De-lighted

You are wrong about Greg. I've already posted in this thread about how he played a bit of it when playing back a clip of a telephone conversation with one of his friends where they were discussing the dance routine they were planning for it when they go on holiday. He described it as "their song", which suggests it's one of his favourites. Incidentally, Fern Cotton also forgot the script today when talking about the Michael Jackson tribute. The official reporter was talking about all of the Radio 1 approved acts, with some dull clips of Leona and JLS when Fern started talking about how amazing Alexandra's performance was.

Greg played a bit of it on his own show when he played back a recording of a telephone conversation between him and one of his friends. His friend had been working on dance moves for it for their impending holiday, and Greg described it as "their song", so obviously he's a fan. It is popular with a Radio 2 audience, but it's apparent it's popular with a lot of teenagers and people in their twenties too. Radio 1 misjudged its appeal, and all the guff about them not needing support or being played on Radio 2 or Heart doesn't alter the fact they got it wrong. They've have been all over it like a rash if they thought it would be a big seller. This is what I think Radio 1 should be doing with songs that have fallen through the official playlist gap. Clearly not everything can get on, and never mind whether or not the acts need the airplay, their listeners should reasonably expect to get to hear the year's biggests sellers from time to time, and not just during the chart show. As it happens, Edith Bowman played it this morning. I've no idea how she introduced it as I wasn't paying attention, but it seems as if common sense is prevailing. Either that or they are terrified it really will make number one and be the year's biggest seller without getting played on their station except when forced to do so.

THey've given the link twice, plus a whole string of tweets giving a countdown to it becoming available and encouraging retweets about it. It's a bit odd.

This thread is about the relative sales, so that's exactly why they can and should be compared in the way I did it. This is the chart forum, not the critical integrity forum. All you Will fans have always been keen to tell people how well he was selling when his sales overwhelmed the critical response, so you should extend the courtesy to other singers too. I'm not sure that Joe needs your concern, but I'm guessing your hope that he does well comes with the caveat "so long as Will does better".

Their respective total sales will depend on how much more promotion they can muster. Will's done more than Joe so far, and IMO doing a much hyped, and well advertised ITV special gave him just as much of a boost, if not more, than Joe doing PSTOS. Will had high profile performances on other prime time tv too, such as Chatty Man, and more recently Jonathon Ross, as well as actual airplay, album of the week on Radio 2 and as TT points out, it's had loads of media support with features in all of the main newspapers etc. As far as I'm aware, Joe hasn't done any prime time tv performances since PSTOS, and it's all been day-time stuff on This Morning plus QVC, except for some adverts during X Factor. Both acts will have had an existing audience, with Will getting a bit of a lift from the much publicised involvement of celebrity producer, Richard X, as well as his own hard-core. Joe's people were clever to include a track like Dance with My Father on his album, because that would connect a lot of people who loved him from X Factor. Will's going to be releasing another single, which is bound to keep sales steady, especially as he's got other high profile appearances lined up such as Strictly, and his future singles will all boost his sales. The question is really whether or not Joe will get wide media support as Christmas approaches becoming the gift of choice for aunts and grans across the nation. If he does, he could end up with incredibly impressive sales for the genre. Ironically, Will always used to have the reputation as being something for your nan, and this album seemed like a deliberate attempt to move away from that image. The battle was never between Will and Joe. Will was always going to do pretty well, while Joe's battle was to get media support. Even people who don't care much for his music seem pleased to see Joe do well because he was seen to be a victim of Cowell's cruel ways. People love the idea of giving Cowell the finger. I bet Joe gets an appearance on SCD too, and he'll be the subject of a lot of media coverage as X Factor progresses. Ironically (again), much of Will's promotion in the early days was based on the idea that he had to fight against Cowell who was supposedly always trying to thwart him, which won him a lot of general public support. Obviously the "Simon was mean to me" approach is not fool-proof as evidenced by Steve Brookstein!

I'd like Saturdays to get a number one some time, but not with All Fired Up. It's not special enough compared to songs like Up or Higher.

I'm glad it's pushed back. I mean, I want to hear it, but having the song go to radio the same day as Matt's wasn't a good idea. The link doesn't work for me. :(

So you weren't trying for a laugh when you said singing opera didn't require talent and anyone could sing it? It gave me a good laugh.

Congratulations on stating the obvious, but considering your irrational hatred of everything he does, and unwillingness to let his fans enjoy what success he has, I thought it odd that you moaned about people being negative in here. I've not noticed you being all that irrationally and hypocritically negative in other threads, so I do apologise if there are others I should have listed. So I'll rephrase the question - is there a reason why you only apply the "it's pathetic to be so negative" philosophy to some artists, but not others?

Do you apply this philosophy to the whole site, such as the Joe McElderry threads, or is this just for the people you like?

Except poor old Steve* didn't get a proper follow-up launch/second single. That was his winner's song, and his only single. *Not that I liked him much, and he was the co-author of his own undoing, but he did get treated dreadfully. Matt's song is a bit dull, but I don't think his fans should be too disheartened that people are queuing up to be critical. It's a song from an X Factor winner. Everyone wants to express their opinion when he, or another finalist releases their proper debut. If everyone expressed their opinion on most new releases after one listen, most people would be saying they don't much like it.

If you listen to a lot of radio you might not bother while it's all over the airways. Sometimes it takes a reminder a few months after radio stop hammering it to make you think you'd like your own copy. It looks like Leona's picking up the pace now. Perhaps more of her fans were happy to wait until this morning before heading to iTunes.

I disagree. Loads of non-chart artists have perfectly successful careers never selling much in the way, of anything of singles, but selling albums albeit in low volumes compared to the big pop acts. They are album acts. Anyway, Joe was described as an album artist, which means that's the focus of his career. It isn't a judgement on how successful he is or isn't at it, it's a description of the direction of his career.

It's a great radio song and I love it. It's not revolutionary, but it suits her and whoever is doing her A&R has come up trumps. It's a shame the video is a bit naff.

To be an albums artist you need to have more success with your albums than with your singles. Joe isn't releasing singles in this era, and his album is doing surprisingly well. That makes him an album artist, even if it isn't a massive seller. The Gold thing is a bit deceptive, but it shows that the retailers have faith in his ability to shift units in the coming weeks.