There Go The Girls...
If, like me, you've noticed that 'Girls' by the Sugababes seems to appear whenever you turn the television on, either in adverts or as backing music to a news report about bras or on Divas II or...well it's on telly a lot, is my point...you may find this news story a little bewildering.
Apparently, sales of the band's latest album 'Catfights & Spotlights' haven't been as brisk as the girls might have liked - it peaked at No.8 and has already dropped out of the Top 40 - and rather than blame the credit crunch, this has provoked the band to suggest that it's due to a lack of public awareness that there is even Sugababes product in the shops.
Speaking to the Daily Star, Heidi said: "The sales have been disappointing but I don't think it is a reflection on the album's quality. The problem is the promotion, I don't actually think our fans know we've even got an album out."
Now, I can appreciate that this is a touchy subject for the girls, and I can see that their latest masterwork has not received the blanket media attention that comes with, say, a new Take That single, but you do have to ask yourself what kind of rubbish fans don't know that their favourite pop act has got a new album out?
There are obscure indie bands from half-horse towns in the middle of Australia, where there is no web access, and all information comes via an arthritic variety of pigeon post, whose fans know they can expect a new album soon.
That's how people get to call themselves fans, for gawdsake! The very third thing you should know if you consider yourself to be fanatic about a musical recording artist (after the names of people in the band and what their songs are) is whether they have got a new album out or not.
And do you think slamming their record label is a good way to get them to support the creative endeavours of the 'Babes? Me neither.
(By way of balance, here's the eye-watering video for 'No Can Do', which is out on December 22nd. That's right, three days before Christmas, when people REALLY care about new singles...)
Luckily, all is not lost for our intrepid threesome. They're finally making inroads into a new and lucrative pop market, the former Yugoslavia!
Heidi explained to Metro: "We did a gig in Macedonia a couple of months ago. They closed down the town centre, the mayor was there and thousands of people turned up. I didn't even realise they'd heard of us, so to have that sort of reaction was brilliant."
There you go. That's where the REAL FANS are. Presumably their record company are a bit more proactive over there too.
Comment number 1.
At 2nd Dec 2008, thranjax wrote:It doesn't help that Girls was a fairly weak lead single either.
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