TLOS debuts at #37 in the UK.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Not good. Not good at all. 

[Wilsonista]

Just as I suspected.

[Smilin Ed H]

HMV Newcastle had about 3 copies yesterday. Only the version with the DVD.  No real promotion.  He's on Live from Abby Road this Friday - a week too late - at quarter to one in the fucking morning!

[smile-holland]

Totally off-topic here.... but did we forget your birthday yesterday, Andrew? Yes we did, didn't we? Belated congrats!

[Wirestone]

That is 16 spaces above where GIOMH premiered in the UK.

I'm a bit surprised, but I'm just not familiar with what the promotion has been like in the UK.

In the US, it's been excellent -- so I think the album may actually hit the charts higher over here. Just a hunch.

[Wirestone]

These are figures from a couple of minutes ago.

Amazon in the US -- No. 5 (regular), No. 56 (CD/DVD)
Amazon in the UK -- No. 145 (regular), No. 130 (CD/DVD)

What gives

Andrew, what's up with your country? (joke)

[Shady]

This is mind blowing..

Did capitol even think to promote the album in the UK?

Hey still decent though 

The US debut is looking to be very impressive though, I read that somewhere, will look for a link.

[absinthe_boy]

I haven't noticed any promotion. Of course reviews have appeared in all the usual places but I've seen no advertising....mind you I haven't leafed through Mojo for a few months so there could be something in there.

Yesterday I checked out my local HMV, couldn't find any evidence of TLOS. No sign of it in "new releases", no Brian at all in the pop/rock section (though there were a couple of Beach Boys CD's), nothing in the "Summer" section.....I had a wander round and couldn't find it at all.

Wasn't in my local Asda or Tesco either. All worrying, and possibly accounts for the slightly disappointing chart position.
Tomorrow I am going to make the trip to a proper record shop, and see what's up there....its the kind of place where if you mention Brian, some member of staff is bound to jump over the counter and start talking...

Is TLOS getting any radio play here? I rarely listen to any station that plays music, but has Radio 2 given it much attention...apart from the doc on Brian as a producer a couple of weeks ago?

#37 is respectable, but I had hoped for more. The Amazon figures are apalling.

[Shady]

I still can't get over how will it's doing on Amazon US,

It's proves what good marketing can do to an album.

[Wirestone]

What's even weirder is that the UK is primed to buy BW stuff -- Smile was Top 10 there, for goodness' sake. I don't think it would take much to have gotten the album 10 or 15 spots higher. It just seems like it didn't know this album was even coming.

[brother john]

Wasn't in my local Asda or Tesco either. All worrying, and possibly accounts for the slightly disappointing chart position.
Tomorrow I am going to make the trip to a proper record shop, and see what's up there....

#37 is respectable, but I had hoped for more. The Amazon figures are apalling.

Frankly I'm staggered that its broken the Top 40 at all. Who on earth buys Brian Wilson records apart from the people that visit boards like this?

Happy birthday Andrew.

[Shady]

Wasn't in my local Asda or Tesco either. All worrying, and possibly accounts for the slightly disappointing chart position.
Tomorrow I am going to make the trip to a proper record shop, and see what's up there....

#37 is respectable, but I had hoped for more. The Amazon figures are apalling.

Frankly I'm staggered that its broken the Top 40 at all. Who on earth buys Brian Wilson records apart from the people that visit boards like this?

Happy birthday Andrew.

Idiotic

[the captain]

Idiotic

Come on: disagreeing is fine, but why not substantiate or explain your disagreement rather than resorting to that?

[the captain]

On the topic, I'm a little disappointed but not particularly surprised. I don't really follow the charts at all, and most of my favorites rarely sniff the upper reaches of them. But I guess I assumed BW would do better in the UK, if only because my understanding of his reputation there is that it would carry him more. I hope for a respectable showing on the U.S. charts--especially since there have been some online and TV appearances, the live streaming, etc.--but for the most part I think brother john is correct. Brian isn't a shapely 19-year-old woman or a shirtless, muscular man. His peak years of fame are well behind him. Timbaland didn't produce this. It won't be played in the clubs. If he has a respectable showing on the charts, it should be considered a great success. He's just not going to win over vast numbers of people. This isn't an insult to Brian, but it's what I think is real life for him. Whatever bump Capitol gives him will be great, but it's not going to be 1963 all over again.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Good point Brother John, but Brian (and the Beach Boys, too, for that matter), have usually been more popular in the UK than in the US, which means either it's going to bomb in the US, or is actually going to outsell the UK version by a large margin, which I don't think anyone saw coming.

Hell, maybe it's because the UK version supposedly sounds like ass in comparison.

Luther, I agree 100%.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I think the big problem is the time lag - back in '04, BWPS was in the stores less than seven months after he'd premiered it and in the interim had been toured over here again, so was still in the public eye & ear. TLOS was performed just under a year ago, then the momentum was lost.

That said, #37 is still very disappointing, and I seriously doubt it'll climb much, if at all. I'm hoping the US figure is significantly better.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Plus BWPS had almost 40 years of hype. But yeah, I dig what you're saying. Why in hell it took so long (relatively speaking of course!) in the UK is beyond me. Also too, he performed it many more times in the UK than in the US, so maybe it'll do better here due to less saturation...?

I dunno. Feel like I'm grasping at straws or something.

[matt-zeus]

Dennis' reissue did well here, though I suspect that had a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon (i've met quite a few of them), so the audience is obviously here. I haven't seen much promotion about it here though.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Also too, he performed it many more times in the UK than in the US, so maybe it'll do better here due to less saturation...?

Before anybody says anything, I'm more than aware that the US premier was just a couple of days ago.

[the captain]

More than aware!? Super-aware! Hyper-aware! 

[Smilin Ed H]

FWIW I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and it didn't arrive until the Friday.  I don't know whether that's an indication of scarcity of product in the UK.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Hmm...

More than aware!? Super-aware! Hyper-aware!

[Shady]

I am sorry, did not mean to snap at Brother John at all.

But I just feel that it placed less than satisfyingly, due to the lack of promotion, not lack of interest.

Let's think about it, apart from a review here and there, which were mixed in the UK, (I guess they didn't get it, which is not surprising cause it is a 'lover letter to L.A') the album got basically no promotion at all, and in the US where Brian usually fares worse it's doing amazing in the iTunes and amazon charts due to some heavy promotion, music fans are liking what they hear. In my view putting in down to Brian not being a musical draw is slightly ridiculous.

Seeing it's postion next week will be interesting.

And again sorry Brother John.

[Pretty Funky]

Plus BWPS had almost 40 years of hype. But yeah, I dig what you're saying. Why in hell it took so long (relatively speaking of course!) in the UK is beyond me. Also too, he performed it many more times in the UK than in the US, so maybe it'll do better here due to less saturation...?

I dunno. Feel like I'm grasping at straws or something.

I could be wrong but being a commissioned work, it was not Brians to on-sell without further negotiation.

[Jonathan Blum]

Not good. Not good at all. 

...The bit I'm not getting out of all this is why -- aside from AGD's general cheery positivity about Brian's recent efforts -- this counts in any way as a bad result.

Unless both the surfermoon site and I have missed something...  aside from the highly exceptional perfect storm that was "Smile", this is the first regular album Brian's done in more than thirty years to make the UK top 40.

Woohoo!

Yes, Brian's been more acclaimed in the UK than the US in that time, but this hasn't translated into impressive chart performance there either.  And for a 66-year-old man to score that high is pretty damn impressive.  Sure, we would have liked a bigger post-Smile bounce -- but for an album without decades of mythmaking behind it, it's still a substantial step up!

Cheers,
Jon Blum