Chartwatch

Chartwatch was founded by John Hancock & Neil Rawlings in 1981 to serve a small and eccentric community of people interested in analysing record charts. It also has printed booklets and a Chartwatch accont : chartwatchuk.

From 1983 to 1995, the annual chart booklets were compiled by David Longbottom from the charts published in Record Mirror and Music Week. Up until April 1991, a feature called "The Next 25" was in the singles and albums chart. When Record Mirror ended publication in 1991, The Next 25 was deceased and both charts were reduced to a Top 75, but expanded to a Top 200 in January 1994, though the data for positions 76-200 is not published on a booklet yet. In 1996, Tobias Zywiestz took over compilation of the Annual Chart Booklets, using the charts published in Hit Music which extended the Music Week charts to a Top 200. In 2005, a 2nd edition, with positions 76-200, of the 1995 booklet was printed.

When Hit Music ended publication in May 2001, Herman Verkade established a newsletter called Charts+Plus, now known as UK Charts Plus.

David Longbottom also produced bookets for the 60's, covering the Top 50, only singles charts, from Record Retailer

All booklets feature chart runs, exculding 1983 and 1984 which only have summaries, of the charting singles and albums, plus a number of year end charts and statistics. The basic entries contain title, entry date, positions & point score.



The booklets of 1995-2000 feature positions below 200 for singles, due to downloads.

2005 and 2006 had a Top 250 for singles, but then reduced to a Top 200 in 2007