Why oh why are Absolute playing a 28 year old song by a bunch of long haired American rockers in dubiously tight jeans, which was never even a hit In this country when it was first released in the early 80s? What is the fascination with Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ ?! Well for those blissfully unaware, something of a phenomenon has gripped this particular track in the last few months.
First it popped up on The X Factor at the end of last year as the eventual winner Joe McElderry performed the song, not once, but twice on the programme. The few hardened Journey fans that there are in this country were up in arms at such sacrilege, little knowing that ‘Wee Joe’s ‘ version was actually based on a version of the song performed by the cast of a hit US TV show about kids in an after school singing choir -‘ Glee’! After an initial boost from McElderry’s first performance of the song, Journey’s version hit the UK top 20 for the first time ever. When Joe performed it again in the final of X Factor it smashed in to the Top 10 where it was a resident for weeks. Only to be supplanted in the Top 10 by the Glee Cast version when the hit comedy ( like a modern day ‘ Fame’, if ‘Fame ’ had been written by scriptwriters high on drugs!) was eventually broadcast on E4.
The result of all this attention is that Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ is the biggest selling download of all time from pre- 2000 OR at least it would have been if a Facebook campaign hadn’t launched ‘Killing in the Name of ‘ by Rage Against the Machine to the Christmas No.1 spot in 2009. Still the way ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ keeps selling Journey may just get that sales title back!
And with our own audience the song just gets bigger and bigger! It’s current massive exposure on radio and TV means the song is growing in familiarity and the positive responses to the song (a combination of people who ‘love’ and ‘like’ the track) keep growing.
If you’ve been in Golden Square since Christmas then it’s highly likely that the answer’s yes. We’ve had to put up the bat signal a lot over the course of the last 3 months what with snow, sickness and holidays and Lucio’s been brilliant at dropping everything and covering shows, sometimes at about half an hour’s notice.
Therefore we’re delighted that he’s now going to officially become a regular fixture. As well as waking up to him on a Sunday morning, Lucio will be now hosting Absolute 80s on a Friday night and he gets the job of being Frank Skinner’s warm-up man on a Saturday morning, with Lucio on-air between 6 and 8am.
This all starts on Easter weekend, but he’ll also be popping up on Geoff’s Hometime show next week.
Many illustrious guests have come through the doors of One Golden Square, from Sir Paul McCartney to Chris Martin, Bono to David Tennant. But this week one guest made more of a stir amongst the staff than most.
This Monday night you can find out what happened when Iain Lee met Louie Spence from Pineapple Dance Studio.
It’s with more than a touch of sadness that I bring news that one of the team’s longer serving members is leaving for pastures new.
Having broadcast on Invicta and Capital FM, Neil Francis came to One Golden Square in 2002. An incredibly talented presenter, Neil is one of the most trusted and iconic voices I’ve had the pleasure to work with. The level with which he engages an audience in a topic or programme thread has never been anything less than greatly impressive. The often over-used analogy that a conversation between broadcaster and listener should sound ‘as direct and easy as friends in a pub’ has never been more appropriate or accurate.
A great communicator, Neil played a vital role in the transition from Virgin to Absolute Radio. In his time here he’s hosted almost every show on the schedule, with an enthusiasm and flexibility that made working with him a pleasure.
Onwards and upwards to new exciting projects, we’ll be bidding farewell to Neil at the end of March. Please join me in wishing him all the very best!
It is smiles all around the first floor this week, as news comes in that Absolute Radio has been nominated in the inaugural Marketing Week Engage Awards 2010.
We’ve scooped a nomination within the Media Category for the awards bash which celebrates the brands and agencies that have the capability to go one step further to reach their desired customers, showing an understanding of the marketing landscape and an ability to manipulate it in order to truly engage.
It’s a true testament for the teams that worked flat out in the Summer of 2009 to create great festival content that not only engaged and attracted audiences, but also pushed forward a simple, yet exciting music proposition of ‘Free Live Music Every Day’.
The Awards Ceremony takes place on Tuesday 18th May at the Grosvenor Park Hotel – fingers crossed!
At Absolute Radio we're committed to redefining radio, and you're all invited along for the ride.
We're about real music, comedy and football - leading the industry as a digital innovator as we push radio forward into a smart, connected and logged-on age. We develop applications for the web, emerging platforms, for mobile, wi-fi radio, and next-generation DAB from our in house One Golden Square labs team.
The OGS blog gives you a chance to take a sneek-peek behind the scenes at Absolute Radio and our digital decade stations to keep up to date with exciting news, announcements, events, our opinions and more. Don't be shy, get in touch, leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you. And make sure you follow us on twitter, @onegoldensquare.
Recent comments