Si wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:03 am
del wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:18 am
He clearly still had an audience but wasn't giving them what they wanted on vinyl as the the subsequent sales of Zipper or DaDa proved and they were certainly advertised in the music press at a reasonable level at the time.
There was virtually NO advertising for either album. A bit for Zipper but almost nothing for Dada, certainly in the UK.
Warner Brothers had lost all interest in him and didn't put any money behind the albums at all.
Many people have mentioned over the years that they didn't even know Dada was out until they happened upon it in a shop.
To me reasonable press is enough press to know the product was out there. I did. Admittedly, there was also a bit of a push on the ground in Glasgow as well, possibly as the then very recent Radio Clyde Apollo gig had gone down well locally. I remember a press advert for Zipper, copies of the album in shop windows (unfortunately pretty useless unless the shop added a sticker saying it was Alice - a couple did) and I Am The Future being played on Radio Clyde a little although not regular daytime shows. If you were a fan you knew. If you were more casual you still had some exposure.
I accept DaDa was different. On this occasion my brother who worked in record shops locally gave me advance warning from a guy he knew in Warner Brothers. Radio Clyde was re-running some of the Apollo shows at the time and mentioned the album was out, not sure of the precise date but the album was still new. The album got in a couple of shop windows. Remember it well as you could actually read the name this time.As to a press advert, I'll need to check.
Would better advertising have helped? Certainly, but ultimately it's the product isn't it? The product wasn't well received at the time with any reviews I saw finding it difficult to be too positive. The music would have eventually sold itself through word of mouth if it was good enough for those who bought it. I didn't rave about either album and in many ways I was probably giving up.
I actually knew a band who got on three TV shows within 10 days in the early '80s (The Tube, Sight and Sound in Concert and Rock Goes to College) and still only got to No.100 with their new, heavily discounted, album. Even blanket coverage and a major label behind you (A&M) doesn't guarantee anything if the product doesn't hit the mark.