I remember that TGRES was not considered eligible for chart entry in the UK due to too many remixes being included on the CD single (although I think the import CD may have charted).

But why did the album perform so poorly in the UK album chart? He even appeared on TFI Friday and CD:UK to promote the record, and TGRES was A-listed on Radio 2 and got a tonne of airplay at the time. Can anyone shed any light on why Rave performed so dismally over here?

[Edited 1/15/17 6:51am]

I agree. This doesn't make sense at all. There should have been enough UK fans of Prince at this point in his career (compared to the 2000s) that a major Prince release that is publicized should have done well, at leasat the first couple of weeks. He was so hot in the UK in the late 1980s through mid 1990s that even Come went to #1. It makes me think that somehow there may have been a mistake about the chart information (not necesaarily by you, Mattyjam) or there was a problem in the distribution.

gandorb said:

I agree. This doesn't make sense at all. There should have been enough UK fans of Prince at this point in his career (compared to the 2000s) that a major Prince release that is publicized should have done well, at leasat the first couple of weeks. He was so hot in the UK in the late 1980s through mid 1990s that even Come went to #1. It makes me think that somehow there may have been a mistake about the chart information (not necesaarily by you, Mattyjam) or there was a problem in the distribution.

This is what I suspected.

I remember a lot of my local music stores at the time didn't stock Rave. I had to travel to my nearest HMV to buy it.

Copies were given away as a promotional tool for free so the album was eligable to chart, via import it charted at no.145.

TGR WAS eligable to chart, however the release was truly messed up. Despite all the promo, radio plays etc being in November 1999 the physical single came out in Feb 2000.

RumAndRaisin said:

Copies were given away as a promotional tool for free so the album was eligable to chart, via import it charted at no.145.

TGR WAS eligable to chart, however the release was truly messed up. Despite all the promo, radio plays etc being in November 1999 the physical single came out in Feb 2000.

Thanks for clearing that up. I knew something had to be awry with that chart position.

coldasice said:

Sad to say, but that album was panned horribly. His use of the Master P Level package was even laughed at. I'm fairly sure the Rave In2 would have never came out, but it was promised with npgmc year 1. I always thought it was fine, it's his breakup album.

Critically speaking, the album got fairly decent reviews. It was met with hostility by many fans back in the day, but like most Prince albums, a lot of fans seem to have warmed to it in the subsequent years.

I personally think it's a brilliant album with some exquisite songwriting.

RumAndRaisin said:

Copies were given away as a promotional tool for free so the album was eligable to chart, via import it charted at no.145.

TGR WAS eligable to chart, however the release was truly messed up. Despite all the promo, radio plays etc being in November 1999 the physical single came out in Feb 2000.

and then the video showed up well after the physical single. it was really bad timing, all of it.

Despite the TV appearances in Europe, I know no one cared in France, and not so many people were truly aware of a new album. Critics were having some sort of a competition about who would diss Prince the most as being the "has-been" of the decade, and Prince had totally lost his appeal to young crowds and even hipsters. It took The Rainbow Children to suddenly make him the hype all over again.

Prince appeared on 3 TV shows in France: one was NPA, which was still a hype program at the time, another was Hit Machine, targeted at teenagers who were already beginning to wonder who this Prince guy was in the first place, and the last one was really a super bad move: it was Tout Lara Fabian, which was this kind of a "pop for 50 y.o. housewives" show: I remember some people making fun of that, like Prince was the new Phil Collins or something. Terrible PR choice, this show.

Add to that a single single (no pun intended), make that single a ballad that was totally against everything that was hip or trendy in 99, add to that a music video that came more than a month after the single was released, and you got your flop equation.

So Far So Pleased, with a cool music video, was the thing that could have saved that album, but unfortunately Stefani's label wouldn't allow it. Undisputed or Hot Wit' U could have competed with the Neptunes' type of music. And more importantly an opportunity was totally lost by NOT rereleasing the Jason Nevins mix of TGRES in SUmmer 2000: it could have been a major club hit, it had everything that was cool at the time, and it could have basically saved the album the way that last minute release of the Sing It Back remix had saved Moloko's second album (if not their career as a whole) the year before.

MattyJam said:

I remember that TGRES was not considered eligible for chart entry in the UK due to too many remixes being included on the CD single (although I think the import CD may have charted).

But why did the album perform so poorly in the UK album chart? He even appeared on TFI Friday and CD:UK to promote the record, and TGRES was A-listed on Radio 2 and got a tonne of airplay at the time. Can anyone shed any light on why Rave performed so dismally over here?

[Edited 1/15/17 6:51am]

TGRES - From my understanding it was chart eligible. It was released by Arista (that was the one that charted) and entered at No. 65 in the UK Chart. Unless that was the import?

.

http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/2343/artist

.

The Official Charts has 3 of his single releases and 2 album releases attributed to "Artist" not Prince.

databank said:

Despite the TV appearances in Europe, I know no one cared in France, and not so many people were truly aware of a new album. Critics were having some sort of a competition about who would diss Prince the most as being the "has-been" of the decade, and Prince had totally lost his appeal to young crowds and even hipsters. It took The Rainbow Children to suddenly make him the hype all over again.

Prince appeared on 3 TV shows in France: one was NPA, which was still a hype program at the time, another was Hit Machine, targeted at teenagers who were already beginning to wonder who this Prince guy was in the first place, and the last one was really a super bad move: it was Tout Lara Fabian, which was this kind of a "pop for 50 y.o. housewives" show: I remember some people making fun of that, like Prince was the new Phil Collins or something. Terrible PR choice, this show.

Add to that a single single (no pun intended), make that single a ballad that was totally against everything that was hip or trendy in 99, add to that a music video that came more than a month after the single was released, and you got your flop equation.

So Far So Pleased, with a cool music video, was the thing that could have saved that album, but unfortunately Stefani's label wouldn't allow it. Undisputed or Hot Wit' U could have competed with the Neptunes' type of music. And more importantly an opportunity was totally lost by NOT rereleasing the Jason Nevins mix of TGRES in SUmmer 2000: it could have been a major club hit, it had everything that was cool at the time, and it could have basically saved the album the way that last minute release of the Sing It Back remix had saved Moloko's second album (if not their career as a whole) the year before.

I was about to mention this. It was played a LOT on the radio and in the clubs in Liverpool. Was a missed opportunity but wasn't helped by the usual disorganisation; delays, late video and P falling out with Clive Davis.

RumAndRaisin said:

Copies were given away as a promotional tool for free so the album was eligable to chart, via import it charted at no.145.

TGR WAS eligable to chart, however the release was truly messed up. Despite all the promo, radio plays etc being in November 1999 the physical single came out in Feb 2000.

I believe it was at Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus iirc

MattyJam said:

MattyJam said:

I remember that TGRES was not considered eligible for chart entry in the UK due to too many remixes being included on the CD single (although I think the import CD may have charted).

But why did the album perform so poorly in the UK album chart? He even appeared on TFI Friday and CD:UK to promote the record, and TGRES was A-listed on Radio 2 and got a tonne of airplay at the time. Can anyone shed any light on why Rave performed so dismally over here?

[Edited 1/15/17 6:51am]

was he really on TFI Friday? I can't remember that.

RicoN said:

MattyJam said:

I remember that TGRES was not considered eligible for chart entry in the UK due to too many remixes being included on the CD single (although I think the import CD may have charted).

But why did the album perform so poorly in the UK album chart? He even appeared on TFI Friday and CD:UK to promote the record, and TGRES was A-listed on Radio 2 and got a tonne of airplay at the time. Can anyone shed any light on why Rave performed so dismally over here?

[Edited 1/15/17 6:51am]

was he really on TFI Friday? I can't remember that.

I recall him singing Prettyman.

tonyspr said:

RicoN said:

was he really on TFI Friday? I can't remember that.

I recall him singing Prettyman.

Yes absolutely on TFI Friday, he wasn't an interviewee but just played Prettyman at the very end as the titles ran out. You may find it on a Google search.

Spayne said:

tonyspr said:

I recall him singing Prettyman.

Yes absolutely on TFI Friday, he wasn't an interviewee but just played Prettyman at the very end as the titles ran out. You may find it on a Google search.

He was also on Top of The Pops performing TGRES. That's available on Youtube down as appearing on RTL.

Spayne said:

tonyspr said:

I recall him singing Prettyman.

Yes absolutely on TFI Friday, he wasn't an interviewee but just played Prettyman at the very end as the titles ran out. You may find it on a Google search.

He also played Baby Knows but this was broadcast on a later show

Clive Davis and Arista messed up. They had prince heavily promote the record overseas and gave out coupons at HMV & others to get the CD for $5.00 BUT in the middle of the week, the charts decided that using the coupon was selling it below cost and thus making all the sales at HMV & other locations INELIGEABLE to chart those sales. Not sure how they didn't know that.

http://new.prince.org/msg/7/26198?pr

MattyJam said:

coldasice said:

Sad to say, but that album was panned horribly. His use of the Master P Level package was even laughed at. I'm fairly sure the Rave In2 would have never came out, but it was promised with npgmc year 1. I always thought it was fine, it's his breakup album.

Critically speaking, the album got fairly decent reviews. It was met with hostility by many fans back in the day, but like most Prince albums, a lot of fans seem to have warmed to it in the subsequent years.

I personally think it's a brilliant album with some exquisite songwriting.

This.

dodger said:

Spayne said:

Yes absolutely on TFI Friday, he wasn't an interviewee but just played Prettyman at the very end as the titles ran out. You may find it on a Google search.

He also played Baby Knows but this was broadcast on a later show

It was the other way around - Baby Knows was played in Nov 99 and Prettyman in Feb 00

I seem to remember Prince being seen as a bit of a joke and a hasbeen by most of the public at the time. I was quite young and only getting into music and was devouring music magazines and I wasn't reading anything encouraging about him. The 80's revivals didn't really kick off for another year or two (bar the Wedding Singer!). The album might have got middling, even decent-ish reviews but it was very much "if you're a fan check it out" at best.

and that's from an engaged music perspective, from a pop perspective there were no hits so no one bought it, the end. Factor in the distribution problems and it makes sense. Those years were peak gaming the system years CD-sales wise, all about smooth marketing.

[Edited 1/17/17 12:45pm]

tonyspr said:

RicoN said:

was he really on TFI Friday? I can't remember that.

I recall him singing Prettyman.

Thanks, and thanks Spayne, I'll check it out.

Just found this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnOueRZDB_I

Still one of my least favorite singles. It's so boring until the end.

MendesCity said:

in the UK the album would have gone top ten based on sales, promo was big for the album and radio play was solid. the release was truly messed up by the label in the UK. then releasing the video about 4 months after the single came out? such a shame, the project was designed as a public comeback and WAS one, still Prince got a great upfront payment from arista and made a huge amount of money from it. Number 1 at the bank, not in the charts was his main priority at the time.