judetheobscure

Why do you think *Joe* is deluded or that it's *him* that needs to be more ambitious. Promotion is not his job, it's down to the record-label and the management. His radio promotion focused on the north and north-east because those were the stations that invited him. He gets more bookings there because those are the places that invite him. His management have to keep plugging away and using all the means at their disposal to get him promotion in other parts of the country and the word is that they are doing this. I'm 100% certain that Joe does not want to be a local celebrity.

Why do you say this? The Classic tour sold out the first Newcastle night and a second was added which was near sold out too, plus there was a Middlesbrough date too - so I'd say his support there is certainly stronger (not surprisingly) than in other parts of the country. Of course he will have lost some fans when he moved from pop to crossover but I don't think it's accurate to say that the NE support is no longer there for him. He also gets good media support with the radio tours being centred on the north-east and north, the "takeover" slots on Metro Radio and regular snippets on the north-east TV channels' news programmes. We'd love him to have the same kind of publicity in the south and this is obviously not going to be quite so easy to come by. Which is why it surprises me that the advertising for the album is so heavily focused on the north-east and north. Yes, advertising in the London region is more expensive, but that is because it broadcast to a much larger population.

Joe said in an interview aired today that he would be doing some writing. That it was likely to be in both styles - pop and classical/crossover but that he wouldn't be avoiding covers altogether.

I joined to follow Joe's progress on the chart threads (you can see my earlier posts on there). Then I found your thread and felt compelled to put the record straight :P For the record I have nothing against Will, I have one of his albums and I thought he did a great performance on Strictly. I just don't understand why some posters find it necessary to put down other artists in the process of supporting their own.

That's a bit of a snidey remark :o I think you'll find many of the classical crossover artists appear on QVC. Katherine Jenkins, Hayley Westenra, Russell Watson, Alfie Boe to name just a few. So it's not a case of not affording to be choosy - Decca would have been missing a trick if they hadn't got Joe on there.