Who needs bathrooms? ([email protected])
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 11:14:03 -0600
>From The Irish Times:
Music store tills ring out at Christmas
Stockists are reporting record orders from
retailers but shop shelves are likely to be
groaning under the weight of golden oldies,
writes Kevin Courtney
Ladies and gentlemen . . . seconds out for the
Christmas 1998 CD challenge. In the red corner, we
have the young hotshots of pop music, led by Billie,
B*Witched, All Saints, Five and Robbie Williams;
they're lean, mean and cleaning up in the record
stores. In the blue corner we have the golden oldies,
survivors from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s still
fighting fit despite their age, and keen to make a
comeback in a market which has recently been
overrun by boy bands and girl groups.
The young guns have glamour, energy and
high-street cred, but the old guard have experience,
superstar quality, and a good stock of back
catalogue material.
This Christmas, the grand old popsters are putting
their past on the shelves, releasing a record number
of greatest hits packages in the hope that punters
will buy a piece of rock 'n' roll history and pass over
the teenypoppers' transient offerings.
This CD title bout will be fought in record stores
around the world, during the industry's most crucial
sales period, and the prize is a top spot in the
Christmas charts - documented proof that the
punters have forked out their seasonal cash for your
particular product.
Leading the fightback against the teenypop menace
are long-established artists like U2, George
Michael, REM, The Rolling Stones, Meat Loaf, Dire
Straits and Cher, with reinforcements coming in
from "in-betweenies" such as M People and Alanis
Morissette, artists who have only been around a few
years, but who have developed enough commercial
clout to qualify as "mature".
Early signs point towards a grey Christmas - at the
end of October, for the first time in chart history, the
top five singles in Britain were all new entries, and
four of them - Cher, U2, Culture Club and George
Michael - have been around a lot longer than
Boyzone.
With a crop of hardy perennials on the shelves this
season, the record industry is hoping to gather in a
bumper harvest following a rather fallow period for
major artist action. This year was notable for the
lack of "event" albums like The Verve's Urban
Hymns or Oasis's Be Here Now, the kind of records
which carry enough weight to pull the whole industry
along in their commercial wake. But 1998's pickings
have seemed meagre.
The two big event albums of this year were only
released early this month, but they've already
outperformed the whole year's crop, and look likely
to emerge as two of the biggest sellers of 1998.
Ironically, U2's The Best Of 1980-1990 and Alanis
Morisette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie hit
the shops on the same day, giving retailers their
best 24 hours of the entire year. The U2 album went
platinum in Britain within a week of its release, but
in the US, the Irish band's monumental back
catalogue toppled before the might of Morissette's
quirky, cathartic songwriting. The 24-year-old
Canadian singer shot straight into the Billboard 200
album charts at number one, leaving U2 in second
place and setting a new record for first-week sales
by a female artist. According to SoundScan, which
compiles the official Billboard charts, Supposed
Former Infatuation Junkie sold 469,000 units in its
first week, beating the previous record of 422,500
which was set by Fugees singer Lauryn Hill last
September.
Major US retailers such as Best Buy, Musicland,
Target, Blockbuster Music, Transworld
Entertainment and Camelot Music will remember
November 3rd as the day the Christmas rush really
began, with customers snapping up the Morissette
and U2 albums, and also new releases by Celine
Dion and The Rolling Stones. REM's latest album,
Up, also had a big opening in the States, but its
initial surge is likely to be followed by a sales
plummet as punters shy away from its resolutely
downbeat style. It will also be interesting to see if
Morissette's album can sustain its momentum and
hold its high chart position - especially against the
army of greatest hits CDs which are currently
assaulting the charts.
This Christmas, the market is top-heavy with "best
of" albums by some of the world's biggest pop
stars. Leading the pack are such heavyweights as
Mariah Carey (the biggestselling female artist of the
1990s), George Michael, U2, Phil Collins, Meat
Loaf, Dire Straits, Julio Iglesias, Tom Jones, Duran
Duran, Culture Club, Motley Crue and M People.
Also in the shops are live albums from The Rolling
Stones, Aerosmith and Garth Brooks, b-sides
collections from Oasis and Metallica, and
retrospective box-sets from John Lennon and
Bruce Springsteen. "It's the biggest Christmas I've
seen so far," says Mr Darren Smith of EMI Ireland.
"I've never seen so many big artists with albums out
at the same time.
"We spend 50 per cent more on advertising and
promotion during the Christmas season than we do
during the rest of the year," says Ms Kathryn
Mason, press and promotions manager with BMG
Ireland. "Most of the seasonal CDs are advertised
on TV - if it's not on TV then it won't be a hit. At
Christmas, we're putting our money on just five or
six albums, doing co-operative ads with HMV,
Virgin Megastores and Golden Discs, and pushing
what we think will be the big sellers. Some albums
have been out since June, but we re-promote them
for the Christmas gift market. A lot of people only
buy albums for Christmas presents, and they go for
what they see advertised on TV."
"The orders coming in this week are phenomenal -
nearly double those of the previous week," said Ms
Mason. "The Christmas rush has well and truly
started."
The biggest item on BMG's Christmas list is M
People, whose "best of" album is currently at
number four in the British charts.
"We're spending more money on promoting M
People than we've ever spent on any artist. It's the
perfect timing for the campaign, especially with the
band in Dublin for two gigs at the RDS next week."
Ms Mary Clare O'Si�chr� of Sony Music (Ireland)
will have plenty of reason to celebrate this
Christmas: sales of George Michael's best of
collection and Oasis's The Masterplan have
surpassed all expectations, and the new Mariah
Carey collection is expected to move even more
units than U2 or Alanis Morissette.
"The re-orders for George Michael are amazing,"
says Ms O'Si�chr�. "He easily knocked U2 off the
number one slot in Britain, although the boys beat
him on their own turf. The Oasis album, which
remember is only a b-sides collection, is proving
almost as successful as their regular albums.
We're completely taken aback. Mariah Carey will be
the big one this Christmas - she's already sold 70
million albums in her career. She's had 13
consecutive number one hits, and all of them will be
on this album, plus her duet with Whitney Houston
for the soundtrack of Prince Of Egypt, which might
even beat The Spice Girls to the Christmas number
one spot."
Ms O'Si�chr� is also looking to strong home sales
for Irish artists like B*Witched, Cathy Vard and
Ronan Tynan. "It's been a great year for music
sales, although we won't know the exact figures till
the end of December. But with such a variety of
talent both international and Irish in the shops this
Christmas, there's something there for everyone
from your granny to your baby sister."
-------------
Condensed from The Irish Times:
Limerick music firm opening London office
By Emmet Oliver
A company which manages the financial affairs of some of Ireland's
most successful pop acts has opened a new office in London as
part of a drive into the British music industry.
Limerick-based Artwest Business Management manages the
finances of Boyzone, Morrissey, the Cranberries, Kerri Ann, Westside
and Ronan Hardiman, composer of Lord of the Dance.
The company's two directors, Mr Alan McEvoy (32) and Mr P.J.
O'Riordan (26), brother of Cranberries lead singer Dolores, have
also recently taken a 40 per cent stake in the Limerick radio station
95FM and are currently looking for suitable office space in Dublin.
Mr O'Riordan entered the area after acting as business manager
for the Cranberries, while Mr McEvoy spent years working for Mr
Ossie Kilkenny, the longstanding accountant with U2.
-------------
>From NME:
Oh Joy Unrestrained
U2 have began work on their new album in Dublin with BRIAN ENO
and DANIEL LANOIS producing. Speaking at Queen's University
as part of the Belfast Festival, Eno said: "It's too early to say what
new ideas are coming up, but the only thing that is appearing as a
theme, as an idea, is an attempt to do the most difficult thing in
music, which is to create joy. That is extremely hard."
He continued: "It's actually dead easy to make melancholy. It's
easy to make energy, its easy to make cleverness, it's easy to
make intrigue, it's easy to make glamour. But it's very very hard
to make joy. To make music that really grips you and lifts you in
some way. That's hard. So that's what we're trying to do in some
way."
Eno's remarks echo comments made by THE EDGE to NME
recently that the band's next album will be their most optimistic
record.
During the talk, Eno also said that his most memorable moment
with U2 was during the Popmart tour's visit to Sarajevo in 1997.
"It was probably the most moving show I'd ever been to," he said.
"At one point U2 dedicated a song to the British UN soldiers, who
had been very demoralised at this point. The whole audience
applauded the peace-keeping force. These troops were in tears.
The crowd just applauded on and on...It's a stupid thing that
pop music lets people take their defences down."
U2 will auction BONO's lyrics for the band's current hit 'The
Sweetest Thing' on March 24 next year. The pop auction, being
held at the London WC1 Sound Republic, aims to raise more than
'500,000 for the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy charity and
Norwood Ravenswood charities. ALANIS MORRISSETTE who
has donated the lyrics for current hit 'Thank U'.
-------------
(Prarit's note: The song that was quoted at Brian Service's
funeral was "One", not "All I Want Is You". Two weeks ago's
digest contained a story on the Brian Service funeral, and CNN
made note of the following:
"Father Brady felt it particularly apposite to quote
from their song One, which they played in Belfast in
the pro-referendum concert attended by Mr John
Hume and Mr David Trimble:
One love, one life, one blood, you got to do what you should,
One life with each other, sisters, brothers,
One life but we are not the same,
You got to carry each other, carry each other." )
>From CNN:
Bono Sends Message to Loyalist Murder VICTIM'S Mum
(NOV. 18) WENN/P - BONO SENDS MESSAGE TO LOYALIST
MURDER VICTIM'S MUM U2 star BONO has sent a message of
sympathy to the grieving mother of a Loyalist murder victim in
orthern Ireland. The DESIRE hitmaker wrote to ANNE SERVICE
after her son BRIAN was gunned down by two Red Hand Defenders
in Belfast earlier this month (NOV98).
The singer made the gesture when he heard that a priest had
mentioned Brian's love of U2 at his funeral service. The cleric also
used the words from one of the group's songs - ALL I WANT IS YOU -
in his address to mourners. Last May (98), Bono and U2 boosted
hopes for peace by publicly backing the referendum YES campaign
in Northern Ireland. (IS/WN/RXT/AFW)
-------------
Thanks to Marty([email protected]) for compiling the
following:
The Best Of 1980-1990
Pride: - (nothing new)
New Year�s day: I presume this is the single version as it has the
same length. Don�t know, though, if the version on the 7" also has
the skip around 0:58 (don�t have it)
With or without you: -
I still haven�t found...: -
Sunday Bloody Sunday: The version on TBO is 3 seconds longer and I
cannot really explain why. My only suggestion is that the pitch is
a bit (1%) lower, but I�m not sure.
Bad: On TUF, just before the Revelation...-part, Bono does some
hoo-hoo�s. These are left out on TBO, which makes the song 16
seconds shorter.
Where the streets...: This version is an edit of the album version.
This is not the single edit! That version had backing vocals by The
Edge, this one doesn�t.
I will follow: -
The unforgettable fire: -
Desire: -
When love comes to town: Here, the outro is slightly longer. For the
maniacs: at 4:12 you can hear an extra guitar lick of BB which you
couldn�t hear on the R&H version.
Angel of Harlem: -
All I want is you: -
October: - (no, my CD plays the whole song and not just a snippet)
The B-Sides
The three sunrises: This version is a it longer (3 secs) and i think
it is the intro (fade-in) which is responsible for this.
Spanish eyes: -
Sweetest thing: -
Love comes tumbling: The intro is much shorter and different (the
false start). On the original, Bono would not immediately start
singing after the guitar intro, but first a section with the riff
would follow.
Bass trap: Large edit (1:30), but I don�t know where (haven�t got the
single with me). Around 1:02 I do hear a skip, so it could be at
that point.
Dancing barefoot: 30 seconds longer. This could be the version as
found on Threesome (the soundtrack). On the version on the
WLCTT-single, Edge�s guitar wouldn�t go into �overdrive�, just
before the "Oh God, I feel for you"-section.
Everlasting love: -
Unchained melody: -
Walk to the water: -
Luminous times: -
Hallelujah here she comes: ? (don�t have the single here, so I can�t
compare, but I thought that it was longer on the Desire-single)
Silver and gold: -
Endless deep: ? (I had never heard the song before)
A room at the Heartbreak Hotel: For some reasons this version is
about 1 minute shorter. On the AOH-single, there would follow a
section with more "Hallelujah"�s.
Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl: ? (never heard the original
before)
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-- Prarit....[email protected] U2 news: http://www.members.home.net/u2-news/u2.html
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