An old buddy of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver named Andy Schumann posted footage from 1998 when Vernon and his friends competed in a Battle of the Bands under the name Mount Vernon. The video of Mount Vernon features Vernon with a handful of his future collaborators, such as Phil Cook (DeYarmond Edison, Megafaun, Gayngs), Brad Cook (DeYarmond Edison, Megafaun), and Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Grandma Sparrow).
See? Everyone has to start somewhere.
https://youtu.be/L2oRTeCkjsM
US-based economics professor Mark J Perry has blamed artists for the boom in the secondary ticketing market.
“Economic logic tells us there are only two conditions that can create a secondary market for concert tickets selling above their list price”, writes Perry on the American Enterprise Institute’s site. “One, the number of concert tickets being offered for sale is too low relative to the number of fans who want to attend the concerts of popular musicians, and/or two, concert tickets must be under-priced relative to their true market price.
“I would suggest that both of those conditions are completely under the control of the artists, and their managers and promoters, in which case we are led ineluctably to this conclusion: musicians and their representatives are 100% responsible for the conditions that guarantee a secondary market where concert tickets to Adele to Beyonce concert are sold above their face value”.
“Stop under-supplying the number of tickets available for your concerts … and the secondary market will naturally evaporate”, he concludes. “You’ll know you’ve supplied enough tickets to meet fan demand when your concerts have unsold seats. Until then, don’t blame natural market forces and ticket scalpers, blame yourselves for creating the market you so frequently complain about”.
60 years ago this month saw the birth of the Official Albums Chart – the UK’s official weekly snapshot of popularity dedicated to one of the most influential art forms of our time.
The first ever chart, which was published in Record Mirror on 22 July 1956, saw Frank Sinatra’s Songs For Swingin’ Lovers landing in the coveted Number 1 slot. Now, over half a century of vinyl, cassette, CD and download-purchasing later, nearly 1,100 albums have hit the top spot in the UK.
To mark the chart’s historic milestone and kick off July’s month-long anniversary celebrations, OfficialCharts.com can today unveil the 60 biggest selling albums of all time here in Britain, as compiled by the Official Charts Company.
The “60 at 60” list also forms the centrepiece of an in-store retail campaign, which sees Official Charts team up with the three major record labels and outlets including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Amazon and Morrisons to promote and sell some of the UK’s biggest selling albums this summer.
Topping the all time best sellers list is Queen’s 1981 Greatest Hits, and stands alone as the first and only album to have sold over 6 million copies in the UK (6.1 million sales to date). Queen’s Greatest Hits II also makes it into the Top 10 at Number 10 with almost 4 million albums sold.
The UK’s official 60 biggest selling albums of all time are…
POS TITLE ARTIST YEAR HIGH POSN
1 GREATEST HITS QUEEN 1981 1
2 GOLD – GREATEST HITS ABBA 1992 1
3 SGT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND BEATLES 1967 1
4 21 ADELE 2011 1
5 WHAT’S THE STORY MORNING GLORY OASIS 1995 1
6 THRILLER MICHAEL JACKSON 1982 1
7 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON PINK FLOYD 1973 2
8 BROTHERS IN ARMS DIRE STRAITS 1985 1
9 BAD MICHAEL JACKSON 1987 1
10 GREATEST HITS II QUEEN 1991 1
11 RUMOURS FLEETWOOD MAC 1977 1
12 THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION MADONNA 1990 1
13 BACK TO BLACK AMY WINEHOUSE 2006 1
14 STARS SIMPLY RED 1991 1
15 COME ON OVER SHANIA TWAIN 1997 1
16 LEGEND BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS 1984 1
17 BACK TO BEDLAM JAMES BLUNT 2004 1
18 URBAN HYMNS VERVE 1997 1
19 BAT OUT OF HELL MEAT LOAF 1977 9
20 1 BEATLES 2000 1
21 BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER SIMON & GARFUNKEL 1970 1
22 DIRTY DANCING ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 1987 4
23 SPIRIT LEONA LEWIS 2007 1
24 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 2009 1
25 NO ANGEL DIDO 2000 1
26 WHITE LADDER DAVID GRAY 1998 1
27 25 ADELE 2015 1
28 TALK ON CORNERS CORRS 1997 1
29 SPICE SPICE GIRLS 1996 1
30 THE FAME LADY GAGA 2008 1
31 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD COLDPLAY 2002 1
32 LIFE FOR RENT DIDO 2003 1
33 ONLY BY THE NIGHT KINGS OF LEON 2008 1
34 BEAUTIFUL WORLD TAKE THAT 2006 1
35 HOPES AND FEARS KEANE 2004 1
36 THE JOSHUA TREE U2 1987 1
37 THE WAR OF THE WORLDS JEFF WAYNE 1978 5
38 SCISSOR SISTERS SCISSOR SISTERS 2004 1
39 BUT SERIOUSLY PHIL COLLINS 1989 1
40 X&Y COLDPLAY 2005 1
41 JAGGED LITTLE PILL ALANIS MORISSETTE 1995 1
42 TUBULAR BELLS MIKE OLDFIELD 1973 1
43 THE MAN WHO TRAVIS 1999 1
44 TRACY CHAPMAN TRACY CHAPMAN 1988 1
45 PARACHUTES COLDPLAY 2000 1
46 GREATEST HITS ABBA 1975 1
47 GREASE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 1977 1
48 I’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU ROBBIE WILLIAMS 1998 1
49 X ED SHEERAN 2014 1
50 COME AWAY WITH ME NORAH JONES 2002 1
51 GRACELAND PAUL SIMON 1986 1
52 THE SOUND OF MUSIC ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING 1965 1
53 LADIES & GENTLEMEN – THE BEST OF GEORGE MICHAEL 1998 1
54 TANGO IN THE NIGHT FLEETWOOD MAC 1987 1
55 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP EMINEM 2000 1
56 SWING WHEN YOU’RE WINNING ROBBIE WILLIAMS 2001 1
57 PROGRESS TAKE THAT 2010 1
58 EYES OPEN SNOW PATROL 2006 1
59 NEVER FORGET – THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION TAKE THAT 2005 2
60 AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE REM 1992 1
Congratulations to Lady Gaga, who, at 30, has passed her California road test and been given her first-ever driver’s license.
From 1960 to 1966 Elvin Jones was a member of the John Coltrane quartet (along with Jimmy Garrison on bass and McCoy Tyner on piano), a celebrated recording phase, appearing on such albums as A Love Supreme. Following his work with Coltrane, Jones led several small groups, some under the name The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. His brothers Hank Jones and Thad Jones were also jazz musicians with whom he recorded. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1995.
Here in 1979, he’s playing full of gusto as when he was just starting out.
Sketchfab member elbriga made a three dimensional version of a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. It’s also compatible with virtual reality headsets, so you can enjoy even more Bill Waterson’s amazing landscape adventures of a boy and his tiger and Spaceman Spiff.
NikeLab made jackets for the eventual American and Brazilian medalists at the 2016 Olympics to wear when they receive their award. The jackets have a windproof front, ventilated side and rear and ribbed knit sleeves for comfort. Youn can buy yours starting July 28.
Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says the body may not be eternal, but the soul is. Watch as he shares what he believes happens when he dies. Elie also reveals how he felt his father’s presence as he fought for his life after emergency open heart surgery.
Here is the “ahhs” segment of The Beatles iconic “A Day In The Life” that appeared on their classic 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick, there used to be some confusion to who is actually singing here but as told by Emerick in his book Here There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles: “Paul’s vocal was being dropped into the same track that contained John’s lead vocal and there was a very tight drop-out point between the two- between Paul’s ‘went into a dream’ and John’s ‘ahhhh’ that starts the next section.”
When Lukas Graham’s 7 Years hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart, it became the first chart-topper by a Danish act since Aqua’s Turn Back Time in 1998. The music video has received over 230 million views while the lyric video has received over 80 million views as of June 2016. Along with the UK, the song also hit #1 in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, and Canada.
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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