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precious-things-digest Sunday, August 9 1998 Volume 03 : Number 280
Today's Subjects:
-----------------
My 2 cents: Tori on Conan O'Brien. [Leannoth@aol.com]
Raspberry Swirl Video ["Paul Tweedy"
]
Re: concert rates [Freque79@aol.com]
Fw: New Tori Single Cancelled? [Tripp Gwyn ]
Atlantic '98 summer sampler w/ Tori ["Laura Martin" ]
Re: The Raspberry Swirl fiasco. ["Mike Gray" ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 16:21:41 EDT
From: Leannoth@aol.com
Subject: My 2 cents: Tori on Conan O'Brien.
I've just gotta say that Tori looked so great on Conan O'Brien last night. Of
course, she's always beautiful, but I hate it when they put all that black
makeup and glitter around her eyes, like it was on Letterman. I like the
simple, natural Tori much better. :)
~~Andréa.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 22:04:56 +0000
From: "Paul Tweedy"
Subject: Raspberry Swirl Video
Yay, I finally got to see the Raspberry Swirl video - I requested it
on "The Box" tonight (number 613, fact fans). It's pretty cool - it
seems to owe some debt to Madonna's "Ray Of Light" video in parts.
All very obscure, but the actual song was remixed - some kind of
harsher drumbeat in the background, and parts of it were flanged,
60's style. Quite odd. Shame it's not coming out....
Paul
"You can't get to London by climbing telegraph poles"
Paul Tweedy
http://www.cus.umist.ac.uk/~grendel/
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 17:26:32 EDT
From: Freque79@aol.com
Subject: Re: concert rates
In a message dated 8/8/98 8:19:48 AM Central Daylight Time, woj@smoe.org
writes:
> also sprach Anastasia DeBeck (staceyd@sirs.com):
Each time I see this, I feel that I should change my name to Zarathustra, and
then say something worth responding to.
I wonder how many people will get that.
I was curious to ask the people that have gone to Tori's last few concerts..
Has she sounded hoarse like she did last night on Conan? Or could you only
hear that because there's less volume and energy when she's on Conan?
Just curious, thanks.
Mairie
http://members.tripod.com/~raspberryswirl/
(Ode to the Piano Queen)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1998 16:09:09 -0400
From: Tripp Gwyn
Subject: Fw: New Tori Single Cancelled?
I just received this from EQS. I was asking them if RS was cancelled or
just delayed, and if this would affect the JS European single's release.
- ----------
> From: EQS
> To: Tripp Gwyn
> Subject: Re: New Tori Single Cancelled?
> Date: Saturday, August 08, 1998 2:44 PM
>
> Hi,
> the Tori single has been delayed. No new release date has been given.
> No one knows how this will affect the Swedish single.
> Thanks,
> Brian
> EQS
>
> Tripp Gwyn wrote:
> >
> > Hiya,
> >
> > My friend in the UK told me that all the stores there did not receive
the
> > Raspberry Swirl singles for dsitrution Wednesday and were told it was
> > cancelled, or possibly delayed again.
> >
> > I was wondering if you knew anything, and if this would affect the
release
> > of the Swedish Jackie's Strength single.
> >
> > Tripp Gwyn
> > tgwyn@infoave.net
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 19:52:51 -0400
From: "Laura Martin"
Subject: Atlantic '98 summer sampler w/ Tori
Hi! I got this promotional Atlantic Records Summer in NYC 1998 sampler
today. It has Jackie's Strength on it. I hadn't heard anything about this
before, so if anybody has something to add or has seen this and is desperate
for a copy of the album, which looks pretty good, feel free to email me!
Silence faith and luck,
Erin
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 23:03:40 -0700
From: "Mike Gray"
Subject: Re: The Raspberry Swirl fiasco.
Hi Paul
>the only place I saw posters advertising the "Choirgirl" album was in
>my student union. Abysmal.
Well, that's one more poster than I saw ... ;) ... (apart from outside the
venues for the concerts, of course). The promotion we got over here
consisted of a "Q" magazine cover (which was no small feat, I admit), an
article in "The Times" (can anyone say "target audience?") and the usual
small amount of reviews. Not enough. I don't *think* even Record Collector
ran an article to co-incide with the new release, but I could be wrong.
>state. Sales are down, singles are now loss leaders, acts aren't
>taking off - but it's the suit's fault. Because the music business is
I totally disagree with what's happening with the UK singles chart. I
suspect that this may have been the reason for the abandoning of JS here,
because just as the singles would have been pressed, the chart people moved
the goalposts (regarding the number of 'bonus' tracks on a single)... my
thoughts on that are, and have always been - if the artist is prolific
enough, let them release as many bonus tracks as they see fit. What gives
the chart network the right to regulate that?
>band, making some manufactured singles to sell to 12-year-olds, and
>then making a quick buck and moving on to the next lot. We're plagued
Ah, so you saw the advert on teletext today for "attractive teenagers who
can sing and dance", then... hmm.. nice. A Sony managed project too, so no
sign of 'suits'.. ;)
>selling only to their own fans and never growing. Whilst Tori is
>getting bigger and bigger in the states, due to huge promotion rounds
>and tours, Tori's been getting smaller and smaller in the UK since
>Under The Pink. And it's sad, it's really sad, because it can be
A point I have to make here is consumer taste. During the period between the
release of BfP and Choirgirl, when I was shopping for Tori stuff, I came
across a *lot* of people with the exact same story.... they stopped
listening when they bought Pele. The change of direction and instrumentation
was too radical for many people here, and they didn't find the albums as
'instantly' accessible as they had LE and Pink. Consider the argument I had
with a woman in a record store..
"You like Tori Amos? I used to, but her last album was crap."
"No it wasn't. It was *different*, certainly, and took a lot of getting used
to, but it wasn't bad."
"There were like two good songs on the entire album, that "Zebra" thing and
Caught A Lite Sneeze"
I heard that a *lot*. People didn't seem willing to listen to it, and just
weren't interested in the 'new' sound. As such, I suspect she lost a deal of
her fan-base (non-dedicated) here at that point, which would account for the
relatively small sales of the later single(s).
Not that e/w haven't done the *worst* job of promoting things (well,
actually, it could be worse, she could be signed to Mute (who live up to
their name in *style*)), but there may be other factors in play.
How come P/widow got to No.1? I've never figured that out? I'm not a
clubber, so I don't know if it was being played there, but I hadn't heard it
on the radio in the weeks before the release.
>Release Raspberry Swirl! With the right promotion it will be a HUGE
>HIT. They just don't fucking realise it, because they're too wrapped
>up in selling candyfloss.
I think they don't release it because they've failed to promote it, they
KNOW they've failed, and they're taking a step back to attempt to
re-evaluate. However, this should have been done three weeks ago when there
was something that could have been done to *remedy* the situation in terms
of air-play (how come I found *another* 2 of those "Raspberry Swirl" 2-track
promos today? )
because those promos didn't reach the intended audience.
Actually, of course, with Tori, they could not promote it at all, and it
would still break the Top 40, I'm quite sure, through sheer weight of UK
Toriphiles (who would often buy copies for friends too (look at me, I *had*
6 copies of that RS single pre-ordered, 5 of which were to leave the UK) who
buy all her recorded output as a matter of course. They could just have
released RS, let it slip, and then got down to the much more serious
business of promoting Jackie's Strength. Is that *really* too much to ask?
The time gap between releases makes people *forget*. It's been a (quantative
as always, Mike) while since Choirgirl was released. People assume that's
it - 1 single, the album, that's our lot... look how much later things like
the Jupiter single were released after the album, or (obviously) the Widow
single...
Aditionally, mailing the e-mail addresses on the sticker on the promo CD has
not (so far) elicited any response... I wonder if that's what happened when
people who might have *promoted* the record e-mailed?
Mike
Mike Gray - mike.gray@zetnet.co.uk / ICQ : 6200976 / http://come.to/MikeGray
"My laptop computer is locked up. Can you help?"
"Remeber, you have to hold it upside down and shake it to reboot."
"Oh, that's right."