Nosey

Blimey! Where did all this hatred come from?

Oh, yes please. :dance:

By now the whole album will have been pressed and shipped all around the world. I can't see SBMG letting it be postponed. A reissue is realistic, but I wish labels and artists would get it right the first time.

Thanks.

I've just had it pointed out to me that I got a bit confused here. Graham Duffin was the guitarist from Wet, Wet, Wet who previously worked with Ricky and is on the McGuire programme. Graham Kearns is Gareth's regular guitarist who he's been all around the world with, but also written a few songs with. Too many Grahams, lol. As I've just learnt how to do this, it's the perfect opportunity to post my favourite video of Gareth singing with Graham, and it's the first song they wrote together too. [flash=450,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTmaQDB3nGM.swf Or maybe not, it's just a white square now. :wacko:

I didn't watch it, but all music is manufactured to a certain extent. Take That would definitely fall into the category of manufactured as they weren't friends from school who decided to sing, but rather put together after doing auditions. A large chunk of their latest tour draws attention to this and makes a big joke out of the fact that they all had their role to play in the 'boy-band' machine. You simply cannot have that with a solo artist, and being 'discovered' on tv makes you no more or less manufactured than being discovered in the pub! But things were different when Take That were launched. Everyone knew they were manufactured, but no-one cared, because people weren't so snobby about it then. People are snobby about it now, to the extent that most PR people go to great lengths to demonstrate their artists are "real". Whatever the rights and wrongs of that snobbery, it's a fact of the modern industry that is ignored at the peril of the labels.

I didn't know Scritti Politti were back! :cheer: That's a blast from the past, lol.

You've hit the nail on the head there, except I'd say that it's been true for a few years. In particular, it's essential to demonstrate that you too are a music fan. Unfortunately Gareth was perceived to be 'manufactured' pop star who was assumed to be stupid, do what he was told, and wouldn't know one end of an instrument from the other. The reality has always been that Gareth has a genuine passion for music, but instead of being promoted as someone who had studied music for years, got top grades in music exams, who enjoyed a wide variety of music and who had contributed to the style and content of his album (at least one CD of it), in his wisdom, Mr Cowell saw fit to promote Gareth as nothing more than a good looking teen idol who wanted to sing Westlife songs. :blink: Looking back, I don't know if he genuinely thought that was a good way to promote him, or if it was his sheer pig-headedness at trying to go against the tide of what was happening in the industry? Thankfully Gareth is now clear of that Simon, so the whole of his new album will reflect his personality, and hopefully the promotion will be focused around who Gareth really is. If so, and if people aren't too proud to admit it, he can fulfil all the requirements of what is expected from a 'real singer'. (except he wasn't discovered in the back room of a pub/on the internet by a trendy music journalist, but there's not a lot that can be done about that now. :P ) The right song will always be important, but despite the supposed move away from 'manufactured' music, the role of the PR machine to do a good job of convincing everyone that your music is 'cool' has never been more important.

I can't believe I'd forgotten about that one, which is a different one to the one I posted! And the photo taken by the shy, but very excited fan (bless). http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/willowmybaby/meandgaz.jpg

It's my opinion that a few are trying to wind up Gareth's fans by being as obtuse as possible, making it as hard as possible for us to have a sensible discussion and to keep it on topic. I believe that locking topics punishes the fans and anyone else who is trying to have a sensible discussion and rewards the ones who want to cause trouble.

Can't you just delete the offensive posts and let the rest of us get on with things? I was only aware of one repeat of the Tonight With Trevor MacDonald, but maybe they did a late night one, or one when I was on holiday. Either way, it's hardly Gareth's fault if ITV want to repeat a show that presumably got them good ratings in the first place. I don't understand why people get so upset about something that helps the general public understand a much misunderstood disability.

Thanks for re-opening it. It's bad enough that you can't just discuss someone without it turning into an arguement, but it's better not being able to discuss them at all! Hopefully people can stay on topic now. :D :D The documentary was repeated, but just once - as part of a re-run of the whole of the previous series. It was a couple of months before Gareth released his single, so hardly a tie-in. The original documentary followed him dealing with his stammer within the music business and so followed him as he made his video, and so the timing was bound to coincide with the release of that, but as it was a charity single it still baffles me that people got so worked up about it. At the end of the day, when Gareth is back, it will be a subject that people will want to know about and as Gareth is now something of an expert on it all, he's hardly in a position to refuse to talk about it. I wouldn't want it to dominate interviews to the extent they neglect the music, as happened in the past, but I hope now he's able to do proper, serious and lengthy interviews, they'll ask all those questions then move onto other areas. I don't know if the rumoured documentary will focus on how Gareth has progressed with his speech, but it's a strong contender as the Tonight With Trevor MacDonald team have expressed an interest in a follow-up. If there was such a follow-up, then that might address many of the questions on the subject so free up the other interviews to tackle those subjects, or if it's interesting enough, they might just want to ask even more questions. If Gareth were to do a documentary regarding his speech from cold, then certain people will just say that he's got nothing else going for him and he is doing it to make himself famous again. If he does it when his profile has been raised through traditional promotion, then certain people will say it's all a crass publicity stunt. I don't think he should let those sorts of people dictate his schedule for him. I certainly don't think those people have any regard for who might be helped by such a piece.

No fan photos, but there's the following photo that was posted on someone's blog that attended. You need to scroll down a bit now to get his own report on it all. I think that's the person Gareth co-led the course with last year. http://www.michaelhay.com/muchohabla/images/gareth_galway.jpg

It does spoil the place when threads get hijacked, but this isn't the first time and it won't be the last and I don't think the answer is for mods to lock them. I know it gets really boring and tedious, and if we wanted to read about Will we're all more than capable of reading one of their many other threads about him, but that doesn't mean we should just give up on otherwise interesting threads. Baytree, you are right. As a fan I've always been very impressed with Gareth's attitude to tackling his stammer and helping others, but he's taken it way beyond what we all expected. It's clear from what he writes and what's written about him that it was very important to him to be able to do this. It's obviously a very time-consuming thing for him, which means we have to keep waiting that bit longer, but if you are a fan of someone, you have to respect that they have goals and aspirations that may extend beyond the day job. Besides, when your day job is music, it's a good thing to expand your horizons and when you are working in the fickle and often shallow world of showbusiness, it's very grounding to continue to work with people from all walks of life. We know that Gareth spent a fair amount of time working with Ricky Ross, formely of Deacon Blue, who also formerly worked with Graham Kearns, formerly of Wet, Wet, Wet. Graham also attends the McGuire programme and so Gareth and Graham know each other quite well. I can't help but wonder if that had any bearing on that collaboration?

Congratulations. :cheer:

With some people, Gareth can never win regarding his stammer, which he didn't exactly pick as some kind of devious marketing ploy. If he speaks and shows any evidence of his disability, he's trying to get sympathy. If he speaks well, then it's disappeared, and he must have been making it all up in the first place. One of the biggest complaints about Gareth is that us stupid women felt sorry for Gareth because he struggled with his speech, and therefore we all rushed out to vote for him. That was a theory heavily peddled in the press and by those who resented his success, and unfortunately a lot of people were gullible enough to believe that. If people are going to complain about the hype around these shows, don't forget to complain about that very distasteful side of it. I think it's virtually a certainty that Gareth will be asked about his stammer when he returns, because journalists have a natural interest in communication and speech impediments are incredibly relevant to that. To try to exclude that from any interviews or promotional activities would be to deny a major aspect of Gareth's personality and what he's been doing in his time away. It would also deny the general public insight into a subject that is of interest. Beyond that, it would deny other people with similar problems the opportunity to see how far someone else has come, that might provide them with a lot of encouragement and motivation to get treatment or to pursue their dreams. If a few bitter people would deny them that, because it might count as 'unfair promotion', then tough! Gareth working toward managing his own disability and helping others with theirs may not count as 'entertainment', but it is both interesting and educational and there's nothing wrong with the odd documentary focusing onon something interesting and educational. :P Call me a loony, but I thought it was interesting when Will spoke about what he had learnt about Domestsic Violence, even if it didn't make me rush out to buy his albums. I certainly don't remember many people complaining when Will chatted the press or appeared on tv simply because he was running some half marathon. ;) Going back to my previous point, it's not just as simple as the people in non Pop Idol viewing countries accepting Gareth regardless of the perceived benefits of a disability, most of these countries are non-English speaking, and therefore most English-speaking pop stars struggle with interviews, therefore it instantly becomes less about spoken interviews and more about the music, the video and print features.

Any fool knows that's her own job and then to say people are idiots for not realising she was joking. :puke2:

I can't be sure, but it's one of the bigger markets out there. I know South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia are quite substantial too, whereas Singapore is one of the smallest territories. I can't deny that it was satisfying to see Gareth rack up the number ones in countries he'd yet to visit, especially after all the abuse we got because someone dared to give Gareth a record contract after we all supposedly voted for him out of sympathy. However, the best thing about his international travels was that the media over there had less preconceptions about what his image was, so some of his photoshoots have him looking really different. I also loved that starting from scratch, he did small scale showcases and acoustic sets for the radio stations. He spent less time there than the UK, but the quality of the promotion was much higher. The same applies for Gareth's visits to Germany and Spain and around Europe. I hope that this time round Gareth's UK fans get the same consideration.

They did. It was on the tv!

Christinia has plenty of time. I can see her album selling well right up to Christmas.

You weren't just criticising the act. You were criticising people for talking about her, which you went on to do. When I Lost You was great, and she had a lot of the qualities to make it as a pop star, but the timing wasn't quite right for her. If she had the material Rachel Stevens was given she'd have done better. She seemed genuinely interested in music, but lacked the drive to be a big pop star. Maybe she's better off working as a songwriter.

You had me worried there! I only saw a little bit of the E4 coverage, but the sound was all over the place so I gave up, but I was going to say that their reception was pretty good. I think you have to expect one or two things thrown towards the stage, but poor Nicola. It should have been Sarah, she seemed to think that the in thing to do at a festival was to shout instead of sing.

19 seem to be absolutely obsessed with keeping quiet about him as much as possible. I'm sure there's a logic to it all in there, but as fans, it makes for difficult waiting. It's probably added to the wait, but Gareth's involvement with The McGuire Programme gives us some insight to what's happening, even though that too seems to be under some kind of media black-out! However, you can read Gareth's report on the course he led last weekend on their website. http://www.stammering.ie/wordpress/ Gareth's second album was very well received by those who bothered to listen to it, and it's a massive shame that BMG gave up trying to promote it so soon. Apparently Gareth was promised that he'd get to release All Cried Out after Say It Isn't So, but obviously that wasn't to be. I'd have liked Absolutely or Foolish to be a single, but you can't even get the latter on iTunes. :huh:

No, I'm bored to tears that the same old names crop up with the same old petty arguements debates, but that doesn't mean I am willing to let it all go un-answered. I think it's wonderful that there are some members in here who are so concerned with protecting SBMGs profit margins, especially as those same people were so outraged at the supposedly terrible way they treated Will, but it's fantastsic that you are no longer bitter - at least not towards them. ;) However, can I suggest that those with such a great interest and insight into industry accountancy take their superior knowledge to The Music: Culture forum here on BuzzJack as it is the area dedicated to "industry type discussions". Allow the rest of us to discuss the less high-brow, but more fun things like the artist themselves and their music. :D Thanks.

Nelly, because of her creativity, but Beyonce is way up there too.