THE SWEENEY are this week up in arms about the chart - and how it discriminates against bands who employ the services of fish!

The Essex guitar-pop group have been informed by the UK chart compilers that their currant single 'FISHFACE' has been banned from the chart for breaking the rules.

This is because the bands label, the small indie Rotator, put a free fortune-telling fish in with each copy of the single, a limited-edition, vinyl release.

The fish cost less than twenty pounds for a thousand - not even two pence each. At the same time, the rules allow singles to include glossy postcards and large posters. Singles can also be sold below cost, given away to shops and placed prominently in stores.

The fortune-telling fish clearly failed to warn the band that there was trouble ahead.

The Sweeney, whose achievements include a Number Nine placing in John Peels Festive 50, say they are "gutted" by the turn of avents.

A spokesman from Rotator said "I don't know why they bothered telling us we were banned-as if we give a flying F...ish anyway, I mean we're only a tiddler in record company terms-we're not interested in playing the chart game anyway with the promotional costs as stupidly high as they are."

recently published in Melody Maker