This Week's Statistics #20, A Song, and A Film

This week's random song choice is a hit by British Progressive Rock band Marillion. Marillion were greatly influenced by Genesis and their sound is quite similar. Perhaps that's the reason they didn't achieve greater popularity - they came out at a time when Genesis were beginning to be considered "uncool" by the "cool" crowd. Still, they had very loyal followers, who follow them to this very day.

Kayleigh was their biggest hit, reaching #2 in the UK in 1985. It was kept from reaching the top by a charity single: a forgettable remake of You'll Never Walk Alone by a bunch of popular musicians who went by the name The Crowd. The song also made #2 in France, #4 in Ireland, and #8 in Norway. It also cracked the Top 20 in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In the US it reached #74 in the Hot 100, but it made #14 in Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

The song was exquisitively elegant and it soon became a favorite of mine. For reasons that I can't really explain, in my mind it was inexorably connected to a gay-themed film that I had seen and loved a few months earlier: Another Country.

Another Country is a 1984 British romantic historical drama written by Julian Mitchell, adapted from his play of the same name. It was directed by Marek Kanievska, who would go on to direct Less Than Zero.

The setting is a 1930s Eton-esque public school, where Guy Bennett (Rupert Everett) and Tommy Judd (Colin Firth) are friends because they are both outsiders in their own ways. Bennett is openly gay. Judd is a Marxist.

One day, a teacher walks in on Martineau (Philip Dupuy) and a boy from another house engaged in mutual masturbation. Martineau subsequently kills himself and chaos erupts as teachers and the senior pupils try their hardest to keep the scandal away from parents and the rest of the outside world.

The gay scandal however, gives the army-obsessed house captain Fowler (Tristan Oliver) a welcome reason to scheme against Bennett. Fowler dislikes him and Judd and wants to stop Bennett from becoming a "God" - a school title for the two top prefects. Fowler is able to intercept a love letter from Bennett to James Harcourt (Cary Elwes). Bennett agrees to be punished with a whipping so as not to compromise Harcourt; whereas on earlier occasions, he had blackmailed the other "Gods" with their own "experiences" with him to avoid punishment.

I won't go into what happens next, because I don't want to completely spoil the film for those who haven't seen it yet. I'll just say that the movie is loosely based on the life of the spy and double agent Guy Burgess.

It was one of Rupert Everett's three best roles (the other two being Dance With A Stranger and My Best Friend's Wedding). Did you know that Rupert Everett also made a Pop record? Well, he did, in 1987. Here's the title track from Generation of Loneliness:

And here's (part of) the original video:

Colin Firth was spectacular in this, his film debut: we caught glimpses of the actor he was to become. Cary Elwes, long before starring in Saw, was an absolute cutie, the perfect romantic interest for Everett. So, if you enjoyed Maurice, Brideshead Revisited and Lindsay Anderson's If, this film's for you. Here's the trailer:

Now, to this week's statistics: things are returning to normal, sort of. US is this week's #1, but for much of the week Russia was leading. Right now, it rests at #2, not too far behind the US. Greece sits comfortably at #3, with half as many visits as Russia and more than twice as many as #4, which is France. The UK is at #5, 10 visits below France and 10 visits above Germany, which is at #6. Only 2 visits behind Germany, new player China is found at #7, while Top 10 veteran Canada and newcomer Israel share position #8, 5 visits behind China. Just one visit behind them, another Top 10 veteran, Spain, is at #10. Also present, with one or more visits this week, are Austalia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. So happy to have you all!

No changes this week in the all-time Top 10: the US, Greece, Russia, Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Ireland and this week's inactive Cyprus hold places 1-9. At #10 Australia once again ties with Spain.

PS: the song we've been talking about last week, Dancing On My Own by Calum Scott, has moved up one place to #2 in the UK chart. Wouldn't it be nice if it finally makes it to #1?