WHY WAS RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC BANNED FROM THE UK ALBUM CHART, DOES ANYONE KNOW? HOW HIGH IN THE CHART WOULD IT HAVE REACHED IF IT HADN'T BEEN BANNED?

maybe because its real music by a real musician and not 70 minutes of drum loops and samples? just a theory

I didnt know it had been banned from the Charts! I just thought that the low level of exposure (despite playing Baby Knows on Top of the Pops and then that Tube performance) and the disappointing chart position of TGRES (40 something?) that the album just didnt sell enough to register on the Top100.

If anyone else knows different I would love to know. Whilst we're on the subject of album sales does anyone know how much TRC has sold in the UK? I got my copy at regular price from HMV so assume that there are some sales stats somewhere?!

I'm sure I read somewhere that it only sold 5000 in the UK. I'd imagine that would keep it out of the charts.

there was a reason why it did not register on the uk chart and it wasn't lack of sales. i do not believe the album only sold 5000 copies in the uk, that is nonsense.
"the vault" album reached number 44 on the album chart and i would have imagined that album did not sell as many copies as rave.

A week after release HMV had it placed at No19 in there chart! 2 say it only sold 5000 is nonsense there r far more than 5000 fans in the uk who would have bought it! there was at least 1500 NPGMC members at the shows and every1 of them should have it! plus if u count the rerelease of RAVEIN2???

If there was a reason for it to not appear on the charts that wasnt sales I cant think of it.

Normally a record may be banned if the record company have done something promotional that they're not supposed to do and there sure wasnt ANY promotion of RU2TJF!

If there had been some kind of video/DVD tracks on the CD then that might have made it ineligible (just guessing here!) but that wasn't the case either. I can't believe that the limited PC related stuff that was on that CD broke any chart regulations.

Anyone else got any bright suggestions? Anyone with contacts at Arista who might shed some light?

I heard that Arista put tokens in some of the copies and due to this it was disqualified from chart entry. This inevitably adversley affected its momentum here.

Also with the UK edition 'TGRES' single Arista put more than 3 tracks on it and this also lead to that being banned from the charts.

I'm sure more than 5,000 people purchased the album here. Well over 18,000 people in total saw him on his recent tour of the UK, which was sold out.

Mr7 said:

The token thing rings a bell, I'm sure I might of read something about that. Sounds unlikely though !

Lots of singles have more than 3 tracks. I think you're confusing it with formats (CD, 12", 7"). After Batman (or was it Partyman? Anyway, it was Prince record!) the people who do the charts in the UK banned record company's from releasing so many different formats here.

I think, maybe, this post is confusing "Rave" with "TRC" which had no UK release and so was not elligable for the charts. ?

Mr7 said:[quote]I heard that Arista put tokens in some of the copies and due to this it was disqualified from chart entry.quote]

Tokens? Huh? Subway tokens? I'm confused, help a brutha out.

squirrelgrease said:[quote]

Mr7 said:

I think tokens = coupons I remember reading something back about the time of this release in the UK...about it being on sale or with a coupon or something...that disqualified it from the charts...but I dunno...sound like a stupid reason to disqualify it.

It wasn't banned, it was purely lack of sales and promotion.
The Greatest Romance wasn't even released until 4 months after the album and charted at a low no.65 remaining on the chart for only one week. With no lead off single it's not surprising the album only sold 5000 copies (which it did) and failed to register. Come, released in 94 debuted at no.1 without any lead off single but the Most Beautiful Girl had been a smash no.1 not long before. And not meaning to be anal or anything but The Vault got to no.47.

I always found this unusual. My friend worked for a indie record store in Nottingham (now closed) and he said it was one of the top 10 sellers in the first week. I'm sure it sold more than 5000.

So I guess still no defintive answer then?

I hadnt heard of the coupon thing but that sounds feasible.

Someone on this site must have some idea?

As far as I can remember, Arista deliberately included the coupon to the early copies of the album so that it would be excluded from the charts.

The reason that they did this was as follows:

They wanted to release the album at the same time as in the US, so that they didn't lose revenue to import copies coming in. However, as the single wasn't due til January, which is when the real promotion was originally due to take place, they didn't want to push the album in advance of that.

Releasing the album with no (or very little promotion) meant that if the album had been chart eligible, it would have limped in low down the chart, which would have created bad PR for the album and hindered its chances later on - it would have made it harder for retailers and journalists from taking it seriously.

So the plan was to give the single and album a big push later on. The problem was that the single initially came out with no video - which meant it got no exposure on TV; and radio didn't play the single very much. Plus Prince then decided not to come back to the UK for further promotion as originally planned, and he even seemed to lose interest in the project after TGRES didn't do as well as anticipated. So when the single eventually flopped, plans for further promoting the album were dropped and it never charted again.

So basically the plan fucked up, but it was orginally done for clear reasons that would have helped the album chart higher if it had come off.

Oh, bullshit. The reason was the tokens, which disqualified it from being chart-eligible. Yes, according to the UK charting rules promotional copies are not to be counted as real sales - you know music being sports these days - and Arista gave away tokens that would offer a hefty discount on the price.

But another thing I remember is that by Christmas every single Exchange store was completely filled with second-hand "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic"s flooding the desks.

It was just that bad...

Nothing made it float...

Tina (~!~)