Monday night. Just back from another brilliant Cardiff Mardi Gras weekend and absolutely cream crackered, but couldn't resist checking who won the Mr Gay UK final on Friday night. (Oddly, no one in Cardiff seemed to know. Or be bothered.) The regular reader (yes, that's you) may recall what I wrote (below) at lunchtime on Friday:

We're not overly impressed with this year's bunch, to be honest, but we'll go with Mr Blackpool to win it on home turf.

Guess what? He did. Congratulations to Dani Broughton (right), who has a webpage (of sorts) here and an official photo here.

The Guardian wrote an amusing preview of the Mr Gay UK final here.

I was, of course, thrilled with Brian's deserved win in Big Brother on Friday, and all six of my predictions from earlier in the week were within one place of the results, with third and fourth spot on. Thanks to Diamond Geezer for the washing machine update (see comments below) and thanks to Mark for supplying me with text messages at every stage of the Big Brother final, while as I was at a formal dinner for the Cardiff Lions rugby club. I intend to watch all of the weekend's Big Brother and BBLB on 4OD later this week.

Labels: Big Brother, Cardiff Mardi Gras, Mr Gay UK

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