[patrick boo]

Hit your head on the nail there Delbert. TV execs panicking 'cuz TOTP doesn't get 10 million viewers anymore? 4 million viewers? Well duh, excuse me, but if you put any programme on at the same time as 'Coronation Street' that is going to happen. TOTP used to be something that the whole family sat down and watched together, but if there's something more attractive for the parents, and probably most of the kids to watch, then they will, knowing that for most of them they have music TV on tap anyway.

Me, I don't have music TV on tap - hell, I don't even get music on the radio here. I don't get to see CD:UK, so TOTP is usually one of my only touchstones with the charts, which is why I'm royally pissed off they decided to fix something that wasn't broken. Now we're stuck with a plastic presenter delivering kindergarten links to artists playing fucking album tracks (Kylie, I'm looking at you - there's a reason why they're album tracks), competitions, fucking polls and other shite we don't need.

And this has all come about supposedly due to the fall in singles sales, 'cuz the singles chart doesn't mean anything anymore. Ever stopped to think why? fucking major label suits who realise that charging £15 for a piece of plastic is better than charging £3.99 for one, so you get singles designed to sell albums, nothing more, almost released from the advertising budget of LPs. LPs that 90% of the artists in the charts are not equipped to make, remember... pop acts make shite albums but great singles, it's a fact. You'd never get pop acts just releasing a single between LPs, just as a one-off, and that's a shame.

I can count the number of LPs I've bought this year on the fingers of one hand. Doesn't mean I'm not passionate about pop music though - my ratio of single to album buying is about 25:1 . I love singles, and so should you - that three minute sugar rush is not to be sniffed at.

So, in summary - ham baguette.