On holiday in the Lake District, one evening by the fire, my wife and I were talking and she asked me why I liked the charts so much. I tried to explain. My wife is not a fan of the charts, but that does not stop her appreciating the enthusiasm and effort I take over the subject. I’ve known people who appreciate somebody listening to a person talk on a subject they feel passionately about, without sharing that passion themselves.
When I had finished explaining she asked me why I didn’t complete a book of my own – “after all,” she said “if it’s all in the database then it should be easy right? And if you enjoy it and others enjoy it then they might like to see what you have done.”
And so I did.
The first book was issued in 2017 and was for the NME Singles charts for 1952-1959. It took me ages to set it all up and I learnt a great deal. Making it the way I did was not ideal at all and I resolved to do something better. Over the next year I made more books and got irritated each time with the effort it took. Once again my wife helped out with an excellent suggestion “Well, why not re-make the database then, if that’s all you need to do?”
So in December 2018 I began to re-build the database from scratch, building in from the beginning ways to create and format the books and ensuring that’s I got as much of it right as possible. Yes, errors do still abound. I keep finding incorrect catalogue numbers or spelling errors in artists names or titles. But, on the whole, the database is a vast improvement over the original one – begun back in 2006!
I mention all this because I have re-created that first book and anybody purchasing the Decade Series Volume 1 (1952-1959) from now on will receive the updated volume. Do please check out the page because a lot of work has gone into making it a new volume. The page count has doubled as I have gone for adding in full credits, and I have added an image to the database for each and every cover, meaning that I now have the ability to list the number 1’s with a cover image.
Date is also now added for artists entry date, hit count, weeks, etc, which was previously absent.
I’ve enjoyed putting this together and re-visiting my first book. Do you have any ideas for other books I could create? Do let me know and I’ll add to the list.
I’ve also updated the dates of issue of the further decade books in the series. 1980’s has been put back to 2023 because the full Gallup Top 200’s with sales data are being posted on UKMix and I want to wait to add them all in. I also need to work out how to complete them properly in book form.