There have been a few postings on the forum page, regarding tracks from Elysium being played on the above radio station 'Strange Brew' programme.
So, I decided to listen in for the first time - 'just in case'.
I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait 30 minutes, before up came 'Clutching at Straws' (although I wasn't able to listen in for the full 3 hours, so no idea if more were played).
Sent the presenter (John Richardson) an email, his response follows:
"Best album of 2015/2016 for me, so it has and will continue to be played without question (class act for sure).
Richard Norris who does the Saturday morning show, also plays the band, although I'm not sure if he has for Elysium"
Peter, That's great that Elysium is getting airplay and that the radio station personal like it that much over in London. Nothing going on this side of the pond and if you plug Charlie in on most internet radio stations, they don't register or one station had songs from the Anthology collection, nothing on the last 2 albums. I did find a radio station in Portland Oregon called Charlie 97.1 which I got a laugh out of and requested a song off the album, which I'm sure they don't have. I suppose their label would have to market this album over here where they have had success in the past. I think there are songs on this album like The Super Rich with the great guitar work which would play well on several formats over here, just saying as a fan who likes good rock music and band comebacks, you never know what can happen in this business.
This is a very quiet sight as everything seems to have shifted to The Fabulous Lampshades, who now have their own Facebook page. Today when I put them in the search engine the YouTube video, Call Me Dave showed up with other videos from Elysium and Kitchens Of Distinction from a show in 2013. They must of just put them on there as I hadn't seen them before. The sound quality is not good but I totally enjoyed them. Elysium is a fantastic album that seems to have zero label support and appears to be a locally played album on a London internet station ARFM. Not sure if this is played on any other stations in Europe or anywhere else but it should be. I think I've said enough recently on this sight for now, so take care to all.
I recorded the videos and then had them posted on the Charlie forum site (see page 2), so they've been available for public viewing (on the forum site & Youtube since 2013).
Yes, the sound quality might not be brilliant, but as they say in Yorkshire - "summats better than nowt!!
I wouldn't agree when you say things on have shifted more Fabulous Lampshades than Charlie - it's still all Charlie & Terry Thomas.
I will now totally agree with you with your statement regarding lack of airplay/record label support
I've had two responses from John Richards (presenter of the Strangebrew programme (on ARfm):
Hi Peter
Best album of 2015/16 for me, so it has and will continue to be played without question.
Class act for sure, glad you found us.
Richard Norris who does the Saturday morning show plays the band too, although I am not sure if he has for Elysium.
All the best,
John
Hi Peter,
I tried getting a copy for radio airplay but got zero response from the record company so I assume they are just not promoting it at all. It will not be played on any radio station or reviewed in any music publication if no promo copies are sent out. We get promo albums through from all the melodic rock labels such as Frontiers, Escape, AOR Heaven etc for airplay with no problem.
It makes no difference to me, as I bought a copy anyway as I love the band and have all their stuff.
I do not get involved with interviews sorry to say. ARfm seems to play a lot of Terry related bands, Giant, Tesla, Tommy Shaw, Bad Co, etc all get regular airplay.
Regards
John
The feedback I've had from Terry - "Reviews are really good (everyone gets it), but the sales of Elysium are extremely disappointing"
Peter, Just a quick response, before I posted which I noticed I said sight instead of site, I sent a message to Floating World Records and just said a few things and got a lame response from Pete Macklin who said " You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink" so there you have it right from the horses mouth.
Count yourself lucky that Floating World responded to you.
I'm still waiting on a response to an email I sent them yesterday first thing (passing on comments from John Richards regarding none existent promo copies).
This Maklin fella might be correct when saying he can't make the horses drink, but if he doesn't tell the horses that there's a waterhole to drink from - does he expect them to be mind readers !!!
Peter, I received an unexpected e-mail this morning from Peter Macklin, who must of had a change of opinion for some reason. He said, Dear Jim, Glad you enjoyed the album, completely ignored by the media over here sadly, Best, Pete Macklin. So he's blaming the media over there for lack of coverage of this album. I guess nobody wrote about this release in your media in 2015?
Peter, In my reply to Pete Macklin, I said I was lucky to find the album on Amazon and he replied that I wasn't lucky, they had distributed it to all Amazon sites worldwide. So that's seems to be the extent of what they will do so far. This small company seems to sell older & odd albums, not sure how Charlie ended up with this outfit with a new release. I'm not sure how ARfm ended up with this album either but if they can play it, why not somebody else. I'm sure lots of time & effort went into this album with little to show for it so far, which is sad. So far this seems to be trying to sell this CD by word of mouth or anybody who remembers this band, who might look it up, not good enough as time is running out and this album will be history.
Sorry, In reading again the reply from John Richards, he stated Nothing will happen until promo albums are sent out. So is this company responsible to do or not do this or is there a financial burden to do this or is there another problem? I'm not a lawyer, just a music fan.
According to an email from Peter, promo copies were sent out to many radio stations so it would seem no interest on that score, which radio stations were targeted is another matter.
I got no response when my initial request was made but as a fan of the band I had already paid for my own personal copy which is the one being played on air. Not normally the way things work regarding airplay but hey ho it's the way it turns out sometimes.
John, Thanks for some clarity on this issue, very confusing for sure. I know Floating World Records is supplying Amazon worldwide with the CD from an e-mail they sent me a few days ago. The reviews that I read were very high on this album, which came out in October 2015 but they got no response from the promo's they sent out, this makes no sense at all and makes me wonder if they really sent them at all. You would think it would be in their best interest to do that. I guess we'll never know who got the promo copies or why there was a negative reaction to this highly rated album.
