Former boy band Take That is delivering some very grown-up sales
figures. The act-a U.K. sales phenomenon since original members
Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald re-formed in
2005-posted the biggest first-day U.K. album sale of the year Dec.
1.
Its Polydor album "The Circus" sold 133,000 copies, according to
the Official Charts Co. (OCC), beating Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or
Death and All His Friends" (Parlophone) by 8,000 copies. That sale
was delivered despite the album being unavailable at many key U.K.
retailers after wholesaler EUK went into administration, which is
similar to U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"The business is in transition," says Universal Music Group
International executive VP Max Hole, also president of Universal
Music Asia Pacific. "But if you've got great music and great
artists, you can still do quite remarkable numbers."
The numbers are the latest landmark achievement for the band, which
smashed U.K. box-office records in October when 600,000 tickets for
its 2009 stadium tour sold out in less than five hours. The group
subsequently added more dates and has now sold a total of 700,000
tickets for its 14 stadium shows, kicking off June 5 at the Stadium
of Light in Sunderland. The first single from the album, "Greatest
Day," debuted at No. 1 on the OCC's Nov. 30 chart with sales of
70,300. It's the group's 11th No. 1, a tally topped only by the
Beatles (17) and Irish boy band Westlife (14).
Universal Music U.K. chairman/CEO David Joseph signed the re-formed
act after working with its original incarnation at RCA (featuring
Robbie Williams) before the group split in 1996. He attributes Take
That's success to its desire not to just rehash its old
sound.
On its previous album "Beautiful World," "the whole approach was to
make them sound like they would if the band had been making records
for the previous 10 years," he says. "Now they can afford to take a
creative risk knowing that they look and sound like a
supergroup."
"Beautiful World" went on to outsell all of the band's previous
albums in the United Kingdom, providing 2.5 million of a career
sales total of 6.1 million units. However, Hole notes its
"reasonably modest" performance in the rest of the world. The album
hit No. 1 in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and went top 10 in
Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
"The Circus" was released worldwide Dec. 1, except in France where
it hits stores in February and the United States. Only the original
lineup's swan song album, "Nobody Else" (Arista), received an
official U.S. release, with sales of 287,000, according to Nielsen
SoundScan.
"We have a lot of interest in the music from our American
partners," says Joseph, who adds that a decision on a U.S. release
will be made "in the next few months."
