[CharlotteSometimes]

I don't doubt for a second that the re-issue of Snap! has been timed to coincide with Weller's Brit Award - much the same as James Blunt's Chasing Time: The Bedlam Sessions, which is also released today. But this is a little more than "only a Jam 'best of'". It's widely regarded as one of the best ever 'best of' compilations, and revered as much as Bob Marley's Legend, for example. Snap! was first released in September 1983 as a 29-track double album (vinyl and cassette only), including all the single A-sides, as well as selected B-sides, album tracks and rarities. Initial copies of the album also included a 4-track E.P. recorded during their farewell concert at Wembley. When it was released on CD in September 1984, it was re-titled as Compact Snap!. That was a single-disc issue, with eight tracks removed and no sign of the E.P. tracks at all. Fans understandably weren't too chuffed with Polydor's hatchet job, especially as they had to wait another two and a half years until they finally began issuing the back catalogue on CD, and almost six years until they'd finally finished the job. Compact Snap! has been digitally remastered and reissued since, but still only as a single disc with 21 tracks. This is the first time it's ever been available with the full 29 tracks as a double CD, and there's also a limited edition 3 CD version, which includes the four tracks from the original E.P.

As for the Weller solo album, As Is Now (originally issued October 2005) is relaunched today as a double CD edition. So no, not technically 'new', but re-promoted / relaunched - whichever you prefer. Preston has had his face all over tv, the magazines and press, not to mention numerous radio interviews. Weller is back in the limelight because of the Brit Award, which levels the playing field somewhat for those who think Ordinary Boys are anything like viable 'competition'.

And let's not forget that Brassbound was a flop as far as sales are concerned. It had sold 70,000 copies (as of February 5th.), roughly half of those this year. So in the six months before CBB, it had sold just 35,000. Its peak chart position (pre-CBB) was 31, which is really quite appalling for a supposedly established act on a major label. On January 21st, it was at number 79 in the album charts - the week before it was at number 124. In the latest charts announced yesterday, Boys Will Be Boys remained at number 3, selling 20,488 copies. Sales of Brassbound fell by 15%, clearing 15,936 copies, with the album falling from its peak position of number 11 to number 20. To put into perspective, album sales last week totalled 2,394,477 in the UK.

I think Weller has every right to criticise Preston. Let's put it in context - he didn't call a news conference, or issue a statement. He was asked what his opinion was, and he replied honestly. On the Ordinary Boys' own official forum, almost all of the regular, more mature members back Weller, rather than Preston. Only three posts out of 27 disagree with his comments, and most of them are in agreement that there wouldn't even be an Ordinary Boys at all, were it not for Weller's influence.

Weller clearly saw someone he thought had prospects selling his soul on live tv. People may like Preston's music - personally, I think it's pretty shoddy third-rate 2 Tone pastiche. And they may like him as a person - personally, I think he's a charlatan, pretending the silver spoon in his mouth is plastic. He's the Damon Albarn of the noughties, in fact. Overall, we saw a little man worried that his band was about to be dropped from their recording contract, acting out of desperation. He got up, showed that he's a very gullible, naive and not particularly bright person, flirted with a bimbo and thoroughly humiliated his long-term partner on live tv, and then went back to bed once again. A nonentity as far as entertainment is concerned, with a complete absence of anything that could even remotely be described as 'rock star credentials'.

With the amount of exposure he's had, record sales have been extremely poor in comparison. He's lost much of his band's fanbase (once the Ordinary Army, now the Prestines) in one fell swoop, with disillusioned former fans posting on the Ordinary Boys' forum calling him a 'media *****'. A third of the bands' dates at small venues around the country still haven't sold out - basically because many of his former fans have deserted him, and his new fans aren't allowed out after dark. But for the last word on the Ordinary Boys, look no further than their interview in the current edition of N.M.E. His comments in reference to CBB are clearly massive distortions of the truth - but he puts the final nail in the coffin all by himself with the quite pathetic comment; "We're a punk band at heart". If Ordinary Boys are a punk band, then Sugababes are death metal, and Il Divo are industrial techno.