Nosey

It's OK for the big acts that manage to release with a bang, but the lesser ones, or those with a slightly disappointing lead single disappear so quickly that there isn't much chance for word of mouth about the quality of the album to pay off. If an album takes a few listens to get into, you might not bother to make the effort if you bought another one that week, and are buying another one the next.

Perhaps this is more musicals than pop, but Gareth has four songs on a new CD A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe. You can get the full track-listing on Amazon, but it is essentially the highlights of a live recording of a show put on over the summer to celebrate 25 years of a songwriting duo, including a preview of a forthcoming musical Soho Cinders, which was the bit Gareth featured in along with the brilliant Leanne Jones, who won all the awards for Hairspray. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511zAobwgPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg Here's the promotional blurb ... SPOONFUL OF STILES & DREWE GALA LIVES ON IN LIVE RECORDING TO BE RELEASED 08/12/08 Following its sell-out success as a gala West End concert in July, A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe will live on in the form of a live highlights recording, released on CD on Monday 8 December 2008. It features Olivier Award winners Stiles & Drewe themselves, fellow Olivier recipients Joanna Riding, Clive Rowe and Leanne Jones, pop star Gareth Gates and musical theatre stars Julie Atherton, Helena Blackman, Daniel Boys, Richard Dempsey, James Gillan, Alison Jiear, Shona Lindsay, Lisa O’Hare, Caroline Sheen, Scarlett Strallen, Rebecca Thornhill and Oliver Tompsett. Celebrating 25 years of songwriting by composer George Stiles and lyricist Anthony Drewe, A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe includes a wealth of material from their shows Honk!, Just So, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins, as well as previously unrecorded material and six exclusive tracks from their upcoming show, Soho Cinders, an alternative gay fairytale based on the Cinderella story. A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe was produced by Neil Eckersley and Paul Spicer for Speckulation Entertainment with creative direction by Paul Spicer, musical supervision by George Stiles and artistic supervision by Anthony Drewe. Recorded live at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Sunday 6 July 2008, the recording is released by Speckulation Entertainment and produced by George Stiles. Thanks to generosity of all involved in A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe, all profits from the recording will go to Mercury Musical Developments, a British charity nurturing new musical theatre writing. For further details and to purchase at the special pre-release price of £10.00 plus postage and packing (RRP £12.99), visit www.spoonfulcd.com no later than Sunday 7 December 2008. It will also be available on Amazon at www.amazon.co.uk and Dress Circle at www.dresscircle.co.uk

I saw him on GMTV this week. He looked embarassed by the whole thing. I felt sorry for him.

It's been happening for a few years, but this year seems worse than ever. It's not just bad for the not quite big enough artists, it's bad for us as music buyers. The first part of the year is a good time for new acts to release, but without established artists bringing out new releases, there isn't the same incentive to go to a music shop, or even browse the CD section at the supermarket. Big releases in time for Mothers Day seems to be a newish thing, which provides another intensive period, but only for a certain sort of music.

Do you know where it will be played on Monday?

I'd say they are more interested in having the track prop up album sales than to chart high in its own rights. But if they play their cards right it could do both.

The instant reaction of the iTunes chart to events like CIN shows how much the industry is still crying out for decent music tv. If they don't think the audience is there for a weekly music show, such as TOTP or CD:UK, someone should try to put together a monthly event like they have/had in Germany. The Dome I think it was called.

That's the version I got. I'm planning on getting the album, so I can't bring myself to buy the version that'll be on the album because I'm tight! :unsure: But the remix is aces. Been listening to it all day. :cheer:

I don't consider it to be a charity single as such. It was never planned as one, nor has it been promoted as one. Boots approached the band when they heard the single and asked if they'd like to support their campaign and to use the single as part of that. It provides publicity for Boots and their charity, provides a little bit of extra publicity for the single and making it more available in physical format, and as part of that, some of the proceeds will go to the charity.

I think this has a lot to do with it. It has become traditional for big British acts to wait until around about now before releasing the lead singles from new albums. The nature of the charts means that only the lead singles tend to sell very well, so that means that it is inevitable that it will be mainly new acts, or the ones that are worried about releasing against competition that have released so far. I also think we are seeing the impact of there being no shows like TOTP, CD:UK, SM:TV and Popworld any more. New and medium level British acts could take advantage of their promotional opportunities more than international ones. The same could be said for the magazines such as Smash Hits. The result is that everyone is heavily dependent on whoever it is that decides the playlists, which are becoming increasingly uniform as the independent radio stations are bought up by the networks. Playlist people can play it safe by looking to what has already been popular on the radio in other countries, such as America. It used to be that being overlooked by playlists could be compensated for by tv appearances, or a radio tour, or a good relationship with Smash Hits. But all that takes money, and it's hard to compete with artists who are promoted on the basis that they will sell in the biggest markets.

What about making a few million pounds for UNICEF like they did last time?

He has done a few musicals, and appears reasonably successful at that, but I don't think he'd have ever got the first gig if it wasn't for being Robbie's best friend. But to be fair, I don't think he'd keep getting the gigs if he wasn't any good. He seems like a nice enough bloke and handles having a much more famous friend better than a lot of slightly famous people do. Ben Shepherd just said that they are starting their training properly today. Seems a bit slack!

After watching last night's show and what Robbie was saying, I think he'll be getting the gig.

Robbie is talking about the 2006 version at 10:35pm on ITV1 tonight.

Yes, of course it is. It was a perfectly valid point for why it can be good for bands to give their music away to build a fan-base in anticipation of future sales, which was my point. It wasn't a valid reason for you to have never paid for any music for the past ten years or so. No. I suspect you have missed the point. Do you understand the difference between someone deciding to give something away for free and you deciding to take everything for free? That's all well and good, but how does that make it OK to steal whole albums? Would you go into a department store and shove bundles of perfume and make-up and moisturiser into your bag on the basis that some brands give away free samples in magazines? I know full well that the availability of a free download (or CD 'free' with a newspaper) can do wonders for getting music heard, and a little bit of illegal file-sharing probably helps to get some new music heard and talked about. Your arguments aren't new, just flawed.

For a start, Prince was supposedly paid about a million pounds for the 'free' givaway, and even if the figure is incorrect, it's a safe bet that they actually got paid. In the case of someone like Prince, he's already made millions, so music can be a hobby for him, so it's fine for him to want as many people as possible to own his new music so when they go to the concert the aren't all waiting for him to sing 1999 and Purple Rain. In fact, everyone you mention there have career that are funded by people paying for their music. If they wanted to give away everything they produce from now on, I'm sure they could. But what about all the new music and artists who need the funding? At some point, there needs to be some income stream for people making music that isn't the big arena tours normally reserved for established artists. And yes, some people give away free tracks before an album. That's called advertising. Have you ever been given a free sample of anything when you are in a shop, or with a magazine? It's done on the basis that enough people will come back and buy something later. I don't even have particular qualms about people downloading the odd track for free, especially if it's hard to get elsewhere, or if people genuinely aren't sure if they'll like it. What does bug me is that some people will brazenly brag about never actually paying for any of the music they obtain. It might be good for your personal pocket, but don't kid yourself that it's good for the industry if everyone did the same.

Fantastic show. Quite a few singers this year, even if Robbie is going to be on the sidelines. Craig David Gareth Gates Danny from McFly Nicky from Westlife And presented by PJ and Duncan!!! :dance: Not too sure about Jonathon Wilkes being captain. He probably deserves it, because he was part of coming up with the idea, but the tv people might prefer someone who is famous in their own right. :wacko:

Keep on buying them I say. If you like the format and can be bothered with all of that effort, go for it. I rarely buy a physical single these days, but I like to know there are some available, so I'm glad there are people like you who still buy them regularly. No-one should be proud of illegal downloading, especially on a music forum for music fans. I know it's a part of life, and some music fans do it for obscure things they can't find elsewhere, but it you haven't actually paid for any of your music in years, you are helping to damage the business, which is not good for mankind. :angry:

I voted number 2, and I might have voted number 1 if the option was available. The song is of a much higher quality (IMHO) than anything they've released in ages, so it deserves to do better, but that might be limited by people who wouldn't dream of buying anything with McFly's name on it. The over-keen fans don't help with this. Releasing the download a week early means they might suffer chart-peak wise too, and will this be their first single since Woolies stopped stocking them?

Distant Dreamer is my favourite and I also think it would have been easier to get a couple of remixes for it to generate a bit of interest as a single release.

I've not liked much of what McFly have done for ages, and hated One for the Radio, so was shocked when I realised that I seem to genuinely like this one. If I was going to criticise, I'd say the vocals don't do the song justice, but it's their best actual song for a long time. I still don't understand what they've done with their free album that turns out not to be their proper album, but it sounds as if it was best avoided anyway! :lol:

It's not slamming Miley, and I don't think she intended that. You have to blame the sensational journalist for reaching that conclusion. I was liking Katie, but her comments about herself only serve to make herself sound tedious and contrived. I'll not hold it against her yet, because she came across well in the other interviews I've heard. Hopefully she was just having a bit of a laugh and was a bit bored with people asking about her being a role model.

I'd love it to be something about Alesha's single being completely and utterly amazing, but I'm not sure why that would be a secret, even for the sake of hyping it up. It could be about a collaboration, or some event that Alesha or any of the other favourites are involved with. It's already public knowledge that Alesha was working with Xenomania, so unless she's going to be teaming up with Jay-Z or something, that might be false hope on my part.

I was going to add Bananarama to the list, although that was for singles. I don't know about albums. I don't think there is any point arguing about who deserves it in the musical sense. Save that for the normal chart squabbles, but I do think it's a shame when an artist almost gets to number one several times, but doesn't quite get there. On the other hand, it can sometimes be a millstone for them if they have a flukey number one with a song that is of a lower standard than some of the ones that almost made it.

I think it'll be low top 10 or high top 20. He's not really a singles artist, but now I've finally heard it, it's better than expected after some of the things I'd read on here. But the album will do very well so long as he steps up the promotion. It's all a bit low-key so far, but maybe that's what they have in mind. Build it up towards Christmas.