Weather: Sunny spells, light showers late afternoon. 21.

Travel: Almost getting it right. Roughly on time both ways, though we're late on the last stretch Wolverhampton - Codsall. Maybe they'll have it cracked by the end of the week.

Track of the day: Flying Without Wings (Westlife, Westlife, 1999) OK, forget who it's by. Forget any preconceptions about their link to Ronan Cheating of Boyzone. Just listen to the damned track. The vocals soar, swoop, and have more emotion than anyone ever thought possible. Deservedly voted Record Of The Year by itv viewers last December, this track popped up on the radio this evening. It's still great.

Weather: Very foggy early on, clearing to a mainly sunny day. 22 is top temps.

Travel: Alarmingly good, though I had to substitute the bus to Longbridge, owing to a very late train.

Track Of The Day: Love Me Tender, by Roland Rat and Kevin The Gerbil. As Celador / itv's "The People Versus" moved to its fifth show with the original bores still on the show, someone finally gets a question wrong. This is the track that caused the error, thinking it was a re-release from Elvis. Nope, Roland was a far better singer. The show improved today - faster pacing, no 360 spins before introducing each contestant (we would have had an excessive six spins) and giving answers to the ignored questions. Still not great, but improving with every show.

Altavista, the spin-off from computer manufacturers Compaq, has pulled plans to offer toll-free access to the internet in Britain. The plot, launched to a blaze of publicity in March, was supposed to be up and running by June. But, blaming the insidious overcharging by quasi-monopoly BT, the company says it's not economically viable.

Three For Today.

Former UK #1 Of The Week #1:
Never Be The Same Again - Melanie C & Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez
Way back in the 1960s, there was a group that ruled the world. Ye Spyce Gyrles scored a world-wide #1 with their debut "Want To Be," and made themselves into bigger stars than anyone on the planet. Then Red Spice upped and scarpered for her solo career. That was a huge success, resulting in one minor hit from a lot of hype. In desparation, we turn to Dykey Spice. She turned up trumps on her "Northern Star" album, from the soulful title track to the punk charm of "Goin' Down." This is the dance track that proved the case. Chisholm uses her alto to great effect, carving out a sweet rhythm. Then in waltzes Lopez to steal the show with a hip-hop rap. One of two tracks that really set my gaydar going this year, "Never Be The Same Again" gets its US release on September 5.

Former UK #1 Of The Week #2:
Flying Without Wings - Westlife
If you can, put images of the band behind you. Forget the crap ABBA covers. Ignore the connections with Ronan Westlife. This is the power ballad that Celine, Bryan or (yes!) Streisand would happily kill for. There are harmonies galore, and vocals that don't so much climb as swoop and soar. Voted Record Of The Year in the UK, Westlife gets the US release Sept 26. I predict top five.

Wonderful Track Of The Week:
Wonderful - Everclear
Has a track ever been better named? OK, apart from the dance covers of "Go Away." But I digress. The lead track from the group's new album starts out as a plodding post-grunge rockout. By the curtain, it's a singalong number that will be *so* good closing a massive live show. UK, October 9; US, now.

Weather: Foggy early, sunny later. 23 and looking to be very warm tomorrow.

Travel: Fine both ways, worringly.

Track Of The Day: Blame Bunty. John Kettley (Is A Weatherman) (A Tribe Of Toffs, 1988)

From the Rant Desk, Angela
Skins on potatoes: You cannot order potatoes or buy packaged potato products these days without the potato skin left on.
Maybe it's because some of us think the skin is the tastiest bit of the spud.

Talk show boot camps
What images this conjures up! "Montell, you're too dull. Get some spark! Maury. Lifeless. Get one. Roseanne. What the heck time do you call this? Donny, Marie, stop it. George. Don't do that..."

the trend where the commercial has NOTHING WHATEVER to do with the product
You've seen British financial commercials, then. It's often a case of "Car? Paint? DIY? Oh, *insurance*! Which brand? Darn, missed it."

Rock-star filibusters: Please, please, please, make them GO AWAY! If I have to watch one more rock star spouting geo-political rhetoric I'm going to puke up my potato salad with the skin in it.
We pay our rock stars to rock. And be stars. Not to sit and pontificate, but to jump up on stage and perform. I'll make an exception for Sting, because saving the rain forest *does* keep him away from the studio, but no-one else has an excuse.

Jonathan
Whether you're both the same sex or not really doesn't matter. That actually can be a good thing for people to see, but it does make for boring television, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Regular life... boring television... sex... "Big Brother"
According to Liquid, Anna on BB-UK claims to be lesbian, not that she's been shown doing anything on camera. (I think the media hype would have been explosive enough for me to hear.) It *would* be a huge vote-grabber, though, probably guaranteeing her the series prize. Would a male couple have the same effect? They wouldn't attract quite so many straight male votes, but it might help pick up female support. Probably a negative effect, though. Dammit, lesbians are cool. Gay men aren't.

Another round of Premier League Matches completes. Last time's big losers, Man City, beat Derby 4-2 in the biggest win of this round. Everton knocks off Charlton 3-0, and Bradford scores a major feather, defeating a lacklustre Chelsea 2-0. Leicester, Arsenal, Newcastle and Coventry also win, while Ipswich holds defending champs Man U to a draw. Leeds and Villa are idle, owing to European commitments.

Weather: Fog early, sunny later. 23, maybe 24.

Travel: Another OK day. The traffic lights at the Bristol Road / Belgrave Middleway were out, so the queues were a lot shorter than normal. Looked bad heading out of city, though.

Track Of The Day: We Belong (Pat Benetar, "Love Is A Battlefield", 1985) The rhythm is a star.

Episode 6 of The People Versus, and that show is really hitting its stride now. The pace that was there on Tuesday stays, the phone-out sections go, as do the remaining two initial contestants. The third chap really sweats buckets over his Round 3, using all his flips but just scraping through. Finally, the edge-of-the-seat moment the show's been looking for since it started.

Back to the postbag. Jadea
Hey...I know who won on Survivor! Anyone wanna know!?
Yep, the exact person I wrote in the golden envelope back in April. The winner is.........

Charlie Parsons!

Whaddya mean, you didn't see him on the tropical island? Take a look at the credits... Creator: Charlie Parsons. The man has made a million quid from the US series alone, and stands to seriously rake in the dough from other adaptations of "Expedition Robinson". With "Millionaire" another UK format exported worldwide, "The People Versus" set to take the world by storm, "ER" (the medical drama) a blatant rip-off of the BBC's "Casualty", and an ongoing battle between Endemol and Planet 24 over creator rights to "Big Brother", it's clear that British TV Rules The World. Or at the very least, Formats From North West Europe.

As for who won ER-US - who cares? Not I. I'm gripped by The People Versus, which has overcome a *very* dodgy start to have drama! pace! shock value! wrong answers! It's into its stride now, next stop The World.

Bridget
(The Body Shop is comparable to Bath and Body Works, but even COOLER.)
Of course it is. It's Another British Export. This one founded in Brighton, home to the recent Mark Town event. Anita Roddick was the brains behind that one, expanding from her one-shop base less than 30 years ago to become globally dominant now.

Weather: Sunny and very hot through most of the day, but clouding over with rain by nightfall. A decent easterly breeze takes the edge off top temps of 27.

Travel: No problems in the morning. Nearly didn't make it home, though, as the tram I'm on gets stuck repeatedly on the road section between Bilston and Wolverhampton. It takes almost 10 minutes to cover the mile or so to the Royal, and the driver power-cycles the unit at least three times. I abandon ship at the Royal, after being seriously tempted to pull the door release. Quick sprint gets me on the appropriate bus. A sad end to my week on the tram.

BBC DG Greg Dyke confirms that the Nine O'Clock news on ONE will move to 10, and CHOICE and K will be re-branded THREE and FOUR. Rent-a-gob MPs are up in arms about the movement to 10, less than a month after they were laying into commercial rival itv for *not* moving its bulletin back from 11 to 10. Consistency of position is not required, clearly.

Draw for the European League Stage 1 - my picks to progress marked with an asterisk.
A: *Real Madrid (es) Spartak Moscow (ru) *Bayer Leverkusen (de) Sporting Lisbon (pt)
B: *Lazio (it) Sparta Prague (cz) *Arsenal (eng) Shakhtar Donetsk (ukr) - Arsenal has no excuse for flunking out this year.
C: Heerenveen (nl) *Valencia (es) Lyon (fr) *Olympiakos (gr) - close with Heerenveen for the second spot.
D: Sturm Graz (at) *Monaco (fr) *Galatasaray (tr) Rangers (sco) - Rangers should progress to the UEFA.
E: *Deportivo la Coruna (es) Hamburg (de) *Juventus (it) Panathanikos (gr) - The Group Of Death, all four could qualify.
F: *Bayern Munich (de) *Rosenborg Trondheim (no) Paris St Germain (fr) Helsingborgs (se) - Shame the Scandinavians both dropped here.
G: Anderlecht (be) PSV Eindhoven (nl) *Dynamo Kiev (ukr) *Manchester United (eng) - Clearly sponsored by the Ukraine Tourist Board!
H: *Bestiktas (tr) *Barcelona (es) Leeds (eng) AC Milan (it) - no clear second selection at all.
Matches play September 12 - November 8.

Weather: After some thunder overnight, and a heavy shower around 9, it's a cloudy but mainly dry day. Very humid, and another shower with thunder at 6. Top temps a sweltering 22.

Track Of The Day: It's America's Greatest Hits day, so With Arms Wide Open (Creed, Human Clay, 1999) gets the vote.

Purchases on the monthly trip into town. CDs from Point Break Apocodelic and the Moffatts Volume 1 A New Beginning - two similar bands (file close to Hanson) that the music industry just don't know how to break here. It's not quite proper rock, it's not rap, it's not boyband stuff, it *is* great. Also singles from Vertical Horizon and Queens of the Stone Age ... Books: Kitty Kelley's The Royals - mentioned in the Grauniad only yesterday as being impossible to find in the UK - I pick it up for £2 in a remainder shop ... and Cartoon Capers - a cheap set of reprints from classic DC Thomson comics.

The letters column continues the Eminem thread: Angela puts her finger on the point.
When I look at this guy I can only think of good old Vanilla Ice
I've been trying to forget Bob Van Winkle for so long that it's worked. Eminem as the new Vanilla Ice? Well, they were both very commercial, both white boys in a traditionally black genre. Both irritate(d) the heck out of me, but that doesn't count.

Roy
I know nothing about rap in general, but do know that Eminem is against hard drugs.
Is that what he says? I'll take your word on that. Is that what he does? Depends how one defines a "hard" drug. I'd suggest that any drug that puts one so far under its influence that one becomes abusive and violent is a hard drug.

The reason I think he is honest is because he came from a poor and pretty messed up background.
Ah, the old poverty-as-honour argument. It's been carrying on in the letters page of the NME since it was simply the ME.

I think the real reason I like him is because he tells things like he see them and he doesn't care what people think about him.
Au contraire. He would be really annoyed if people *stopped* thinking about him, because then there would be no public profile, no publicity, no sales. Disaster.

And, yes, I realise that I'm helping him by writing this, adding to the fire of publicity. Life is complex. Too complex for simple soundbites.

Premier League Consternation as perpetual champs Manchester United draws a second straight game. This one was against West Ham, and MUN conceded two goals in the last ten minutes. Rivals Liverpool also threw a big lead, letting Southampton recover from 3-0 down with 17 minutes to play to tie 3-3. Arsenal dropped behind 3-2 to Charlton before pulling back to win 5-3, a result that puts them top of the league. Leeds beat Middlesborough 2-1, Newcastle sparked Spurs 2-0, Coventry won 2-1 at Man City, Ipswich edged Sunderland 1-0, Derby and Everton drew 2-2, while Bradford and Leicester didn't trouble the scoresheet. Sunday's match sees Aston Villa and Chelsea draw 1-1.

Back to the mail sack: Roy asked...
I need to know what was the most recent beatles song to go to number one so that I can enter a competition
...and Jamie said "Light it."
Free as a Bird is my guess. But that's a guess. :) I just wanted to be all smug if it turned out to be right. :)
So, we have Roy sitting on the South Coast, knowing the answer, coz I mailed it to him yesterday morning. We have Jamie, squirming up in Edinburgh, wondering if his answer is right. Will he win the kudos and bravado of 5000 people? Or will the entire audience be guffawing at him? Find out later.

First, let me bring up the line to our resident popular music expert, Dr Pop.
Dr Pop writes: The last Beatles *album* to top the charts, in both the US and the UK, was Spring 96's Anthology 2. The last #1 single on Billboard's Hot 100 was the June 70 release, The Long And Winding Road.

The single released off Anthology 2 was Real Love, which crashed and burned at #4 UK. The single off Anthology 1 the previous December was, as Jamie correctly identified, Free As A Bird. Pop pundits expected it to be a #1 before they had heard it, figuring that any new Beatles material would sell by the truckload. It did, but some *quality* Beatles material would have sold more.

In spite of critic's reservations, FAAB sold 120,000 in one week. Normally, this would have been enough to give it the fabled #1 slot, breaking the tie with Elvis for most #1 singles. Only the week of release was also the week that Michael Jackson got hospitalised for a couple of days, and the press thought he might not pull through. Even though he did, Earth Song got a massive sales boost, taking almost 200,000 sales for the week. Jacko kept the #1, keeping the Beatles at #2. Jacko was well enough to perform the song at the Brit awards just a couple of months later, but that's a whole other arse.

To return to Roy's original question, The Ballad Of John And Yoko is the correct answer. Not "Long & Winding" - that wasn't a single in the UK. Nor "Let It Be," kept from the top by Lee Marvin's "Wand'rin' Star."

Thanks, Doc. Jamie, you've been a great contestant, but you've lost your seat in the game.

Dr Pop writes: No, you're turning into Kirsty Young. Move on, please, move on.

Weather: Sunny for much of the day, but with a heavy shower around 5. Much fresher, 19.

Track Of The Day: Just Hold On, Toploader's new tune, is the highlight of a disappointing Top 40. (Onka's Big Monka, 2000). Madonna has #1 sales by a whisker, #2 domestic behind Spiller after losing badly on airplay, but #1 weaverchart on her international success.

The mail file contains a thought on the nature of capitalism. Lixz
I boycott Walmart because of how much they censor CDs.
No matter how much I dislike certain acts who shall not be named here, I'm not in favour of barring them outright. If someone wants to make an ass of themself, why should I stop them? Equally, if someone wants to stand up and say something, do they not have a prima facie case to do that?

In many places, especially in the midwest, they are a virtual monopoly.
Or *were* a near monopoly. With the spread of internet commerce, physical stores will lose sales. Determined consumers can and will take their custom elsewhere. It may not be much now, but it will account for a significant proportion of sales. Even if that's only 5% of the whole market, that's 5% of a big market.

Sadly, they are also becoming a monopoly in parts of Europe. Ulrike just told me that Walmart is closing down little shops here by underselling.
It's not a charge levelled only at this company. In the UK, all the major supermarket companies have had this charge levelled at them. Yet there remains a thriving network of corner stores, making a profit out of being just on the corner, and being more convenient than the store on the by-pass. The argument tends not to be bourne out by the realities on the ground some years later. Equally, it's true that *some* stores do close after these large competitors open - many of the victims were over-priced and inconvenient to begin with, IMX.

the point of this is that I don't share Sara's enthusiasm about the expansion of Walmart into the UK.
Ah, the ocean that divides us. British supermarkets have been threatened by a Monopolies Commission investigation for some years now, over charges of making excessive profits. If Wal-Mart can leverage reduced prices to the consumer by fair means, thus forcing competitors to reduce *their* prices, it will be A Good Thing. I'm not as negative as Lixz on this one, in spite of reservations about the moral character of the company.

Something I'll be running from time to time during the football season: the League Ladders. Points for a win, points deducted for a loss, and the bigger the upset, the bigger the points. Here's the early season standings.

Last	This	Team	Points	Change
3	1	Leeds	1060	+41
1	2	Manchester United	1049	+8
2	3	Arsenal	1046	+23
11	4	Newcastle United	1027	+25
8	5	Leicester	1023	+18
14	6	Coventry City	1017	+24
4	7	Liverpool	1013	-4
5	8	Chelsea	1011	-4
6	9	Aston Villa	1008	nc
12	10	Middlesborough	1002	nc
10	11	Tottenham	1000	-3
12	11	Everton	1000	nc
17	13	Bradford	994	+8
20	14	Ipswich	984	+10
7	15	Sunderland	978	-30
15	16	Southampton	973	-21
16	17	Derby County	970	-18
9	18	West Ham	968	-37
19	19	Manchester City	966	-15
18	20	Charlton	959	-24

Next update: October 8