1. The prolonged period of roadworks in Manchester is coming to an end!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mancunian-way-hole-initial-work-9926966

As well as that whacking great hole on the Mancunian Way being repaired, direct trams are running through the city again from Friday. NO MORE REPLACEMENT BUSES!!

2. Manchester Pride is celebrating it's silver anniversary. 

It may have changed a lot over the years and people can have polarising opinions of it, but the fact that this event is now 25 years old is definitely something to celebrate! I hope that everyone attending has a great time and bucket loads of cash are raised for a great cause.

3. Jess Glynne 

4. Antony Murphy on Gaydio

Most radio now has become very safe and generic with no sense of fun anymore, so it's always pleasing whenever I hear this guy with his 90s show on Sunday nights. 

http://uk.gaydio.co.uk/on-air/antony-murphy/

So many great songs from the best decade of music! It really has been a perfect way to close the week :)

5. Pixar has got its mojo back!

The last few years for Pixar haven't really been the best. There have been too many sequals not really reaching the high standar set by film like Up and Wall-E. So when I saw Inside Out for the first time I was absolutely elated! It already is a true classic and, for me, the best film of the year so far. 

6. Who's Back

 Do I need to say more? Like most Doctors, Mr Capaldi has had an uneven first series, but I have every faith that now he has settled in to the role that things are going to be marvellous!

 So these are so of my reasons to be cheerful at the moment. Is there anything else that deserves a mention? Please let me know and have a great Bank Holiday!

Can you believe that 1995 was 20 years ago? Obviously it is but it really doesn't feel like it.

I remember the summer of 1995 being a pretty damn good one! I went to the Hacienda and Benidorm that summer - something that would never happen again after thay year for obvious reasons

My bank that then were also throwing all sorts of benefits for students, the one I used the most were the heavily discounted Cinema tickets at the Cannon Cinema in Salford. 

 Remember this place?

Looking at the top movies of the time however,  I don't think I was enjoying myself much - it's fair to say that this year wasn't a classic when it came to cinema!

1 Waterworld

2 Batman Forever

3 Casper

4 Free Willy 2 

5 Judge Dredd

6 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie

7 The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain

8 Bad Boys

The best film of the Summer by a long way was Bad Boys, who would have though that Michael Bay would go on to make such awful trash? 

In the news, only one event seemed to have happened around this time - the launch of WINDOWS 95! 

Start button, I love you :D

The Uk top 40 this week got more publucity than ever. Brit Pop bands Blur and Oasis decided to release their singles on the same day and the press milked it to death making it a battle between the North and the South (it really wasn't!)

In the end, Blur won. It was worth it just to see the smug smiles wiped off Liam and Noel!

1 Blur Country House
2 Oasis Roll With It
3 The Original I Luv U Baby
4 Take That Never Forget
5 TLC Waterfalls
6 Clock Everybody
7 Seal Kiss From A Rose / I'm Alive
8 JX Son Of A Gun
9 Michael Jackson You Are Not Alone
10 Corona Try Me Out
11 Michelle Gayle Happy Just To Be With You
12 Madonna Human Nature
13 Diana King Shy Guy
14 Berri The Sunshine After The Rain
15 Deuce On The Bible
16 The Rembrandts I'll Be There For You
17 Xpansions 95 Move Your Body
18 The Charlatans Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over
19 The Outhere Brothers Boom Boom Boom
20 The Real McCoy Come And Get Your Love
21 Suggs I'm Only Sleeping / Off On Holiday
22 The Connells 74-'75
23 De'Lacy Hideaway
24 Boyzone So Good
25 Supergrass Alright / Time
26 Alanis Morissette You Oughta Know
27 Ali Campbell Let Your Yeah Be Yeah
28 Echobelly Great Things
29 Scatman John Scatman's World
30 U2 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
31 Felix Don't You Want Me
32 Montell Jordan Somethin' 4 Da Honeyz
33 The Shamen Destination Eschaton
34 Bjork Isobel
35 The Levellers Hope Street
36 Radiohead Just
37 Eusebe Summertime Healing
38 ADAM featuring Amy Zombie
39 Edwyn Collins A Girl Like You
40 Happy Clappers Hold On

So many great tracks in this week's chart, it really was a fantastic year for Dance and House remixes. My favourite being number 9 - an instant Michael Jackson classic

Number 16 was the theme to the best TV comedy show show of that year, decade and all time

And finally, number five was one the greatest pop songs of the 90s - absolutely timeless!

All in all it was a pretty fantastic time!

This was the last summer of 1989 and as a child I remember it being a very good one. My memories of the year were being in Mallorca and bugging every DJ in every bar to play something by Kylie!

Then there was the Hitman Roadshow! Everything that was played on my hi-fi that year had "PWL" on the label, I was completely obsessed [not like now of course!]

These were the top ten movies in August 1989:

1 Parenthood
2 Turner and Hooch
3 Lethal Weapon 2
4 When Harry Met Sally…
5 Batman
6 Lock Up
7 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
8 Young Einstein
9 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
10 Dead Poets' Society

That's a pretty great list isn't it? This was the year that I started to go to the cinema a lot without my parents. I used to hop on the bus outside my house to the local Curzon cinema and pay £2.00 to see the new release of the week. If it was a kids film I took my two little brothers with me [I was a nice child back then...]

Batman was easily the best film of the summer. I think I went three times to see it! [Twice in one day!] I found the fact that is was the first film with a "12" rating fascinating...

When my pocket money wasn't being spent in the cinema, the Woolworths in Urmston got the rest of it. 7 inch singles in 1989 went down to £1.49 [which seems pretty expensive now!]

One song on the below list was purchased the second Woolworths opened when I also bought the cassette single and 12 inch, can you guess what it was?

1 Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers Swing The Mood
2 Kylie Minogue Wouldn't Change A Thing/It's No Secret
3 Sonia You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You
4 Lil' Louis French Kiss
5 Bros Too Much
6 Gloria Estefan Don't Wanna Lose You
7 Bobby Brown On Our Own
8 Alice Cooper Poison
9 Rufus & Chaka Khan Ain't Nobody
10 London Boys London Nights
11 Bette Midler Wind Beneath My Wings
12 Kirsty MacColl Days
13 Soul II Soul Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
14 Martika Toy Soldiers
15 Transvision Vamp Landslide Of Love
16 Inner City Do You Love What You Feel
17 Karyn White Superwoman
18 A Guy Called Gerald Voodoo Ray
19 Simple Minds Kick It In
20 Shakespear's Sister You're History
21 Simply Red A New Flame
22 The Lightning Seeds Pure
23 Paul McCartney This One
24 Gladys Knight Licence To Kill
25 Blow Monkeys featuring Sylvia Tella Choice
26 Prince Batdance
27 Pet Shop Boys It's Alright
28 Redhead Kingpin & The FBI Do The Right Thing
29 The Primitives Sick Of It
30 Dogs D'Amour Satellite Kid
31 Wendy & Lisa Satisfaction
32 Waterfront Cry
33 GUN Better Days
34 Monie Love Grandpa's Party
35 De La Soul Say No Go
36 Aswad On And On
37 Michael Jackson Liberian Girl
38 We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It Self!
39 Liza Minnelli Losing My Mind
40 The Beautiful South Song For Whoever

I think this is my favourite ever retrochart - SO many good singles. At the time I despised the number one single for obvious reasons, but today I appreciate it for what it is.

There are too many great songs to pick my favourites on this list but I'll give it a try!

This week's nice weather has made me want to look back at the warmest summer I can remember - 1995!

These were the movies released at the cinema in June 1995:

The Bridges of Madison County

Fluke

Congo

Smoke

Batman Forever

Pocahontas

Apollo 13

Judge Dredd

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie

Not much to say really! Hardly classics - a RUBBISH version of Judge Dredd, but I enjoyed it more that Batman Forever - the start of the end of the Batman Movie franchise. It was also the end of Disney's long run of great animated films with Pocahontas, a film rarely mentioned and better best forgotten...

During this time, I was at Uni and really enjoying all the music around. To me the summer of 1995 was a great period in pop music history. So when I looked back at the chart of the time I was a little disappointed to see a major atrocity at the top...

1 Robson Green & Jerome Flynn Unchained Melody / White Cliffs Of Dover

2 Pulp Common People

3 Perez 'Prez' Prado & His Orchestra Guaglione

4 Scatman John Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)

5 Baby D I Need Your Loving (Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime)

6 Ali Campbell That Look In Your Eye

7 The Nightcrawlers featuring John Reid Surrender Your Love

8 McAlmont & Butler Yes

9 Billie Ray Martin Your Loving Arms

10 Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson Scream

11 Livin' Joy Dreamer

12 Reef Naked

13 Ladysmith Black Mambazo featuring China Black Swing Low Sweet Chariot

14 Celine Dion Only One Road

15 Montell Jordan This Is How We Do It

16 Bon Jovi This Ain't A Love Song

17 Jimmy Somerville Hurt So Good

18 Michelle Gayle Freedom

19 Joshua Kadison Jessie

20 Therapy? Stories

21 Tina Arena Chains

22 Black Grape Reverend Black Grape

23 Take That Back For Good

24 Radiohead Fake Plastic Trees

25 Whigfield Think Of You

26 Happy Clappers I Believe

27 Bryan Adams Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?

28 Oasis Some Might Say

29 The Outhere Brothers Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)

30 Elton John Made In England

31 Jam & Spoon featuring Plavka Right In The Night (Fall In Love With Music)

32 Blessid Union Of Souls I Believe

33 Love City Groove Love City Groove

34 Curtis Stigers This Time

35 Annie Lennox A Whiter Shade Of Pale

36 Manchester United 1995 Football Squad featuring Stryker We're Gonna Do It Again

37 Bobby Brown Two Can Play That Game

38 Dodgy Staying Out For The Summer '95

39 Boyzone Key To My Life

40 Gompie Alice (Who The X Is Alice?)

To be fair, if we pretended that the Number One never happened and moved all the other songs up a place the chart isn't that bad at all.
Pulp had released Common People which was one of the best tracks from "A Different Class" which was one of the best albums of the 1990s. Dodgy, Radiohead, Reef and Oasis were also setting up the beginnings of the Britpop phase which was going to dominate the charts over the next 12 months.
Dance music was also entering a great phase with Baby D, Living Joy, Billie Ray Martin and Jam and Spoon releasing the best Dance Anthems of the year, not to mention a cracking David Morales remix of Michael and Janet's "Scream"
Here were my favourite tracks:

I should also mention Love City Groove, this first time the in the 1990s the BBC took the Eurovision Song Contest seriously and used the viewers of Top Of The Pops to select the song.

Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya

In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard
 
 
Bomb explodes in the Valley of the Fallen church in Spain - GRAPO claims responsibility

The first DIY SOS episode is aired on BBC One.
 
 
Ibrahim Baré Maînassara, president of Niger, is assassinated
 
 
A nail bomb explodes in the middle of a busy market in Brixton, South London

Depressing times it seems?  You wouldn't think it though looking at the UK Top 40. Cheese was easily the flavour of the month!

 1 Mr Oizo Flat Beat
 2 The Cartoons Witch Doctor
 3 Britney Spears Baby One More Time
 4 Billie Honey To The Bee
 5 The New Radicals You Get What You Give
 6 Eminem My Name Is
 7 Boyzone When The Going Gets Tough
 8 The Vengaboys We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)
 9 TLC No Scrubs
 10 Phats & Small Turn Around
 11 B*Witched Blame It On The Weatherman
 12 Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched & Billie Thank Abba For The Music
 13 Steps Better Best Forgotten
 14 Des'ree You Gotta Be
 15 Whitney Houston It's Not Right But It's Okay
 16 Robbie Williams Strong
 17 System F Out Of The Blue
 18 Catatonia Dead From The Waist Down
 19 Kele Le Roc My Love
 20 Sash! Colour The World
 21 Cher Strong Enough
 22 Andy Williams Music To Watch Girls By
 23 Blur Tender
 24 The Aphex Twin Windowlicker
 25 The Corrs Runaway
 26 2Pac Changes
 27 Another Level featuring Jay-Z Be Alone No More
 28 George Michael & Mary J Blige As
 29 Steps Heartbeat / Tragedy
 30 Manic Street Preachers You Stole The Sun From My Heart
 31 Tina Cousins Killin' Time
 32 Shawn Mullins Lullaby
 33 Reef I've Got Something To Say
 34 Mariah Carey I Still Believe
 35 Roxette Wish I Could Fly
 36 Blondie Maria
 37 Underworld Push Upstairs
 38 Lenny Kravitz Fly Away
 39 The Beautiful South How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?
 40 Beverley Knight Made It Back '99

Having said that, there really is nothing wrong witha bit of Cheddar! Ok some of it was very stinky [The Cartoons] and some of it was like Marmite [Mr Oizo], but there was also that of the tastier variety [B*witched, Cher. Etc].

One thing that does jump out though is the huge popularity if pop music, Britney was selling songs by the bucketload and Steps had THREE entries in the chart.

The power of advertising was in full swing at the time too, with Des'ree and Andy Williams enjoying chart re-entries.

When it comes to absolute classics though, three songs in the top ten have "timeless" written all over them...