Re: Official: Exile re-enters at #1 in U.K. after 38 years (Sales on Page 3)
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Date: May 25, 2010 04:59
Stones reissue gamble pays off
Monday May 24, 2010
By Ben Cardew
Universal's gambit of treating the reissue of The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street as a frontline release rather than a catalogue album has paid off spectacularly, with the album entering the chart at number one.
The album, which adds additional material to the original 1972 release, last week sold 31,287 units to become the most successful repackage of Stones material since Universal secured the rights in 2008 from EMI of the band’s post-1971 catalogue.
The result means Exile In Main Street is the first studio album to return to number one as a reissue in the UK.
Mick Jagger tells Music Week, “Working with Universal on the Shine A Light project proved they understood how we work and with this number one in the UK, it is great news for everyone involved. Looking back to ’72 it was worth the effort and, yes, Exile… is a great record that has stood the test of time.”
The reissue programme started with Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock‘n’Roll and Black and Blue in May 2009, followed by Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You, Undercover, Dirty Work, Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge, Bridges To Babylon and A Bigger Bang later that year. All of the reissues are through Polydor via UMG companies around the world.
The re-release of Exile…, however, was separate to the main reissue programme. Polydor issued the album last Monday, with 10 previously unreleased tracks from the period, some of which have sub-sequently been re-worked. The album is generally priced at £5.99 for the standard CD version and £11.99 for the deluxe edition.
“We treated it as if it was a new album,” says Polydor UK general manager Orla Lee. “It is about engaging with a new audience and having new material from the time.”
Treating the album as a frontline release meant that Polydor issued two of these new songs – Plundered My Soul and Following The River – as “focus tracks” to radio and TV, creating new videos for both. Plundered My Soul was first out of the blocks and made the Radio 2 C-list, as well as picking up considerable airplay on Kerrang! Radio. Following The River has just gone to radio.
“Rather than it being a reissue, there are new songs. They’ve been doing lots of interviews, radio, TV and lots of [media] takeovers,” says Lee, who explains that the band were intimately involved with the project.
Bernard Doherty, CEO of LD Communications and now in his third decade as the Stones’ PR, explains the press campaign was laid out six months ago “with meticulous planning but the band wanted it to have a rock‘n’roll feel in that all the interviews and media coverage didn’t all drop at once, it needed to gather momentum”.
“Our first cover was three months ago with Uncut, then we had playbacks of the bonus tracks to media, arranged a number of screenings of the Stones in Exile documentary,” he adds.
This frontline approach also extends to the advertising campaign behind the reissue. “We haven’t just approached it as one ad in Record Collector – although we have done that. It has been a far-reaching campaign with the full frontline approach,” adds Lee.
She sees the album campaign as a sustained one with further activity to follow, including repromotion around Father’s Day in June.
“It is a global campaign,” Lee adds. “The midweeks around the world are very strong.”
“Considering Exile… is now in its fourth decade and has been reissued twice before, this is a remarkable achievement,” adds Doherty.
Keith Richards says, “Maybe because it was a double album, we knew there was going to be a sort of reaction to it in a way, just because it was very different. It shows our determination, the Stones’ point of view, that we insisted it was a double record, that you couldn’t split it up in other words. That was what we did. We’re the exiles and this is what we’re doing. It was made with that kind of attitude.
“Every tour when we plan the setlist, Exile is one of those records you can look at and say ‘We’ve gotta do Tumbling Dice and Happy and there’s always Sweet Virginia and Shine a Light.’
“When you’re in a little bit of doubt about what to play, you say, ‘Let’s listen to Exile and we’ll find something.’”
Following the re-release, there are understood to be more Rolling Stones reissues in the pipeline, also including previously un-released tracks.
Source: Music Week