• Sony Music this week serviced ‘Rockstar’ – the new single for ‘X Factor’ winner Reece Mastin. According to the Sony team, the track was penned during a recent writing trip to Los Angeles and will be released digitally this Friday. Reece’s album is currently slated for release in October.
• After re-releasing digitally remastered version of all The Beatles’ studio albums on CD three years ago (and popping them on iTunes in 2010), EMI has announced this week that they’ll be releasing each of the albums on vinyl in November. The 180 gram LPs will be made individually or in a superb special edition box set complete with a 252 page hardbound book, which is limited to 50,000 copies worldwide.
• UK outfit Maximo Park has announced headline dates in Sydney and Melbourne in January. The band is visiting our shores for both the Falls and Southbound Festivals and will now perform for fans at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel on January 02 and The HiFi in Sydney on January 03. Tickets for both shows are on sale now.
• We made mention late last month that British soul songstress Rebecca Ferguson would be releasing a deluxe edition of her album ‘Heaven’ in the UK before Christmas. Now comes news from her team at Sony locally that they’ll be following suit. Rebecca achieved great success with both her single ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’ and album ‘Heaven’ here in Australia and the repackage (including five new tracks) might be just the thing to get her back in the charts pre-Christmas. It’s out locally on Friday October 12.
• Also revealed by Sony this week is the forthcoming local release of Brandy’s new album ‘Two Eleven’. You’ll be able to get your mitts on that locally from Friday October 19.
• Melbourne outfit Eagle And The Worm will release their new EP ‘Strangelove’ on October 12. According to their label Warner, it’s set to “push pop music into unexpected places” and will be preceded by the servicing of the first single from it, ‘Give Me Time’, to radio on Tuesday.
• Could the team from Live Nation have a couple of big tour announcements up their sleeve? They’ve mentioned on their Facebook page that they have a “hectic week ahead”, posting P!nk’s single ‘So What’. With the singer on the ground in Australia this week, is a tour announcement imminent? Earlier in the week, they also posted the new track for Rihanna.
• In other tour news this week, the team from Chugg has teamed up with Sydney festival Homebake to co-produce the annual festival. Of the new partnership, Michael Chugg said, “With all the amazing home-grown talent in this country, Homebake has always been at the forefront of celebrating the incredible Australian and New Zealand music on offer. Right now in the live market our local acts are doing as strong business, in some cases even better, than some international acts – so it’s a great time to get involved. There is so much love for this festival and we just can’t wait.” Homebake returns to Sydney’s Domain on Saturday December 08.
• The new year’s celebrations are back in Sydney this year, with the annual Harbour Party at Luna Park announced this week. Headlining the harbour-side celebrations is Aussie pop favourite Ricki-Lee, but also taking the stage will be Marvin Priest, The Aston Shuffle, Luciana and Ivan Gough. We’ve been warned, however, that they aren’t the last of the artists to be announced. Tickets are on sale on Tuesday October 09.
• Brisbane outfit Millions are on the verge of revealing something new. The band’s new single is entitled ‘Nineteen’ and it’s the first taste of the band’s forthcoming sophomore EP, due in November. Described as “a stomping glam-pop shuffle”, the track is set for digital release on Friday October 12.
• Morrissey’s forthcoming December tour looks like being a complete smash. Both Sydney dates sold out within minutes of going on sale earlier this week and at last report, the shows in Melbourne and Brisbane were also selling fast.
• On the British singles chart this week, Irish outfit The Script have maintained their heading at No.1 with their latest single ‘Hall Of Fame’. Example put up plenty of fight with ‘Say Nothing’ debuting in the No.2 position, but novelty hit ‘Gangnam Style’ looks likely to spoil the party next week, rocketing from No.37 to No.3. Sony’s local signing The Janoskians debut at No.91 with their single ‘Set This World On Fire’.
• On the albums chart, The Killers have come along to spoil P!nk’s party, with their new long player ‘Battle Born’ debuting at No.1. P!nk has to settle for No.2 with ‘The Truth About Love’, the re-package of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ is in at No.6 and Carly Rae Jepsen’s album ‘Kiss’ premieres at No.9.
• Across the Atlantic, Maroon 5 maintains their heading on the Billboard 100 Singles chart with their latest tune ‘One More Night’, but as in the UK, novelty smash ‘Gangnam Style’ by PSY is threatening, bulleting from No.11 to No.2. The rest of the top ten remains relatively stable. Christina Aguilera’s new single ‘Your Body’ debuts at No.34.
• Staggeringly, P!nk scores her first ever No.1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart with ‘The Truth About Love’. The album sold 280,000 copies in its first week (a low number when you consider she sold 140,000 on debut here in Australia). Kanye West premieres at No.2 with his LP ‘G.O.O.D. Music Cruel Summer’, while The Killers are in at No.3 with ‘Battle Born’. Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Kiss’ pops in at No.6, Grizzly Bear’s ‘Shields’ is in at No.7 and there’s a debut at No.10 for Ben Folds Five.
• Now that you’re up to date with the charts over in the UK and US, you’ll be wanting to know about tomorrow’s charts here in Australia, surely? Well you’ll get your first look at this week’s ARIA chart action with our weekly Chart Watch segment, live on the site from 9am tomorrow.
Australia's first stop for pop!
Anonymous says
P!nk actually sold around 74 000 here last week, not 140 000. The 2xP certification was for shipments + digital downloads, not hard sales. 280 000 in the US (hard sales) is pretty good. Remember that P!nk is only a phenomenon in Australia (she’s merely “huge” everywhere else :-).