We love the chart. Like really, really love it. Childhood Sundays were spent ignoring the outside world and the Eastenders omnibus, instead preferring the feeling of unwrapping a new C90 and trying to speedily erase Mark Goodier's voice. And Monday mornings? Well, that was the time to race to Woolies to see what they had predicted would be no.1 the next weekend. But then, in about 2002, something bad happened. The chart started becoming boring.
Was it because we'd entered the latter years of our life known as the twenties? Because nothing interesting ever happened? Or, more likely, was it because with the advent of the internet, we all had access to the midweek charts and simply couldn't be arsed to wait till Sunday to find out who was no. 1?
There was no doubt that Londonist were going to be excited then last week when the chart rules changed to include whatever the hell it liked. In fact we got so excited we *almost* kissed our A1 sized photo of JK and Joel. Then it became obvious that while the new rules were helping the hilariously named Gay Gordon and The Mince Pies chart higher than it ordinarily would, it was also helping Snow Patrol. And quite frankly anything that helps Snow Patrol should be destroyed.
While Hit40UK (crinklies, that's the not so new name for the network chart) have always pretty much just made their chart up, stores such as Virgin and HMV have carried an official singles charts. In fact, it was pressure from major high street music retailers that delayed the Official Charts Company from bringing in these new rules as stores were concerned that with non-physically released singles charting their lovely displays would look a bit higgldy-piggldy. So only a light rubbing of our crystal ball should have been enough to predict yesterday's jaw-dropping news that HMV are to drop the official singles chart from its walls and replace it with one they've just made up.
No Top of The Pops, no Smash Hits, no-one giving a damn about the Official Chart apart from Radio 1. And if the new rules end up creating an entire Top Ten full of Beatles songs when they hit iTunes later in the year, who knows whether Radio 1 will even stay loyal. Is the chart still important? Do you care about it any more? Our favourite thing in this whole disaster is HMV's claim that changing the chart wall on a Sunday night was an "exciting thing for staff to do." Let us tell you with former HMV shopgirls on the Londonist team, it was not an exciting thing to do, it was merely a pain in the arse that kept you late after work when you wanted to go to the pub.
Even though our Lord of the chart defected to a made up one in recent years, we have our fingers crossed that Mark Goodier goes to see HMV today and gives them a piece of his mind. Otherwise we'll be heading to all London HMVs armed with some cheese, and it won't be pretty.
