Olympia comes in at 19 in this weeks album chart 9 places below Elton John/Leon Russell and still no sign on radio two playlists.Given that Ferry's initial chart placing is usually his highest a bit of a disappointment I think.

Thanks for info. And I would have thought that it was good radio 2 material? Mind number 19 isnt that bad I guess. Lots of publicity this week so may push up a bit I guess?

It's going to be difficult to hold on to the "19" spot (much less move up) given that just about everybody that was waiting to buy Olympia did so in the first week after release. Further publicity will help spur additional sales, but it's hard to see how these will match (or even come close to) the first week's sales. If Olympia is in the top 30 next week the record company should feel fortunate.

It's interesting that people report no evidence of any airplay on BBC 2. It doesn't appear that You Can Dance has generated much excitement among either radio programmers or the public - in the TV performance linked from Vivaroxymusic.com promoting the album he performs You Can Dance but it just doesn't elicit much excitement IHHO. It's not a clip I wanted to watch more than once. In contrast, the live clip from Lovebox of My Only Love that is featured on the Roxymusic.co website is something that I have listened to several times in the last week. But maybe that's just me...

19 does seem low considering how Dylanesque did (see below). There may be a lot of fans who don't have a copy yet, I haven't bought one yet. It was not stocked in Tesco's new releases in the 2 local stores to me and haven't had a chance to go down town yet. Tesco's/Asda etc can generate a lot of sales if the album is sitting on the shelves for casual CD buyers.

J.O'B.

Dylanesque Chart Placings

11th March 2007 - No 5 (Highest New entry and album peak)
18th March 2007 - No 22
25th March 2007 - No 26
1st April 2007 - No 36 (Reached Gold Status (100,000) copies during the week leading up to this.)
8th April 2007 - No 49
15th April 2007 - No 53
22nd April 2007 - No 41
29th April 2007 - No 39
6th May 2007 - No 53
13th May 2007 - No 57

Much as the music snob in me dislikes Tesco's appropriation of music as a supermarket commodity, you have to admit that if you want to sell albums you have to have your product on the shelves of the supermarkets. They contribute enormously to album sales in the UK these days.
Christ, Tescos had all sorts of crap in their chart last week, but no Bryan Ferry at all. That's a definite mistake on the part of Ferry's promoters, and one which has surely contributed to the relatively low chart placing for Olympia. .

Yes, 19 is a little disappointing. I also noticed that Olympia was not in my local Tesco store's new releases. However, neither was Bryan's 'best of' compilation last year.

It also struck me that, given the types of shows Ferry has appeared on to promote Olympia (daytime shows, early evening light entertainment chat) he's deliberately aiming at the more casual buyer of music; those who would hear about a new album on, say the Alan Titchmarsh show, and who might later later spot said album on the racks in Tescos.
Let's face it, the album cover is very striking so it would easily be noticed, and bought, if only it was on the shelves!

Quite a good idea , I think. Alan Titchmarch and Loose Women are shows watched mainly by parents at home with the kids so it may alert them to the existence of a new cd.

I was told at the time of as time goes by that an album charting at 15 or so (which I think that album did) could sell as many as an album charting at 5 or 6 earlier in the year because of the christmas market and big hitters releasing albums but if you look at the chart positions/sales of flesh and blood,avalon, boys and girls and the streetlife compilation (and frantic and Dylanesque) that would still suggest that spring/early summer was the best time for Ferry to release and album.Also radio two seem to have a few presenters who always make out they are Ferry fans (Steve Wright amongst them) but only play new stuff when they interview him. I'm also confused about what singles are being released, the promo cd for heartache by numbers that I bought last week says that IT is the new single, the TV advert for Olympia states that shameless is a single and Ferry is performing you can dance on his tv appearances.

Its not in Tesco and wait for it - its not even on their list of top 100 albums which its says is complied from at Nov 1 2011. Whats going on? I am ringing them.