Ten years ago last month, the Blur vs. Oasis battle for chart honours was resolved in favour of the former, whose Country House topped the singles chart with sales of 274,000, leaving Oasis' (What's The Story) Morning Glory runner-up on sales of 216,000, writes Alan Jones.

In 2005, singles rarely sell in such quantities, and Oasis' latest, The Importance Of Being Idle, topped the chart last week with sales of 47,235. It suffered a 59% downturn in sales - to ...