• It’s your Saturday edition of The Purge and, well thanks Ariana Grande, for going right ahead and popping out a new EP brimming with festive favourites. We can’t have Kylie, Bubes and the ‘Naitch hogging the Christmas spotlight, now can we? The new release, which shot into the top ten on iTunes, comprises six songs – or five and an introduction.
• Sia has gifted us another grat track from her forthcoming album ‘This Is Acting’. The latest, entitled ‘Cheap Thrills’, follows on from ‘Alive’, ‘Bird Set Free’ and ‘One Million Bullets’ and was co-penned with Greg Kurstin, who also served as producer. ‘This Is Acting’ is due on Friday January 29.
• Sony Music has every reason to crow the continuing success of Michael Jackson’s iconic album ‘Thriller’, which has become the first in history to be certified 30 times platinum for sales in the United States. More than 100 million copies of Michael’s LP have been sold throughout the planet, with more than one billion Michael Jackson album sales overall.
• London outfit Hot Chip have been forced to shift their Brisbane show, “due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts”. The band were originally set to take the stage at The Tivoli on Tuesday January 26, but they’ll now do so the night after instead. Punters unable to attend the new date are advised to consult the Frontier Touring website for refund details.
• Fat Freddy’s Drop has confirmed a third Melbourne show as part of their February tour. Clearly incredibly popular in the Victorian capital, having already sold out two shows at the city’s Forum Theatre, the band’s added another – on Sunday February 21. Tickets are on sale now.
• Dance music legend Erick Morillo will also play in Melbourne during his visit to our shores in January. He’ll play a set at the city’s Brown Alley on Friday January 22 from 10pm ’til late.
• As the releases for the year slow to a crawl, the charts around the world begin to settle somewhat. The same can be said for the British singles chart this week, which is still being held by Justin Bieber and his single ‘Love Yourself’ and his previous hit ‘Sorry’, which are numbers one and two respectively. Adele’s ‘Hello’ moves back up to No.3 and our own Grace improves to No.4 with ‘You Don’t Own Me’. Stormzy’s ‘Shut Up’ storms up the chart from No.99 to No.8, while this year’s ‘X Factor’ winner, Louisa Johnson, limps into the countdown at No.9 – the lowest ever debut for an ‘X Factor’ winner, suggesting the show is most definitely on the wane. One Direction’s ‘History’ re-enters at No.11.
• There’s still no budging Adele from the No.1 spot on the UK albums chart. Coldplay had a crack last week and it’s Elvis Presley’s ‘I Can Dream’ which gives it its all this week, but without success. As mentioned earlier, it’s pretty slow on the releases front at this time of the year; so much so that there are no new entries in the entire British top 100 albums chart.
• ‘Hello’ again from Adele, sitting pretty for the seventh successive week atop the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in the US, reigning over everyone, including Justin Bieber, who dominates the top five with singles in positions two (‘Sorry’), four (‘What Do You Mean?’) and five (‘Love Yourself’). The Weeknd’s ‘In The Night’ is the week’s big mover, bulleting from No.37 to No.19, while winner of the US series of ‘The Voice’, Jordan Smith, sees his single ‘Somebody To Love’ debut at No.21.
• Okay, so Adele’s ’25’ remains at No.1 on the US charts for a third successive week and it’s still doing a roaring trade. According to stats, the album has sold a staggering 5.19 million copies Stateside since its release. And if that wasn’t big enough, it’s the first album to sell more than 650,000 copies in three separate weeks since 1991 and is one of only 11 albums to break through the five million sales barrier in the past decade; phenomenally doing so in just three short weeks. Coldplay’s new album ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’ paled in comparison, despite bagging an impressive 210,000 copies in a week to debut at No.2. G-Eazy scores a No.5 debut for ‘When It’s Dark Out’, Rick Ross enters the ‘Black Market’ at No.6 and our own Troye Sivan will be plenty happy with a No.7 premiere for his debut album ‘Blue Neighbourhood’.
• Needless to say, with the record companies all winding down for the year, it’s getting plenty quiet here in the land of The Purge, but we’ll be back tonight with your regular edition of Chart Watch from 6pm AEDT.
TICKETS PLEASE
MONDAY DECEMBER 21 : Fatboy Slim (Melbourne)
TUESDAY DECEMBER 22 : Cherie Currie (Nationally)
TUESDAY DECEMBER 22 : Wu-Tang Clan (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane)
Australia's first stop for pop!