milly

Kath, still not bored of trashing everything Gary does? Your posts are very amusing :D

For a crap show (as critics say), it sure gets nominated for awards: http://thebroadwayblog.com/2015/04/21/1230...ard-nominations

III is back in top 100 and These Days spends one more week as well in the charts :cheer: But streaming continues to be their enemy. III would have been 81 without streaming. I hope this won't affect any future albums' chart position.

If Harvey disposes of Gary just because of some pretentious critics, then he's a fool. He hired Gary because he liked his offering and the audiences love it as well. Harvey may not be in it for the money, but I'm sure he's in it for the success and impressive sales equal success at this point. It's true that we have to wait and see if the show maintains its current success, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will. The show already has 7 awards, a Tony would be amazing, but I don't think it's a necessity. To be fair, though, the score was not the main weakness of the musical, according to the reviews. This is just an invention of the press. Most of the reviews were mainly bothered by the anachronisms in the play. I don't agree, however, that Gary should take some time off. Regardless of the "critics" - who, imo, are by no means highly intelligent beings -, the solo album did really well and it's still my favorite album, so far, and III isn't a failure either. Gary and the boys have to keep on making music and keeping fans satisfied. After all, it's fans who matter, not journalists.

This is not really about the musical doing well or not - I'm sure it will be successful and deservedly so. For me, this is about the press humiliating Gary once again just for the fun of it. Even the new article in Daily Fail about the impressive sales was turned into an article about how this musical is a failure and how the whole blame lies with Gary. There are some decent articles as well, emphasising the fact that the critics might have it in for Harvey, which would explain the discrepancies between the reviews during previews and the "official" reviews, but who's gonna read and care about those articles when the big tabloids only take the information they want and then distort it as they please, only to feed their hateful readers? I just don't get this pleasure of hitting a man time and time again, creating the image of a worthless human being, never mind artist. I'm not so sure Gary doesn't care about reviews. Of course audiences' reaction is more important, but it must have hurt him reading all those negative remarks. If he didn't care about reviews, he wouldn't be posting the positive ones. I still remember him saying, during a 90s interview, that he used to cry himself to sleep whenever they got a bad review. Even last year, there was an article about how he got very depressed about some of the negative reviews for his solo album. He's just a human being, after all, I doubt that bad words just fly over his head.

I'm glad you stated this already, in a calm manner, because I'm so pissed right now I could swear (and I never swear). I've just read the DM article and I'm fuming. When did this all become Gary's fault? Now he's responsible for the whole show?!! That article is so distorted and full of lies I wouldn't know where to begin. The reviews haven't been great, but, aside from very few, none of the reviews said the score was awful. And the idiots commenting on the DM get on my nerves as well. I don't get why the press relishes so much in Gary's misfortune and why he is always targeted in a negative way. I can think of lots of "less talented" (so I don't say something worse) "artists" who get continuous praise, no matter what they do. And I really really don't understand why the UK doesn't support its internationally successful artists. You'd think they'd be proud of Gary for making it onto the Broadway. Anyway, my feelings remain the same towards the critics: musical snobs, prejudiced towards pop and with a beef with Harvey. The score is absolutely beautiful and so touching. All those people in the audience loving it, they can't all be stupid and deaf and only the critics the ones holding the supreme truth.

Glad to see Eliot finding the bright side of things: eliot kennedy ‏@NYCSteelerfan Well, the critics hate @NeverlandBway which probably means we have a true hit and will run for years. Brilliant. I just hope people won't let themselves influenced by the reviews.

Nice review: http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/04/15/broad..._source=dlvr.it "Gary Barlow wrote the music in a sort of Beatle-y, Elton John lite motif, with plenty of catchy songs like “When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground,” “Better,” “Circus of Your Mind,” and “Believe.”" My main problem with the reviews is that they don't seem to grasp the concept that a musical is not a documentary and it doesn't have to be truthful to the real story. I don't know why it's so difficult for these "critics" to understand that a musical is a work of FICTION. Well, I'm not sure they really don't understand, but they don't want to understand because then they'd be forced to admit that FN is good. And I'm also annoyed that these critics are so prejudiced against pop. I've read a review saying that the score was to be expected to be sup-par after hearing what These Days sounded like. To me, that sounds like the music had been judged even long before being heard, on the mere basis that it was pop and not the conventional theatre music. "I was not actually surprised by how badly written the show is; I suspected from listening to chirpy Take That hits like “These Days” that the songs would be inapt, and I half-expected the tired “fairy” jokes and self-referential winks. " http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/theater-rev...-neverland.html To be honest, after reading several reviews, all the critics sound like snobs.

The review in The Guardian is atrocious, but I can't say I'm surprised. For a paper who never said a good word about Gary, it certainly lived up to the expectations. I'm not so fussed about "critical" reviews. Of course, I'd want them to be fair and positive, but considering the UK press has it in for Gary and the US one has it in for Harvey Weinstein, fairness seems like a far away target. Besides, FN has already won enough awards to prove that it's a quality show, which counts more than some reviews and proves that Tony awards are not so far fetched under these circumstances. I just hope that people reading the reviews don't let themselves influenced by what they read and wait to make up their own minds.

Lots of awards for Finding Neverland. I'm so proud of Gary right now. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?stor...351248908231579

III is nowhere to be seen in top 100. Based on sales, it would have still been in the charts :( At least we have some comfort in the fact that These Days is hanging in top 100.

The boys seem to be writing new material and it sounds great: https://instagram.com/p/1S0XBvk3YS/

So, we're looking at sales of around 6000 copies for These Days. Not too bad.

These Days back in top 100, at 77 (59 based on sales) :cheer: But the album keeps dropping :( 89 this week (77 based on sales only) :cry:

Wow, this is unexpected. If only it had the same effect on the album as well. Maybe I'll get my wish next week, on Easter day ;)

I'm still wondering what happened with the Ant and Dec interview. It wasn't much promotion, but still...at least it served to remind people of TT. I don't think FN has been a reason for the lack of promotion. There's been plenty of opportunities when Gary was in UK, but nothing happened. I'm starting to think more and more that they chose not to promote on purpose. Even so, I'm still deluded enough to hope for a 3rd single :)

Another intimate gig before the tour: http://www.key103.co.uk/win/win-to-see-take-that/ I don't mind these small, exclusive gigs, but I just don't see their purpose, sales wise.

Gary promoting These Days at the wedding :party2: :dancing: :music: :yahoo: :dance: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=879935...amp;pnref=story Edit: Sorry for the misinformation, it was at another event last night, not at the wedding. Although the song would have been appropriate even there.

I don't know if the situation is the same as when Robbie left, for the simple fact that people say that Zayn was the singer of the band, while Robbie...well, was not (and going by his most recent video of Bohemian Rhapsody, still isn't) :P In all seriousness, though, there doesn't seem to be the same hysteria with 1D as it was with TT. But, if the comparison benefits the boys, I have no problem with it. I'm a bit bored of reading about 1D, but I guess it's normal that everyone talks about the group. On Amazon and iTunes, there doesn't seem to be any change for III, though.

For me too, Progress is the less listenable TT album. While I can appreciate what they were trying to do, I just can't enjoy it - well, for me, the vocals are very important and I missed Gary's voice a lot on Progress, so I'm a bit biased. Plus, there was just too much electronic distortion of the voices. III for me is their best album, right there with Beautiful World and just a little behind Since I Saw You Last. While I love These Days, I have other songs on the album that give me goosebumps. But, in terms of singles, I agree that maybe These Days was the best choice. I still hope we get a 3rd single, even if it flops.

I don't blame Robbie either for the sound, I know that's all down to Gary. But I think most people, who aren't aware of how the album was written, put it down to Rob. I've read more times than I can count that The Flood was written entirely by Robbie, which is telling to how people perceive things. And the stupid journalists have always put the sound of Progress down to Robbie, as a praise. If they had known it was all Gary, they would have torn him to pieces. I agree. Jason didn't seem comfortable at all on the documentary or during interviews. I don't know if it was because of the cameras or because of Robbie, but something was definitely going on. I hope the rumours are true and there is a show. The boys need some promotion, it's about time. I don't think they've ever had so little promotion, it makes me think it was intentional.

Not only his return didn't benefit them, I could go as far as to say it damaged them. Many fans didn't take to the new sound and to Robbie's antics during the tour. I think fans could be more open to Gary's solo offerings than to TT's - at least going by the constant sales of SISYL and by the fact that Gary's new musical sold £500,000 of tickets in just 24 hours. People know what kind of sound to expect from Gary. whereas TT have experimented too much with Progress and put some fans off. It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for them. Personally, I don't think they'll ever have the success of their previous albums again, but I think the fanbase has stabilised somehow and the fans who stuck by them so far will continue to support them and allow them to put out music, which is all that matters for me. I hope you're wrong and Robbie doesn't outsell them. I don't think the quality of his material has been good over the past years and I doubt it will improve.

I noticed there's quite a bit of verve (is that the word??) about Gary's new musical, The Girls. Maybe that will benefit the album. Any publicity that reminds people about Gary or TT is good (although I wouldn't dare read the comments section in The Guardian).

I'm not that surprised about the fall in the physical singles chart. There were only a couple of thousands of physical copies released and most of them were sold last week, so there wasn't much to sell this week. But the fall of the album was depressing. I had grown used to it being in top 30 week after week.

:( :no: :cry: :snif: Based on sales, it would have been 46. Not much of a difference, but at least it would have still been in top 50. I hope now that Gary is back in UK, there's some sort of promotion lined up before the start of the tour.