You can have it all

Gulp. A milestone, indeed - this blog (in its various iterations) celebrates fifteen years of existence today! Whoever would have thought that a humble snippet about the lunar eclipse would have given birth to such a behemoth..?

Way back in March 2007, the news headlines were all about Iraq, Afghanistan, the "cash-for-honours" scandal, the Trident missile sytem, and the Northern Ireland Assembly was born. By the end of that year, we'd seen the end of Tony Blair (yay!), Scooch at the Eurovision Song Contest (yay!) come last (boo!), the smoking ban in pubs and indoor spaces (boo!), and HM The Queen become the oldest reigning British monarch in history (yay!). In our cinemas in March '07: Hot Fuzz; Material Girls; The Good German. On telly: Benidorm, In the Night Garden, Dale's Supermarket Sweep, and the last ever episode of The Vicar of Dibley.

What about our charts this week fifteen years ago? The very annoying Ruby by Kaiser Chiefs had just stormed to the #1 slot, having unceremoniously deposed the far superior Mika with Grace Kelly. Also present and correct were Gwen Stefani, Akon (twice), Fall Out Boy, Kelis, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Just Jack, and Fray (nope, me neither).

But just arrived, and about to sweep everything before it and dominate the airwaves for the next few months was this masterpiece:

Take That - Shine

You, you're such a big star to me
You're everything I wanna be
But you're stuck in a hole and I want you to get out
I don't know what there is to see
But I know it's time for you to leave
We're all just pushing along
Trying to figure it out, out, out.

All your anticipation pulls you down
When you can have it all, you can have it all.

So, come on, so, come on, get it on
I don't know what you're waiting for
Your time is coming don't be late, hey hey
So come on
See the light on your face
Let it shine
Just let it shine
Let it shine.

Stop being so hard on yourself
It's not good for your health
I know that you can change
So clear your head and come 'round
You only have to open your eyes
You might just get a big surprise
And it may feel good
And you might want to smile, smile, smile.

Don't you let your demons pull you down
'Cause you can have it all, you can have it all.

So, come on, oh, come on, get it on
Don't know what you're waiting for
Your time is coming don't be late, hey hey
So come on
See the light on your face
Let it shine
Just let it shine
Let it shine.

Hey let me know you
You're all that matters to me
Hey let me show you
You're all that matters to me.

So, come on, get it on
Don't know what you're waiting for
Your time is coming don't be late, hey hey
So come on
See the light on your face
Let it shine
Just let it shine
Let it shine.

Marvellous. But, fifteen years? Where did they go?