Nosey

Tesco and Asda used to sell them, but they seem to have stopped doing that in most if not all their stores. Obviously there wasn't the demand, or at least they thought they could make more money if they put DVDs or video games on the same shelves. I think the supermarkets sometimes makes exeptions, such as for the X Factor winning single, or something like the Katie Melua charity single in Tesco. The problem is, the supermarkets have to be pretty confident of big sales before they'll bother. I admit I don't buy physical singles very often these days, but part of that is that I am rarely anywhere that sells them. I always used to browse the new releases and charts when I was in a shop that sold them, and would make impulse buys. It's not just bad news for the Westlifes and McFlys, it's bad news for pretty much everyone who doesn't make the crucial playlists. There is the argument that it will encourage artists to pick their single releases more carefully, but that might just mean picking the songs they think radio will play a lot and we'll have even more and more old songs hanging around for months and months.

Duffy and Duffy for me. I've played Duffy's album loads since I got it, but I just can't take to Adele. She's already suffering from over-exposure and over-hype. I think the Brits thing could do her more harm than good. She went from being thought of as the one to watch to being a product of industry hype. I admit to being a massive Bernard Butler fan, so a lot of my love for Duffy's album could come from that, but if she didn't have the voice, it wouldn't work, and she comes across well in interviews too. Unlike Adele who come across as quite childish and brattish.

G4 and Shayne etc released the week before Mother's Day, and sales dropped sharply after that, so while I think Leona's album will do better overall, I'm not sure it'll beat their first week sales, because most of her sales will be people buying for themselves. I'm going for a more modest 100-150k, but with sales staying strong until Christmas as people start to buy for mums and aunties and a new lease of life if the next single is good.

Albums: Annie Lennox (I can't believe I'm the first person to name her :cry: )

This looks great. Something to add to my Wishlist. I think sometimes it's out of their hands, and depends on the say-so of the record companies.

Is he aspiring to be the Jodie Marsh of music? :lame: Nasty man.

There's some music on her MySpace if you follow the link. If I had to describe it, I'd say think Tory Amos come PJ Harvey come Amy Winehouse. It's hard to tell for sure what it will be like, because they are clips from live performances. It also says she's signed to the 19 label. It's interesting what is written about her stage-fright. She showed so much promise before, but never could quite deliver, which was a shame.

I really like both tracks, but Robyn clinches it for me.

Big publicity stunt. I don't think anyone is taking the request for it to be counted seriously. I can't see the MOS caring if the OCC think the offer and request is a joke. They don't need the respect of the OCC, but if SBMG were seriously annoyed with the deal, they could withdraw their artists from doing interviews. Not that I think anyone cares that much, apart from using it as an opportunity to make some noise.

It's a great album. It's funny people all have different ideas of what is great and what's terrible, but well worth a listen to decide for yourself. You can always skip the ones you don't like, but I've found that I like them all. It's just that some took longer to get used to than others, because I was too busy thinking of what it should have sounded like!!! :D

I think quite a lot of fans would agree with you. Maybe not that the song is terrible, but that it was a terrible choice for a lead single given the choice of much more commercial and radio friendly music on the album. This is the song that most fans want to see as a single, and it offers good contrast with what was released so far. I thought AOMS was worlds apart from Changes musically, but for some it was 'another ballad', so as Suedehead2 suggests, it wasn't given a fair hearing. "Lost in You" was written by Gareth, G Clark, and P Gordeno, and mixed by George Tandero. Gareth said that it was one of the first songs written for the album, but also the last one they finished, because they couldn't get it to sound right. He said there were five or six versions before they got to this one. I'm glad they persevered.

I agree - it's only taking the thread OT to talk about them, which is probably what they wanted in the first place. The rest of us seem agreed that they are out to cause trouble, and we don't believe them to be genuine, so let's not spoil a perfectly good thread by mentioning them more than we have already. If they post again, we can take it for granted that we all know what they are doing, without having to say so. The strangle-hold certain people have over playlists is very frustrating, but the big labels don't just exert their influence in terms of a radio plugging monopoly. They do deals to get all of their acts onto the festival circuit as a job lot, and onto the music channels, and to a certain extent, providing the pointers to the media so they can "discover" music on the internet. Don't be fooled into thinking that the Sandi Thom phenomenon was down to people power. The whole thing was stage managed within part of a major record deal. Fortunately, for those artists who already have a fan-base, the part of their fan-base that is online can at least find out what they are doing and hear their music. :)

The more I hear this song, the more I love it. It's much better in full than it was in the clip.

He's been floating between 25 and 30 on the iTunes album chart for the past couple of days. Although I don't expect Gareth's album to hold its chart position all that well, I do think it's very promising that his iTunes position is much better than it ever was for the singles, and not that much lower than the physical. I know this is helped with there being a link on the front page, but it shows there is interest beyond the core fan-base.

Here you are!! Lost in You from Blackpool jPXWVA7yZLQ Pictures of the Other Side (picture quality isn't great, but the sound is good enough to let people know what it's like) 66LoDYIzDII And not an upbeat track, but it's a great performance, Angel on my Shoulder on Graham Norton qsLInjjmfl4

I'm sure there are some YouTube performances posted on here already. I'll see what I can dig up.

This looks very promising. I still play her first album. :D

Very good chat and great performance. The Gareth we saw on Graham Norton is the Gareth I recognise from the snippets of behind the scenes stuff we'd seen over the years. I'm glad everyone else is getting to see that side of him too.

They just want to stir things up between the fans. Best ignored. Gareth has moved up into the top 20 in the latest midweeks. Not brilliant, but he's doing better than a few of his peers, and it's quite respectable given the airplay/video play situation. He's on Richard & Judy and Graham Norton tonight, so that should hopefully hold things steady until the end of the week.

No Virgins near me! :P Sorry, on a more serious note, I wonder if Woolies will be putting up prices of more singles now that Asda and Tesco have stopped stocking them. For a lot of the country, that was their competition, and if they are now the only shop within miles selling the things, they can afford to increase their profit margin.

That's where I got the link! :o I think it means a lot to Gareth to be able to get involved with all of the instrumentation. I'm pleased he found a good producer who was able to let him do that. Bit of a last minute add - he's on Richard & Judy tomorrow, as well as Graham Norton later in the evening.

I remember all of Gareth's early CDs were £3.99, so this is a bargain. In fact, I'm sure after almost everyone else was selling at £1.99 BMG were still charging the full £3.99, which was OK for Spirit in the Sky, because it had to raise money for charity, but Sunshine was that price too. I don't mind paying £2.99 for my copy, and it's cheaper than trying to find an HMV. Love it, love it, love it, and I love that Gareth has been so involved with making these songs. Naturally, I want him to have the commercial success he so thoroughly deserves, but to be able to release material like this that means a lot to him, must be incredibly satisfying. He also confirmed that he plans to release his music in Europe and Asia, but no dates set yet. It's all in here along with a few cheeky questions! I'm surprised they didn't edit them a bit. :wacko:

I think there may be an album of songs from the musicals out at some point. I think he has to be careful what he agrees to, because he could lose some credibility if he suddenly appears to want to be a recording star, which is daft, but it could happen anyway. I'm indifferent to his version of Any Dream Will Do, but I would be interested in hearing other material from him. You can buy the Jason Donovan Joseph album in Woolies in their cheap albums section. I bought Gareth's Angel on my Shoulder today. I'd love him to go top 10, but we'll have to wait and see. Most people seem to say they much prefer it to Changes, but not being the first single, it's not had as much attention, and promotion seems to be geared towards the album, which is how it should be. I'm very interested to see how Take That will do. Promotion for I'll Wait For Life seems so low key by comparison to Patience and Shine, but they have quite a solid hard-core of fans who I'm sure will want to add this to their collection. :)

I'm a bit late for this, but Gareth for me. I adore Angel on my Shoulder. I love Kelly too (second album era), but I'm not fussed with this song. Dindy, I don't think 19 has any input into her overall career, Kelly still uses them to look after her when she comes to the UK. Or she did with her old management. Who knows what she'll be doing now.

If you download the album from iTunes on the Monday, you'll get Drive as a bonus track. :D