Actually I'm not sure Bowie was a huge artist in 1980 - his previous few singles before 'Ashes To Ashes' had struggled to go Top 5 at all, let alone enter there and it was only his second Number One - but I take the general point. Although it had happened before, the early 80s was the point when record companies really started to aim for big entries at the top; the Jam were especially big on this and indeed 'Start' [which was Number One on one of the skipped TotPs] was the only time they climbed to the top instead of entering there.

 

Their trick was to make sure shops had plenty of stock on the official release date and to have a fanbase who'd buy a single ASAP - but even then you'd need to be an established kind of act to get any kind of airplay before the single had started selling... which is presumably why Kelly Marie, who'd been in the chart before Bowie and the Jam, ended up topping the chart after them. That side of the equation didn't really start to change until the mid-90s but of course when it did that also had a knock-on effect on what shops chose to stock and so on, and ultimately everybody had to try and compete. That said though, of course in the days when a single was a physical object I think we all understood that there was a lead time for manufacturing and distributing them, which is much less the case with a download.

In the 80s, the media didn't bat an eyelid if your single debuted outside the top 40. It didn't necessarily mean it wouldn't be a hit. Now it's seen as a disaster.

Yeh true Wham and artists like that tends to enter the top 10 in week one too for the reasons stated. Ashes to Ashes entered high because IMO 1) it was Bowie which would have had some sort of effect. 2) it was a classic track and 3) because the video seemed quite unique and central to its success.

 

Suedehead could maybe help on this one?

Actually I'm not sure Bowie was a huge artist in 1980 - his previous few singles before 'Ashes To Ashes' had struggled to go Top 5 at all, let alone enter there and it was only his second Number One - but I take the general point. Although it had happened before, the early 80s was the point when record companies really started to aim for big entries at the top; the Jam were especially big on this and indeed 'Start' [which was Number One on one of the skipped TotPs] was the only time they climbed to the top instead of entering there.

 

Their trick was to make sure shops had plenty of stock on the official release date and to have a fanbase who'd buy a single ASAP - but even then you'd need to be an established kind of act to get any kind of airplay before the single had started selling... which is presumably why Kelly Marie, who'd been in the chart before Bowie and the Jam, ended up topping the chart after them. That side of the equation didn't really start to change until the mid-90s but of course when it did that also had a knock-on effect on what shops chose to stock and so on, and ultimately everybody had to try and compete. That said though, of course in the days when a single was a physical object I think we all understood that there was a lead time for manufacturing and distributing them, which is much less the case with a download.

 

Back in 1980 records were still being issued on a Friday and then Polydor decided to release the Jam's going underground on a Monday. The chart week was Monday to Saturday (no Sunday trading). So records released Friday got only two days of sales. However Saturday could see a great deal of stock fly out the shops. But records would tend to enter low and then climb. With the success of the Jam's Monday release more record labels started to issue records on a Monday, but the change over was slow. I suspect a lot of Record Shop owners were not certain when some records were being issued.

Nevertheless records were still sent to Radio Stations and DJ's in clubs etc. These were marked Promo or had a large "A" on the label. You can still see these today on e-bay and some second hand shops. Some labels put the release date on them. CBS were very good at this, but others didn't. Capital Radio in London made up the top 40 they broadcast from records the station liked. Generally they included new records as soon as they had a copy and placed it in the chart. From looking at the release dates of these records, some only had a week of promo release, others were several months, though of course not every record on the top 40 of Capital made the top 50 BMRB or top 75.

A much better way of breaking a dance act were the disco's in 1980, especially the Gay clubs. The Kelly Marie single was such a record. It was VERY popular in the North of England, especially Sheffield and Bradford, but was not down London way. The BMRB chart was only based on 250 shops, plus regional sales were played down. Otherwise the chart would have a high new entry from a Football record in one particular area, when it should only be say 90! Alan Jones in Record Mirror also reported that the Kelly Marie track was selling in the local sales charts of the ILR stations in Yorkshire. They did not make them up unlike Capital! The record company cottoned on to these sales and remarketed the record on another label and the sales took off.

But Radio Airplay wasn't very affective at ensuring a hit. So there were two other ways to ensure a hit. The first was the format. Coloured discs, picture discs, different sleeves, 12" records and many more. Or you bought the manager of the shops a bottle of wine, free records, which they could then sell on to the public and many other ways.

If that didn't work you went to the chart shops asked to see the BMRB diary and with a lot of persuasion the owner or shop assistant would let you have the BMRB diary and you could then fill it out! The Label employing the rep, would of course make certain their products stand out records selling more that the rest, but they were not stupid and made them look like they were genuine sales, by adding some ticks to another company's records.

The practice was revealed by World In Action in the same year of 1980. Ironically Warner were the worst offenders of it. And what did they do about it? Appoint the boss of Warner as the chair of the BPI!

 

 

Thanks for the overview. You say radio wasn't as important - was radio 1 important?

Thanks for the overview. You say radio wasn't as important - was radio 1 important?

As the only really national pop music station it was important. The only other being Luxemburg, which did have a reasonable audience. Radio One did suffer a disadvantage, due to the fact it was a AM station only as was the other. Whereas the ILR were all FM stereo as well as AM. Radio One was only stereo when it took over the radio two transmitter, for certain shows such as the chart and Saturday afternoon shows, with the USA charts. John Peel was lucky to also use the Radio Two FM band, as the night time transmission of AM was bad.

 

The Radio One playlist was more important than it is now to record companies and the record company pluggers were out in force they day that records were to be chosen for that. Some Radio One DJ's have commented in their books that all sort of things went off to get them to play a record on the airwaves.

 

But actually Radio One DJ's and the station itself were not good at picking the hits. In fact my local ILR station Radio Hallam was independently voted the top station for prediction of hits many years running. The station's programme director and former Pirate Radio DJ, Keith Skues regularly beat all the top DJ's at Radio One for picking the most hits and he was number one nearly all the time. In fact most of the top DJ's for that were Hallam presenters, nearly all beating the likes of Tony Blackburn.

It was only the. mid 90s when radio 1 started focusing on new music which went down badly with older bands - before the 90s did radio 1 have a playlist? Would a top 10 hit have a 5 times a day rotation like nowadays?

Radio One always had a playlist. It was probably an add on since the days of the Pirate Stations. But it was worse than that. All the shows had a script, even down to fluff Freeman's "allright". How many times he said etc! Each show had a producer and each show was cleverly put together. Records could be marked restricted in the BBC record library and DJ's wouldn't play them. The BBC and all the Radio Stations all had a thing to deal with called "Needle Time". ALL the Records played were given a precise time limit, for each day. This could not be exceeded. It was introduced by the demand of the Musician's Union, who demanded that their members should have live work. Radio was accused of playing records too much - thus cutting down the living for musicians playing live. The Unions controlled the BBC radio and TV and the BBC was powerless to do anything about it. Needle Time has now been done away with so the stations can play recorded music as much as they like. To get around the problem of not been able to play records, they had competitions, recipes, interviews, documentaries and of course the phone in. More popular on BBC local radio of course! Of course there was no restriction on live music, so that could be used. Needle Time probably made the radio a bit more interesting back then, for they couldn't just play records all the time. For example I suspect the Radio One Roadshows came out of the Needle Time thing. They could spend ages shouting to the crowd say at Blackpool "Hello Blackpool". And Dave Lee Travis wanting a stick of rock! Of course we know now that wasn't what he really wanted! But that's the nature of presenters.

Back in 1980 records were still being issued on a Friday and then Polydor decided to release the Jam's going underground on a Monday. The chart week was Monday to Saturday (no Sunday trading). So records released Friday got only two days of sales. However Saturday could see a great deal of stock fly out the shops. But records would tend to enter low and then climb. With the success of the Jam's Monday release more record labels started to issue records on a Monday, but the change over was slow. I suspect a lot of Record Shop owners were not certain when some records were being issued.

Nevertheless records were still sent to Radio Stations and DJ's in clubs etc. These were marked Promo or had a large "A" on the label. You can still see these today on e-bay and some second hand shops. Some labels put the release date on them. CBS were very good at this, but others didn't. Capital Radio in London made up the top 40 they broadcast from records the station liked. Generally they included new records as soon as they had a copy and placed it in the chart. From looking at the release dates of these records, some only had a week of promo release, others were several months, though of course not every record on the top 40 of Capital made the top 50 BMRB or top 75.

A much better way of breaking a dance act were the disco's in 1980, especially the Gay clubs. The Kelly Marie single was such a record. It was VERY popular in the North of England, especially Sheffield and Bradford, but was not down London way. The BMRB chart was only based on 250 shops, plus regional sales were played down. Otherwise the chart would have a high new entry from a Football record in one particular area, when it should only be say 90! Alan Jones in Record Mirror also reported that the Kelly Marie track was selling in the local sales charts of the ILR stations in Yorkshire. They did not make them up unlike Capital! The record company cottoned on to these sales and remarketed the record on another label and the sales took off.

But Radio Airplay wasn't very affective at ensuring a hit. So there were two other ways to ensure a hit. The first was the format. Coloured discs, picture discs, different sleeves, 12" records and many more. Or you bought the manager of the shops a bottle of wine, free records, which they could then sell on to the public and many other ways.

If that didn't work you went to the chart shops asked to see the BMRB diary and with a lot of persuasion the owner or shop assistant would let you have the BMRB diary and you could then fill it out! The Label employing the rep, would of course make certain their products stand out records selling more that the rest, but they were not stupid and made them look like they were genuine sales, by adding some ticks to another company's records.

The practice was revealed by World In Action in the same year of 1980. Ironically Warner were the worst offenders of it. And what did they do about it? Appoint the boss of Warner as the chair of the BPI!

The boss of Warner (John Fruin) was also in charge of the BPI when the World In Action programme on chart rigging was broadcast - he had to resign because of what was revealed (rather than being appointed after the programme had been broadcast!).

 

The World In Action expose on chart rigging - broadcast on ITV on Monday 18 August 1980 - is available to watch on YouTube. For those who haven't seen it, the programme is a fascinating look at the music industry and especially how the charts were compiled back in 1980.

 

 

The programme is half an hour long but it's worth watching as a wonderful examination of how things worked back then.

Edited August 3, 20159 yr by Robbie

Thanks must get a look at it then. World in Action used to be on when I was younger always hated it at that young age though I'd love a show like that now!

The boss of Warner (John Fruin) was also in charge of the BPI when the World In Action programme on chart rigging was broadcast - he had to resign because of what was revealed (rather than being appointed after the programme had been broadcast!).

 

John Fruin received a name-check on BA Robertson's Bang Bang, which was released on Asylum Records, who are owned by Warner, which raises doubts over the legitimacy of some of Bang Bang's sales...

John Fruin received a name-check on BA Robertson's Bang Bang, which was released on Asylum Records, who are owned by Warner, which raises doubts over the legitimacy of some of Bang Bang's sales...

In the World In Action programme, 'Bang Bang' is one of the records mentioned as having been hyped into the charts.

 

In the World In Action programme, 'Bang Bang' is one of the records mentioned as having been hyped into the charts.

That might be true. But it doesn't mean a record wasn't selling. It just means it wasn't selling well in the chart shops used by BMRB.

Records back then were sent out in bulk to the record shops, when first issued, so without checking each of the record shops to see what was selling, the only way a record company knew a record started to sell well is when shops ran out of stock and requested more. The only other way is if it sold in the chart shops.

One record company executive is on the record as saying 'judging by our records chart positions if we are hyping records we are not very good at it!'.

Calvin Harris at #1 on iTunes right now kinda proves the case for 'On Air/On Sale' and it has taken 4 years for the UK record industry to concede this fact.

I agree but what about other new releases like Silento, Duke Dumont etc which have struggled with the former only being. Listed this week by radio 1?

I agree but what about other new releases like Silento, Duke Dumont etc which have struggled with the former only being. Listed this week by radio 1?

 

Too early to say as this is just the first week those songs have been released ( I expect Silento will climb ), however I would argue since Duke Dumont's last single flopped in at #32 following a disastrous held-back release by MoS, R1 may be a little more cautious.

Yeh they didn't add it immediately this week anyhow although it may get support in the coming month(by which time it may have fallen a lot on iTunes:().

 

It was still a hottest record last week on Annie Mac which is always a good sign for daytime support. I'm loving it at the moment.

From ROTD

 

Several regular readers have contacted us this week to ask the same question: were we privy to what might have seemingly caused a thawing of the frosty stance between Global Radio and Sony a couple of weeks ago? It came just around the time of our editorial piece about On Air/On Sale and was soon after it looked like they were about to snub the Calvin Harris OAOS track. Now in high rotation across Capital’s network and consolidating its Top 3 status on the singles chart (possibly as a result of the now extensive airplay) could it really be true that many factors were involved, one of which may have been a plan by Global to work together with Sony on a new streaming project, something which was turned down point blank unless they started playing ball on OAOS?

 

Or was it (and we can scarcely believe the audacity of this) the jaw-dropping arrival of some sort of itemised invoice for payment from the US, detailing hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs incurred for Sony acts appearing at the station’s Summertime and Jingle Bell Ball events?

Edited August 14, 20159 yr by AcerBen

*.* sony snatching global's pretentious weave ~ love it :yahoo: :w00t: :yahoo: