Number 5 this week.

I also like Humpback Wail. Where have they been hiding? Why are they not signed? The mind boggles.

Outstripped the Christmas Trees Tall contender

Can he hang on for the Christmas Number One????

Didn't like either new entry much.

Cheers Al, we have been running around all day finding as many indie record shops as possible, via lists we have found on on sites like this, it`s 10.45pm and we are exhausted.
Ok, not that many, I lied, but boy ,lunch was good!
The thing is with Robs` song, it has no sell by date, and this year is the first splash at it.
I recorded it, so that it would not ever,date.
I want Rob to crack this season, as indeed myself too, as I have put a lot a lot of love into the project, but the Fab Chart is brill, and indeed "Fab" and helps a lot.
Hey you lot?! Get your Fab Chart message board stuff going!
I here sleigh bells!

I'm not impressed with Tower of Foil - a bit like a poor copy of Beautiful South. Humpback Wail remind me of Men Without Hats (whatever happened to them?) and are quite good. Rob Harding is the deserved highest climber. Steve Boniface has a good song at no.2 and I do like the no.1. Interesting point made on the mag page about Rob being 50 years older than Julie. You don't get that in many charts these days.

The Fab Chart is a good place to hear new music.

Two things for you Cat. I noticed the Fab Mag this week quoted Rob Hardings age at 50, he`s actually 61.
Men Without Hats, a good friend of mine wrote to once, and recieved a Christmas card in return, signed by the band. I think the expense of running the band through mainly European sales probably proved too much. After the "Safety Dance", there wasnt a great deal of material left to follow it up.
It`s worth a few of us digging out material for submission to this chart, my friends new Buddy Holly covers cd is another class addition which I will submit for inclusion.

I looked and the Fab Mag says that Rob is 50 years older than Julie - not 50 years old. So they got his age a year out because Julie is 12.

Thanks for the info on Men Without Hats.

Alas, Rob fans, all this attention and press release work and we are still self distributing!
I have to say the DIY approach is rather fun, but come December we will be in the office less.
Any e-mail enquiries should be addressed to

oneminutealbum@aol.com

and marked "Pope", in the title for a download or a cd, Paypal only, failing that we are just mailing copies to indie retaliers, and there is a Christmas gig planned now.
It`s all a rather fun project and doesnt it just remind you of the film "Love Actually"?
Any tipsters with indie retailers in your own area, that we havent found please get in touch.

Cheers wingedley, Martin

Martin .. is it still possible to find out which shops submit to the official charts? I recall several bands during the 80s targeting these shops to give themselves a booster. Our last local indie record shop closed a while back.

I wish you and Rob success with the Pope song.

Officially it is not supposed to be possible Al,unofficially, it`s the same as the 80`s. The village indie shop which I lived by in the 80`s was the most poorly kept secret Gallup shop in the world.
Major companies would send acts down to sign their product, and the 12" singles, double packs etc would leave the shop for as little as 50p and be logged onto the system.
A miracle like Nizlopi as an indie, last year is virtually impossible to achieve without the live following they had prior to release, and the superb video which we don`t have.
I am quite happy with the rattling of cages currently, and of course the Pope himself is giving us unaware media support at this stage.
There is a song from about 1980, called "Christmas Rapping", which emerges every December on playlists(probably one of JK`s, I have no idea), it wasn`t a genuine hit, but this is my long term goal with this song currently.
We are getting Paypal sales, but of course they can`t log for a chart position.
Major press release on Friday.

Thanks for asking.

Rob Harding was unavailable for comment.