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NEWS 02


The return of Myspace: can it really compete with Spotify and Vevo?


GENRE n BY PAUL WILLIAMS & TIM INGHAM


R


adio 1 is anticipating the arrival of a flurry of popular new British guitar


bands – as the statistics suggest they can’t come soon enough. Universal Music UK CEO


and chairman David Joseph said at the Radio Festival in Salford last week that the major only considers it has ‘broken’ an album artist when their debut record hits 100,000 sales. Alas, only one debut record


released this year from a British guitar band has achieved that goal: Mercury Prize winner An Awesome Wave by Alt-J (pictured), on indie label Infectious, which reached the magic 100k mark last week. The Island-issued Every


Kingdom by Ben Howard has sold more than double that figure, according to Official Charts Company data, but was released in October 2011, whilst solo act Michael Kiwanuka’s Polydor debut - released in March - has just topped 100,000. Last year, new debut albums


from British guitar acts selling in excess of 100,000 units included The Vaccines’ What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (Columbia), Ed Sheeran’s + (Asylum/Atlantic) and Matt


BIGINTERVIEW 11


Cooking Vinyl founder and MD Martin Goldschmidt on a bumper year for the indie


23.11.12 £5.15 14 ANALYSIS Music Week investigates what


was played on radio in Q3 - and what it means for the industry


BRITAIN SUFFERS DROUGHT OF SUCCESSFUL NEW GUITAR BANDS IN 2012 • WILL RADIO 1 COME TO THEIR RESCUE?


Strung up


Cardle’s Letters (Columbia), as well as Noel Gallagher’s solo LP (Sour Mash) and Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding. “Guitars have reached a nadir


in the last year or so, and now the favour’s going to swing back their way,” Radio 1 and 1Xtra head of music George Ergatoudis told Music Week. “In around 2006 to 2008 the audience started getting


a bit sick or bored of British guitar music and became more interested in pop, dance and certainly British urban artists. “Now we’re starting to see it’s


becoming more difficult for UK urban artists to emerge – I think that will become a trend - and pop music is starting to go back into decline. We’re talking about two or three years before guitar


music is going to be in a seriously healthy position. But the public appetite for guitar bands is definitely building back up – now it’s about finding the acts.” The biggest-selling debut UK


album of 2012 is Emeli Sandé’s Our Version of Events (Virgin) - which is also the biggest-selling LP overall, nudging close to 900,000 sales. Maverick Sabre’s


One Direction have become only the third UK group in history to score two US No 1 albums in a calendar year. The band’s second Syco/


Columbia set Take Me Home was set to enter the Billboard 200 at 1 this week as Music Week went to press with first- week sales estimated at between 525,000 and 575,000 units. On its opening day alone it shifted 330,000 copies, according to


Nielsen SoundScan, with its week-one tally expected to be bettered only this year by those of Taylor Swift’s Red (1.2 million) and Mumford & Sons’ Babel (600,000). Take Me Home’s chart-


topping feat follows their introductory album Up All Night starting at No.1 in March, the first debut by a UK band to enter the Billboard countdown in first place. It has since


surpassed 1 million US sales and is the year to date’s third top seller behind Adele’s 21 and Taylor Swift’s album. With two US No1 albums


now in 2012, One Direction become only the third British group to achieve double Billboard 200 chart-toppers in the same year. The feat was previously done by The Beatles in 1965, 1966 (three albums), 1968, 1969 and 1996, while Led


Lonely Are The Brave (Mercury) is the second-biggest debut album from a British or Irish act this year, comfortably over 200,000 sales. Meanwhile, Alt-J’s An


Awesome Wave is only the 10th introductory album this year by a UK or UK-signed act to reach six figures domestically, making 2012 one of the worst years in recent times for homegrown debuts – something Joseph made special note of during his Radio Festival Q&A. With just six weeks of 2012


to ago, it is unlikely this year will be able to come anywhere near to matching the total of 19 debut albums by UK or UK-signed acts which reached the sales landmark in 2011. Led by Island/Lava’s Jessie J and Ed Sheeran, that represented a huge recovery from the year before when only a paltry nine homegrown acts broke through the 100,000 mark. In 2009 19 hit the benchmark,


while in 2006 it was 25. In 2007, 28 made it and it was 25 in 2008. Mercury’s Jake Bugg could


join the 2012 breakthrough list shortly with his self-titled debut reaching 88,735 UK sales last week, while Syco act Jonathan & Charlotte’s Together is just


behind on 85,728. nMusic Week’s Radio Festival report - pages 17 and 18


One Direction make more US history with Take Me Home


Zeppelin managed it in 1970. Among solo UK acts, Elton John followed in 1973, 1974 and 1975 (three albums) and One Direction’s Syco colleague Susan Boyle did the same in 2010. Take Me Home has also


debuted at No.1 in a number of other countries, including Australia, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and is expected to top the charts in around two-dozen territories.


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