Ah, so it’s that week. “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo has now been out for 11 weeks and so – since it passed its peak several weeks ago – it shifts to the lower streaming points for older records. This rule, designed to stop the top end of the chart being logjammed with older singles, goes unnoticed most of the time, because it normally affects records that were on their way down anyway. With number 1s, its more of a problem, since it has the absurd consequence of a song dropping direct from 1 to (in this week’s example) 18. Which is to say, you can see the strings a bit too obviously.

Anyway, that leaves the door open for…

1. Nathan Evans, 220 Kid & Billen Ted – “Wellerman”

This has also been out for eight weeks already, so its chances of having an extended run at number 1 are slim to none. It’s only fair to note that it’s spent that entire time at either number 2 or number 3, so it’s not too much of a travesty for it to snatch a week at the top. It’s also entirely possible that he would have got here legitimately, since (a) Rodrigo was hanging on by the skin of her teeth, and (b) he showed up on Saturday Night Takeaway to promote the song last week,

Having reached number 1 with his debut single, Nathan Evans adds his name to the list of one-hit wonders. Olivia Rodrigo, recall, is already off that list, since “All I Want” managed a week at number 32. Nathan Evans must have a pretty decent shot of staying on it. Billen Ted also join the list, their previous chart contributions being as producers rather than credited artist. But remixer 220 Kid doesn’t join the list, because he already had a number 9 hit last year with “Don’t Need Love”.

Eight weeks in, “Wellerman” has turned out to be… less annoying than you might have thought. You don’t stay at the top of the chart this long on ironic novelty value alone, and after all, underlying the whole thing is a perfectly good tune.

Number 2 is “Latest Trends” by A1 & J1, which has been climbing from 19 for six weeks now but really makes a leap this time round. That’s mainly because of a new remix, featuring the much-higher-profile Aitch.

3. KSI featuring Yungblud & Polo G – “Patience”

That’s KSI’s third straight single to place in the top 3, which ought to remove any doubt about whether he’s crossed over from YouTube to a mainstream music career. It’s an extremely 1980s track.

Yungblud’s album “Weird” reached number 1 at the end of last year (and rebounds to 9 this week, apparently because he did a live stream of some sort). This is his first real success on the singles chart, where his only previous appearance was guesting on a Bring Me The Horizon track that got to number 37. He’s also on the lockdown charity version of “Times Like These”, which got to number 1, but that hardly counts for this purpose.

Rapper Polo G makes his first singles chart appearance, though his second album made the album top 10 last year.

Further down, there’s some more new blood climbing. “Friday” by Riton x Nightcrawlers featuring Mustafa & Hypeman climbs 7-5, and I suppose at this point I should note that the original version of “Push The Feeling On” got to number 3 – there’s a reasonable shot that this could beat it. “Bed” by Joel Corry, Raye & David Guetta climbs 17-8. “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee climbs 18-9, on the back of debut  album “Wild West” – which enters at 2. “Your Love (9pm)” by ATB, Topic & A7S climbs 14-11, and “Streets” by Doja Cat climbs 19-12, and “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan climbs 26-13. Again, that’s linked to the release of his debut album “Evering Road”, which enters at number 1 this week.

16. Central Cee – “6 for 6”

Another track from the aforementioned “Wild West”. This is pretty good, actually – better than “Commitment Issues”. It’s maybe worth noting that “Wild West” is, unusually, a 14-track mixtape with no guest features at all. Someone’s making a point there.

“My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max climbs 22-9, and on the back of Grennan’s album release, “Let’s Go Home Together” by Ella Henderson & Tom Grennan rebounds from 32 to a new peak of 21. “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Masked Wolf climbs 30-24, and “All You Ever Wanted” by Rag’N’Bone Man – which looked to have stalled after entering at 33 two weeks ago – makes it to 29. And, ah, there’s one more new entry this week…

36. D-Block Europe & Raye – “Ferrari Horses”

I’m not quite sure what’s going on here. This is an album track from D-Block Europe’s ridiculously bloated, 29-track album “The Blueprint”, but that’s been out for months. It is one of their better tracks, largely because Raye brings something different to it from their usual (and very, very familiar) formula.

On the album chart, we’ve already mentioned Tom Grennan at 1, and Central Cee at 2.

3. Thunder – “All The Right Noises”

The veteran rock band – they had their first hits in 1990, but their previous incarnation Terraplane started in 1983 – have been routinely notching up top 10 albums in recent years. Number 3 is nothing out of the ordinary for them.

5. RJ Thompson – “Lifeline”

Singer-songwriter. It’s his second album, but the first to chart. The single’s a definite throwback, but it’s solid.

16. David Bowie – “Something in the Air”

Another live album from the archive, this time from a show in Paris in 1999.

24. Rob Zombie – “The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy”

Pretty much where his previous album landed. One of those albums where you feel the music can’t possibly live up to song titles like “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition”, “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man”, “The Satanic Rites of Blacula” or “18th Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train”. And indeed, judging by the video above, it doesn’t.

28. Selena Gomez – “Revelacion”

Barely an album, this is a 20-minute EP aimed more at the Spanish-speaking market. Number 28 may sound low for a release by a big name, but Gomez’s UK chart record is hit and miss at the best of times – she has a top ten hit every year or two, the last one being 2019’s “Lose You To Love Me”.

31. The Anchoress – “The Art of Losing”

The Anchoress is Catherine Anne Davies, and this is her second album; the first one, back in 2016, didn’t chart. The reviews have been strong.