More Excellent CHSIB Reviews

[Michael Marxen]

1. Rock It (German magazine), June/July 2003:
Rating: 9,5/10 (best rating of all 116 reviews in this issue)

2. Breakout (German magazine), May/June 2003:
no overall ratings, so just a few quotes:
"culture for the radio-stations",
"the combination of power, lovely arrangements, Meat Loafs incomparable voice...bombastic production and top-notch melodies make it a must have"
"the album nails Meat Loafs abilities apart from any trends or melodic-hero wannabes"
"bottom line: that is how timeless and colorfull rock music sounds!"

My own 2 cents: why can´t we just appreciate what a success CHSIB is within the current muisc biz? Stop complaining about brilliant chart positions! Been to a melodic rock festival (The Gods) in the UK last month, people there could hardly believe CHSIB charted #4 (UK) and #8 (Germany). And even better are the ticket sales, especially in comparison to others. Those things do not influence our pleasure, but are important to help "our" music survive and more of it to happen.
Therefore: Go for Testify, friends in the UK!

[MBrevard]

Beautifully said, Michael! Thank you!! :bunny:

And thanks for sharing the reviews!!

It's good to be reminded of the things that really matter! CHSIB is an incredible album, which has sold more than 500,000 copies so far, and there are still so many countries to come, so many people who have yet to hear its beauty, its power!!

Good way to start off a Monday! Thanks again, Michael!! :D

Love,
MB
xxx

[Shane]

Stop complaining about brilliant chart positions! Been to a melodic rock festival (The Gods) in the UK last month, people there could hardly believe CHSIB charted #4 (UK) and #8 (Germany).

I don't think you would find anyone here who would say that chart positions aren't important. The higher the album is in the charts, the better it is doing, the more it is selling, and more people are hearing it. I am happy about the reviews I have read of the album. And its an ego thing. I have an ego, which everyone does, and I like to see Meat do better than other people. I'm only human.

The situation in NZ is far worse than the UK ever was. For a start, there are no singles at all here, virtually no promotion is going on (I can count on one hand the number of times CHSIB has been mentioned in NZ), the album hasn't charted, and we're now a month into the NZ release. So I'm sorry if I moan about Meat's non-appearance on the charts in NZ, or anything else NZ-related, but I'm very worried about the NZ situation, and am about to give Meat's NZ record company a call.

[MBrevard]

I'm so sorry, Shane, that things aren't going any better in NZ. It's gotta be extremely frustrating!!! :(

But now that you know Meat is coming to your area of the world in October, things will definitely pick up toward the end of the summer and early fall, wouldn't you think? Especially when the word gets out about concerts and TV/radio appearances? There should be lots of newspaper articles, too, like the ones we're now seeing in the UK, as Meat's visit approaches. There's sure to be plenty of promotion once he gets there.

So, maybe, it's just a matter of patience (as hard as that is--I KNOW!)!

Have you heard if any singles will be released LATER in the year, to coincide with the October visit? Perhaps that is what's been planned??

If you do contact the record company there, please keep us all informed on what you find out!!

Keep on talking about it, Shane! It DOES help--even when it doesn't feel like it!! 8)

Love,
MB
xxx

[sherrie87]

the album nails Meat Loafs abilities apart from any trends or melodic-hero wannabes

This is the best statement yet about CHSIB- Meat does not depend on trends in any way, and that's probably a big part of why we all love him. He is very much "his own man". I like that review! I can't wait for the album release in the US so we can start to read what US reviewers think of CHSIB.

Sherrie

[Shane]

I'm so sorry, Shane, that things aren't going any better in NZ. It's gotta be extremely frustrating!!! :(

But now that you know Meat is coming to your area of the world in October, things will definitely pick up toward the end of the summer and early fall, wouldn't you think? Especially when the word gets out about concerts and TV/radio appearances? There should be lots of newspaper articles, too, like the ones we're now seeing in the UK, as Meat's visit approaches. There's sure to be plenty of promotion once he gets there.

So, maybe, it's just a matter of patience (as hard as that is--I KNOW!)!

Have you heard if any singles will be released LATER in the year, to coincide with the October visit? Perhaps that is what's been planned??

If you do contact the record company there, please keep us all informed on what you find out!!

Keep on talking about it, Shane! It DOES help--even when it doesn't feel like it!! 8)

Love,
MB
xxx

Thanks for your kind thoughts!

Hopefully promotion will pick up later in the year(VERY soon I hope), although I still think it is definitely odd that the album has not been promoted in the first month following release (which is the situation so far). I hope that not much more time will pass before promotion occurs. I don't think Meat Loaf has much of a chance of having his album in the album charts in NZ, any sales will probably be spread out and not concentrated enough within one week in order to show up on the album chart.

I don't know if singles will be released later this year in NZ, but as I have said before (on previous posts of mine), I have been told by Universal that no singles will be released in NZ. Again, I think it would be very strange for months to pass before the release of a single. However, they indicated that they would look at overseas sales figures, so if a single does phenomenally well elsewhere, they might reconsider in the case of that single. The person I spoke to the first time I contacted them mentioned the placing that CHSIB got to on the singles chart in the UK (31) and said that was quite low.

I've emailed Universal, and have posted a copy of my email to them on one of the NZ posts. I will post there any reply I get.

[MBrevard]

Hi, Shane! Thanks for your response and I also read your letter to Universal in the other thread! It's a GREAT letter. They may not answer everything, but anything you get from them will be an interesting read, I think!! I look forward to that when you get it!

I would think they'd be pleased to see such an interest being paid to one of their albums--even if it's one that they aren't doing much to promote!

You know, Shane, I've been thinking about your situation there, FireBall's early response that the album should NOT have been released there yet AND the situation coming up the US, with the upcoming tour starting in less than 2 weeks and NO physical album to sell until late August!

And I'm wondering if we, in a very odd way, don't have something in common. Let me run this by you to see if any of it makes sense: It sounds as though somehow, somewhere, something got messed up in coordinating promotions and the releases of the album.

If, in fact, Universal was supposed to wait until Meat WAS able to get there to promote the CD BEFORE they released it in NZ, maybe they either gave up waiting, knowing it had already been released in much of Europe and the UK, or they got tired of waiting for the dates to firm up and just went ahead and put it out, hoping for better things to come when Meat does actually get there. Does that make sense?

Here in the States, from what we've heard and read, it's a matter of record company/label problems and their inability to see past the dollar signs. They waited to see how the album did elsewhere in the world before they seemed willing to pick it up (talk about lack of foresight!). But then, this is the US where money almost ALWAYS seems to be the bottom line these days, no matter WHAT we are talking about! :evil: And so, the upcoming US tour really should have been set later in the year, AFTER CHSIB has been released here. Obviously, no one could predict these delays or problems, and huge tours like this one have to be carefully planned well in advance. But, as you can see, it's a problem, similar and yet opposite to what you're having there. YOU have the product and no promotion yet. We will have the promotion through the first part of the tour and NO product for a while!!

How utterly frustrating this has got to be for Meat!!!! Doesn't it sound like this was all some kind of coordination problem, Shane? And none of it was probably avoidable, when record companies are going to do things, in the end, the way they want to do things!

It sort of makes you want to pull your hair out. There's nothing else you can do. It's out of the artist's hands at this point in the process! URGHHHH!!! :x

I'm sure that things will even out as time goes on and the WORLD tour begins and the album is released properly everywhere. We're just at that interim stage where one thing or another is missing.

So, yes, I guess chart position is important. But it seems to be more important to the record companies. The record companies in NZ are looking at chart position to decide about releasing a single. The record companies in the US were looking at chart position to decide if they even wanted to pick up the album!

What do you think, Shane? Does this sound plausible to you for both our situations??

Love to hear what you think about it.

Thanks again! Keep up the good work there! I know it's hard and frustrating--but you ARE doing a great job of it, along with all the other folks at the forum from NZ!!! :!:

Love,
MB
xxx

[Shane]

You know, Shane, I've been thinking about your situation there, FireBall's early response that the album should NOT have been released there yet AND the situation coming up the US, with the upcoming tour starting in less than 2 weeks and NO physical album to sell until late August!

I think I'll have to give up on CHSIB appearing on the charts in NZ and just pay attention to the overall sales instead. I hope things pick up soon, and I guess they will nearer the time Meat visits here. Even a little bit of tv promotion would go a long way (the 25th anniversary edition of BOOH got to 35 on the album charts in NZ in September last year, having been advertised on only one obscure tv channel). I would rather have the reverse situation you speak of in the US, in which the promotion is before the release. This might cause a huge bulge in sales in the first week the album is released (which might get the album further up the charts), because the number of people aware of it and waiting for it will increase even before it goes on sale (my theory).

And I'm wondering if we, in a very odd way, don't have something in common. Let me run this by you to see if any of it makes sense: It sounds as though somehow, somewhere, something got messed up in coordinating promotions and the releases of the album.

Ever since the CHSIB single release in the UK, I think the whole album and single release has been messed up. Dates have been changed so often and dates for release differ in the extreme between countries (Australians will get the album in October, SIX MONTHS, possibly more, after the 31st March release in Germany, although Meat has explained the Australian situation in one of his posts). And of course we know about how the CHSIB single was treated in the UK. I am hoping things will be a lot better for future singles there.

If, in fact, Universal was supposed to wait until Meat WAS able to get there to promote the CD BEFORE they released it in NZ, maybe they either gave up waiting, knowing it had already been released in much of Europe and the UK, or they got tired of waiting for the dates to firm up and just went ahead and put it out, hoping for better things to come when Meat does actually get there. Does that make sense?

I guess you're right. If my memory is correct, David Driskell reported seeing the album in a shop he visited, and hearing one or two songs on a college radio station. Perhaps people will start selling it in the US, even before the official release date, if it sells well elsewhere.

Here in the States, from what we've heard and read, it's a matter of record company/label problems and their inability to see past the dollar signs. They waited to see how the album did elsewhere in the world before they seemed willing to pick it up (talk about lack of foresight!). But then, this is the US where money almost ALWAYS seems to be the bottom line these days, no matter WHAT we are talking about! :evil: And so, the upcoming US tour really should have been set later in the year, AFTER CHSIB has been released here. Obviously, no one could predict these delays or problems, and huge tours like this one have to be carefully planned well in advance. But, as you can see, it's a problem, similar and yet opposite to what you're having there. YOU have the product and no promotion yet. We will have the promotion through the first part of the tour and NO product for a while!!

I think he should have come to New Zealand later this month instead of heading to the US first. Touring countries in the same order in which the album is released would be a better idea, in my opinion. But of course, I'm not a music industry professional.

On one of the occasions I spoke to Universal, they said that only people with profiles like Britney Spears or NSync get singles released. But they're handling the new Fleetwood Mac album in New Zealand too. They're not exactly Britney or NSync, but their new album has gotten far more advertising here and they even have a single out here too.

The last single to be released in NZ was I'd Lie For You, which if my memory is working, got to about 16 on the single charts. A Universal person I spoke to on one of my calls to them said this was low, so I get the impression that a number 1 (or close to it) would be needed before a single release in NZ would be considered.

[Bart]

can't you guys post shorter messages? These are way too long. :roll: :wink: :D

[Testify]

they could have been longer, i read quick so its not bad.

[MBrevard]

Hey, Bart! Are you going to become my next Tim and start teasing me about my posts??!! :mrgreen: I have to admit I've been missing Tim a LOT lately and his remarks! I was very glad to see you here today!! :D

But how about joining the discussion, mister. :wink: Both Shane and I can tell you how lucky you were there in Holland! You got BOTH promotion AND product at the same time!!! :twisted:

Thanks, Testify! You may be sorry you said that, though. My concert reviews are coming! :devil:

Shane, sorry couldn't answer before this. That was amazing about BOOH anniversary edition making it to 35 with only a tiny bit of promotion. If that's the case, then things are definitely going to pick up there once Meat arrives!!!

By the way, how long has it been since he's been in NZ? I know that before last summer, he hadn't been to my area of the US since 1996. He was supposed to come for the Storytellers show, but never made it this far west. I was just wondering...

I have to agree with you, though, as frustrating as both situations are: It IS better to have the promotion BEFORE the product. Builds interest. Builds the market!! I hadn't thought about it that way before. Thanks. You might be right. It could, indeed, HELP the release of CHSIB in the US, once it finally happens!!

But I also agree that the tour probably should have been the other way around, so that Meat could concentrate on the countries where the album HAS been released. However, I'm sure nobody knew it was going to take so long for the US release to happen, when things were originally being planned.

This is why I feel so bad for Meat and, really, any other performer today, hitting their heads against the walls of concert promoters, record companies, record journalists from all media with their inherent prejudices and/or needs to sell their newspaper, magazine, TV or radio program...What a nightmare to have to contend with, you know?!!

As far as singles go, Shane, Testify is coming!!!!! There is GREAT hope here for excellent numbers!! (Sorry, Michael. We are still talking chart positions here! :( ) But it's such an amazing song, and if it goes where it deserves to go, then you just might get that single release you've been waiting for in NZ!!!!

And I certainly don't want to dismiss BOY in Germany and Holland, either! An easy-to-listen-to song, which brings out familiar feelings and memories as BOY does, could please a LOT of music listeners and sell a LOT of singles there!

So let's remain hopeful!! And in the meantime, you and all the other NZer's here at the forum, I know, are going to keep talking about the CD and helping to promote it wherever and whenever you can. As Chris always says around here, "Every little helps..." I believe that's true!!

Great to be talking with you about all this. Hope you get a response out of Universal soon! That WAS a terrific letter you wrote to them!! :D

Love to everyone,
MB
xxx

[sherrie87]

MB wrote:
Thanks, Testify! You may be sorry you said that, though. My concert reviews are coming!


Wooooooo! I am ready for those reviews, as you well know. I am so excited that you are getting into the single digits for the Saratoga show.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sherrie

[Testify]

bring it on MB!!

[Bart]

[quote="MBrevard"]Hey, Bart! Are you going to become my next Tim and start teasing me about my posts??!! :mrgreen: I have to admit I've been missing Tim a LOT lately and his remarks! I was very glad to see you here today!! :D

[/quote

No i am not teasing and i am not angry or something like that :mrgreen: , but when i see those extremely large messages i skip the message. maybe i am not the only one who does that. :mrgreen: No hard feelings though, maybe i am the only one here, so never mind what i am saying.

[mariella]

Dear Baldy,

Very good to have you back. Missed you!

I realy don't think MBs posts are too long. They are very easy for me to read/understand. Why don't you try reading some of them instead of skipping rightaway? :lol:

Shane, I read these posts about the NZ-situation with great interest always. Feel very sorry for you guys in NZ. Please keep us informed.

Great day to all of you,

Mariella

[MBrevard]

Thanks, Mariella! And Hi, Bart! I'm sorry. I'm so used to Tim teasing me about my posts that I thought you were doing the same thing. Didn't mean to dismiss your feelings. :(

We are way off topic here from Michael's first post and Shane's concern for CHSIB in NZ. But let me respond to you as briefly as I can :wink: and then, if you want to continue the discussion, why don't we move this to the PM box, so this thread can go back to being what it was supposed to be. Okay with you? :)

I don't think you are alone in feeling this way about longer posts. I think others feel the same, whether they have problems with them because English is not their first language or because they want something different from the forum. Many people have busy lives and want to come here, read the latest and then go back to those lives and don't have time or desire for the longer messages. And I appreciate that!

To me, though, when I come here, I like to have conversations with others, as I was having with Shane. It was such a joy for me to find so many other wonderful ML fans to talk with--people with the same love and respect as I have for this man! And often, it is difficult to have a decent conversation with just 3 words or 3 sentences or even 3 paragraphs. That is why mine tend to be longer. I love to ask what others feel and think and to be able to read their responses to things that have been said. This is my pleasure and joy when I come here.

I love the fact that everybody has a different point of view and not only that, they have a different style of writing, of expressing those views! And I love this forum and how it was set up because of that! We are all fully free and entitled to be different while we are here.

I have no desire to be annoying or upsetting to anyone. I don't come here to fight or argue with people. I don't want to push my opinions or views on anyone else. I only wish to share them and listen to what others have to share in return.

So, please, Bart, if these longer posts do bother you (and obviously, from your words, they do), then, as I have said many times in my longer messages, pass them by. I won't be the least bit upset or hurt if anyone does, because I know that people come here for different reasons, with different objectives, and do not have the same view of all this as I do.

I hope you HAVE read this, even though it is a longer post. :D Thankfully, the forum is big enough, varied enough to handle all of our feelings and needs.

Thanks for listening, Bart. As I said, if you want to continue this discussion, my PM box is always open to you. Now, before the 'off-topic' police come and take us away, maybe we'd better return this thread to its 'regularly scheduled program'!! :roll:

Love to all,
MB
xxx

[Bart]

Lol.
:lol:

[Guppie]

Great. My favo bald guy is back. WB Bart
P.S. Post short enough? :lol: :lol:

[Bart]

Favo bald? Maybe i am the only bald dude you know. But hey, thanx anyway.