"...What I can tell you is that a song cannot be a hit if it is not played at
least on the radio and played frequently at that. It is a simple fact, it is
how it works, always was and always will be. Media coverage, adverts etc,
can help but without radio forget it, if you are talking about having a hit.
Harsh realities but not entirely depressing, as if anything with the current
shell-shocked and quite vulnerable state of the music/entertainment
industry, (not necessarily my term but quite valid I believe) no one
believes anymore in any former cocky certainties and do therefore react much
more currently to genuine punter response. For the most part they do not
care what they play, they do care intensely that you keep listening and the
upshot is that they totally freak when you let them know that you and your
friends do not think that they are worth listening to and that that you will
be going somewhere else!!! This is the reality and you do have the power
more so at this point in time - so believe it."
"For example when I visited the BBC Radio Two one evening last July, for an
interview with DJ Mark Goodier, it was absolutely apparent how astounded
they were with the amount of e- mail they had received regarding my
appearance on the show. Collectively, I witnessed the production team
seemingly suddenly recall how important a band Simple Minds were to so many
people on a global scale. It did not offend me - they had just forgotten and
needed to be woken up and indeed woke up instantly. Don't tell me that they
and their ilk are not easily persuadable by such a show of fan power as on
this occasion. Our fans won us great exposure that night. Suddenly they were
playing six Minds tracks - or so - instead of one or two!"
"What I am saying in effect is that, if you felt so inclined and really,
really, really wanted to hear or see the band playing" Cry" then bombarding
the relevant radio/TV stations with your requests may not be the worst
solution - this is what I did when I was a desperate music fan starved of
the kind of things that I wanted to hear. You may just find to your surprise
that a lot of these programmers want to be told what to do, after all why do
they spend all that money on research from people just like you. No need to
hang the DJ exactly, but you might want to point them in the right
direction! Of course you would be doing us a big favour too!"