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Only one week to go!

Some said it would never happen. Others, that it’s too little, too late. Whatever the reasoning behind The One’s disastrous non-physical release and promotion, the video for the single has finally surfaced. And it’s really rather good.

Granted, on first watch, it appears to have been made for 1p and looks like a bootleg, but on repeated viewings, it works its magic. The pulsating backgrounds, and zooming in and out Kylies suit the style of the song very well, and it’s simple in its subdued palette with flashes of technicolour brilliance.

The art deco and Fifties styling work well, too. I’d even go as far as to say that it’s probably the best video from the X campaign singles (not to mention ‘the one’ that fits in with the X image the best), although WOW will remain a favourite, if only for its I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper overtones.

But, it’s not enough to save the single’s chart performance. Creeping in at a lowly 36, the download-only release has soon slid down the placings. It could have been so different. Undoubtedly (and deservedly), a misguided Parlophone should have used this storming remix version to kick the whole X campaign off. It would have then started with a very big bang, rather than now be going out with a very tiny whimper.

The story goes that Lose Control was one of X’s forgotten children, but given the negative press Kylie received for the whole X campaign in the US, maybe she should have released this stomper instead of the R&B-tinged All I See.

A visionary YouTuber saw the potential months ago. When I first saw the clip below, I genuinely thought that Apple had picked up on the song. Perfectly synched and with the bright 1980s colours that (the decade that X evokes tries to evoke most), who’s to say what would have happened if this had been the first shot from X’s US cannon.

After all, the coolness of the Apple and iTunes association did wonders for Coldplay recently, helping shoot them to the top of the charts across the Atlantic. There’s yet more synchronicity, too. The British music makers and Kylie share the same record company. The track has had repeated plays on my iPod this week; with a potential Apple association like this, who’s to know what could have been?

It’s a month to go until the latest assault from Kylie’s X tries to crack the charts. The One had ‘single’ leeching from every disco-bleep electronic pore, and it’s been an X highlight for many a fan, so it’s good to see it getting the commercial treatment.

Part of that treatment is of course, the ubiquitous set of remixes. Mostly, the majority of remixes on a single (or in modern pop parlance, download) are rubbish, all dancefloor filler, only appealing to clubbers and not those of us who only wave their hands in the air when saying goodbye to someone. It will, somewhat obviously, go down a storm in the gay clubs, but will it be a summer smash?

Popjustice is campaigning the track, and so in good jumping on the bandwagon fashion, I’ve pinched their clever widget, as I like it a lot, too. I don’t know about ‘one of the most beautiful and captivating pieces of electronic music you’ll hear in 2008,’ but as the high-camp album version (also produced by The Freemasons) got such a favourable response, this remix should do equally well.

(Bah, spoilsports! You’ll have to click on the Popjustice link above to hear the remix, as Parlophone have made this player only feature recent Kylie tracks.)

And, perhaps as a masterstroke, Parlophone have chosen a 28 July release date, just a few days into the tiny stars (broken) 7-night KylieX2008 tour residency at The O2.

‘Love Me, Love Me, Love Me,’ Kylie coos in the chorus. Applicable to both the singer and the song, I already do…

You can find musical gems in the unlikeliest of places. It’s been reported before that charity shops can be a surprising source of forgotten vinyl records, and so it proved on Saturday. A trip into town was more fruitful than we thought it may be, and I walked out of the local Oxfam three 12� singles heavier, and around £10 lighter.

What did I buy? I have long been a fan of Stock Aitken Waterman artists, and the powerhouse studio team that created them. Masterminding some of the defining sounds of the 80s, countless acts recorded with the trio, Bananarama being just one of them. A corner in my spare bedroom was already heaving under the weight of just part of the Stock Aitken Waterman back catalogue, but extended versions of I Heard A Rumour and Love In The First Degree now nestle with longer mixes of I Want You Back, Love, Truth And Honesty, Nathan Jones, and Help!

The biggest find of the day though was probably the earliest Kylie remix available in the UK. Australia was celebrating its bicentenary in 1987, and so one of the first remixes of I Should Be So Lucky was entitled ‘The Bicentennial Remix’, and it was this which was the most exciting of Saturday’s haul. At only £3.99, it was somewhat of a bargain, too.

Charity shops can hold the most surprising secrets

Yes, I do own it digitally, on a Greatest Remix Hits CD, but its always exciting to find an item which ‘completes the collection’. It never does of course, as the collection keeps growing to accommodate the other ‘missing’ records that you find, but there’s a frisson of excitement when you stumble across that rare item. That it turns up in a most unlikely place adds a certain something, as does taking it out of the sleeve to check it is what it says it is, as the said sleeve is the same as the regular 12� version, apart from a sticker proclaiming a different code number to the original.

It would appear that a Suffolk Stock Aitken Waterman fan was having a bit of a clearout, and that local Oxfam was the beneficiary, as yet more Kylie 12â€?s rubbed sleeves with Rick Astley, Sabrina, and Sonia. All in perfect condition, it is almost tempting to go back and pick up the other extended records by the tiny Australian to replace mine, which now have a yellowing edge to the sleeve opening, where, over 20 years ago, I put tape on to protect the paper. As my mum and brother will tell you, the records were in and out of their paper cases quite often…

And as artists have discovered a new-found vinyl thirty-something collector audience (even Kylie’s last single In My Arms was released on a neon pink 7-inch, and Norwegian trio Lorraine regularly offer vinyl versions of their singles with stamped labels), maybe it’s not time to put the turntable away in the loft to get covered in dust just yet…