Morrissey at 2 in midweek UK album charts

Thewlis

Very Senior Member
1 The Weeknd - After Hours (11.5k) *
2 Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog On a Chain (5.8k) *
3 Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (4.1k)
4 David Bowie - Is It Any Wonder? (3.4k) *
5 The Slow Readers Club - The Joy of the Return (3.2k) *

Looks like another top-3 finish is possible. Would be amazing for Morrissey without any radio support.
Low in High School entered at number 5 and California Son at number 4.
 
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1 The Weeknd - After Hours (11.5k) *
2 Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog On a Chain (5.8k) *
3 Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (4.1k)
4 David Bowie - Is It Any Wonder? (3.4k) *
5 The Slow Readers Club - The Joy of the Return (3.2k) *

Is this from music week as I didn't think it was available until later in the day?
 
1 The Weeknd - After Hours (11.5k) *
2 Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog On a Chain (5.8k) *
3 Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (4.1k)
4 David Bowie - Is It Any Wonder? (3.4k) *
5 The Slow Readers Club - The Joy of the Return (3.2k) *

If this is accurate it makes the Amazon chart look completely irrelevant as The Weekend on Amazon is no 7 and Lewis Capaldi is 28?
 
1 The Weeknd - After Hours (11.5k) *
2 Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog On a Chain (5.8k) *
3 Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (4.1k)
4 David Bowie - Is It Any Wonder? (3.4k) *
5 The Slow Readers Club - The Joy of the Return (3.2k) *

Uh oh. This could end up as his lowest ever sales. Even lower than Californian Son.
For comparison, High School had shifted well over 15,000 by this point.
The oft-quoted 60% figure for fan-base desertion may prove to have been wishful thinking...
 
Uh oh. This could end up as his lowest ever sales. Even lower than Californian Son.
For comparison, High School had shifted well over 15,000 by this point.
The oft-quoted 60% figure for fan-base desertion may prove to have been wishful thinking...
That's a bit ridiculous as everyone has their lowest ever sales everywhere. Less and less people buy albums.
What matters is chart position.
It could well be his highest entry since World Peace, which entered at number 2.
 
That's a bit ridiculous as everyone has their lowest ever sales everywhere. Less and less people buy albums.
What matters is chart position.
It could well be his highest entry since World Peace, which entered at number 2.

Luke Garibaldi will overtake as his sales will continue throughout the week (his songs are on the radio).
Most people buying Steve's album will already have done so. May not even reach 8,000...
 
That's a bit ridiculous as everyone has their lowest ever sales everywhere. Less and less people buy albums.
What matters is chart position.
It could well be his highest entry since World Peace, which entered at number 2.
It's not a simple trajectory. High School sold 25,000 in week 1. World Peace was out three years earlier but sold 17,000 (no big radio single).
 
It's not a simple trajectory. High School sold 25,000 in week 1. World Peace was out three years earlier but sold 17,000 (no big radio single).
Indeed, a big radio hit makes a huge difference. Hence the high sales for High School.
World Peace and Dog on a Chain similarly had little radio airplay. So from 17,000 in 2014 to something like 10,000 now seems reasonable considering the drop in general sales in those 6 years.
Now hopefully it will result in the same chart entry on Friday too ;)
 
That's a bit ridiculous as everyone has their lowest ever sales everywhere. Less and less people buy albums.
What matters is chart position.
It could well be his highest entry since World Peace, which entered at number 2.

Chart position may be all that matters to Morrissey but it will be sales that matter to BMG. Paul Heatons album hit number 1 with 20500 sales last week.
 
Indeed, a big radio hit makes a huge difference. Hence the high sales for High School.
World Peace and Dog on a Chain similarly had little radio airplay. So from 17,000 in 2014 to something like 10,000 now seems reasonable considering the drop in general sales in those 6 years.
Now hopefully it will result in the same chart entry on Friday too ;)
Fair point 17,000 to 10,000 would not be a catastrophic drop. But I don't think it will reach 10k. 8k max. Should be safe for a top 3 slot - top 2 unlikely. A shame that his catchiest songs, arguably for decades, were boycotted by radio stations because of the whole For Britain/racism thing. With strong airplay, the album would have powered to 20,000+ sales and probably number 1. It's Joe and the songwriting team I feel most sorry for - none of the negative stuff was their fault at all.
 
Fair point 17,000 to 10,000 would not be a catastrophic drop. But I don't think it will reach 10k. 8k max. Should be safe for a top 3 slot - top 2 unlikely. A shame that his catchiest songs, arguably for decades, were boycotted by radio stations because of the whole For Britain/racism thing. With strong airplay, the album would have powered to 20,000+ sales and probably number 1. It's Joe and the songwriting team I feel most sorry for - none of the negative stuff was their fault at all.
They will be celebrating if it enters top-3 too. And quite rightly so, they have all right to be proud.
And your analysis about a radio 'boycot' is way off. BBC A-listed Wedding Bell Blues long after Moz' support for For Britain.
Something or someone just stopped BMG from promoting/plugging the album.

But on it's own merits it will still make top-5 and possibly top-3 which is pretty amazing.
 
Luke Garibaldi will overtake as his sales will continue throughout the week (his songs are on the radio).
Most people buying Steve's album will already have done so. May not even reach 8,000...
Luke Baldigari...never 'eard of 'im!!!
 
It's not a simple trajectory. High School sold 25,000 in week 1. World Peace was out three years earlier but sold 17,000 (no big radio single).
Istanbul got a lot of airplay at the time over a few stations. WPINOYB was played only a handful of times.
 
They will be celebrating if it enters top-3 too. And quite rightly so, they have all right to be proud.
And your analysis about a radio 'boycot' is way off. BBC A-listed Wedding Bell Blues long after Moz' support for For Britain.
Something or someone just stopped BMG from promoting/plugging the album.
But on it's own merits it will still make top-5 and possibly top-3 which is pretty amazing.

Top 3 wouldn't be amazing at all if it only sells a few thousand. What's more, it will probably have sold fewer than Johnny Marr's last album resulting in the unbelievable situation where the Smiths guitarist would have become a more successful and popular singer than the Smiths singer. It would be like Morrissey becoming a more successful guitarist than Marr. Radio stations play songs that their listeners want to hear - they (the BBC in particular) cannot be swayed by record company pluggers. If the BBC play his songs, they will be deluged withof complaints about them supporting a far-right racist. Morrissey has simply become mega-toxic (the BBC dug their heels in by playing some California Son songs but they just can't justify playing him any more). If commercial stations play songs their audience don't like, they lose the audience and the advertising revenue.
Personally, I want the album to do well, and I want the songwriting team and producer to stay together. Hopefully, non-UK sales will not have diminished so rapidly, although the UK does account for about a third of his worldwide sales.
 
Top 3 wouldn't be amazing at all if it only sells a few thousand. What's more, it will probably have sold fewer than Johnny Marr's last album resulting in the unbelievable situation where the Smiths guitarist would have become a more successful and popular singer than the Smiths singer. It would be like Morrissey becoming a more successful guitarist than Marr. Radio stations play songs that their listeners want to hear - they (the BBC in particular) cannot be swayed by record company pluggers. If the BBC play his songs, they will be deluged withof complaints about them supporting a far-right racist. Morrissey has simply become mega-toxic (the BBC dug their heels in by playing some California Son songs but they just can't justify playing him any more). If commercial stations play songs their audience don't like, they lose the audience and the advertising revenue.
Personally, I want the album to do well, and I want the songwriting team and producer to stay together. Hopefully, non-UK sales will not have diminished so rapidly, although the UK does account for about a third of his worldwide sales.
Your right on some points but if I can highlight a couple of things, firstly Johnny Marr's audience is not Morrissey's audience which sounds strange to say but based on what I've seen at Marr's gigs the regular followers of Moz just ain't there, some are but not many and that's been for several years. Also Marr does not have the same quantity of fans of his solo work and that's undeniable and on that point alone will never be more successful than Moz. Secondly at the time of release California Son was album of the week on Radio 2 with five different tracks played off the album over five days on arguably the station's most popular show, Ken Bruce Show, if airplay holds such an influence it should have pushed better sales for the album but it seemingly didn't. Wedding Bell Blues was played frequently while Morning Starship & Its Over had some airplay. Point is if you're a fan of Morrissey you'll buy the album because being a fan you'll know it's out, you don't need Radio 2 or any other station to 'sell' it to you.
 
Your right on some points but if I can highlight a couple of things, firstly Johnny Marr's audience is not Morrissey's audience which sounds strange to say but based on what I've seen at Marr's gigs the regular followers of Moz just ain't there, some are but not many and that's been for several years. Also Marr does not have the same quantity of fans of his solo work and that's undeniable and on that point alone will never be more successful than Moz. Secondly at the time of release California Son was album of the week on Radio 2 with five different tracks played off the album over five days on arguably the station's most popular show, Ken Bruce Show, if airplay holds such an influence it should have pushed better sales for the album but it seemingly didn't. Wedding Bell Blues was played frequently while Morning Starship & Its Over had some airplay. Point is if you're a fan of Morrissey you'll buy the album because being a fan you'll know it's out, you don't need Radio 2 or any other station to 'sell' it to you.

Call The Comet outsold California Son.

"Final position #7 in the UK album chart, with 8,794 sold - so that's slightly up on 'Playland', which charted at #9 with 7,281 sold."

"Morrissey's first album release as a sexagenarian (he was 60 on 22 May) is his 12th solo studio set and first ever covers album, California Son, which debuts at No. 4 (8,340 sales)"
 
Call The Comet outsold California Son.

"Final position #7 in the UK album chart, with 8,794 sold - so that's slightly up on 'Playland', which charted at #9 with 7,281 sold."

"Morrissey's first album release as a sexagenarian (he was 60 on 22 May) is his 12th solo studio set and first ever covers album, California Son, which debuts at No. 4 (8,340 sales)"
why are you here day in day out?
 
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