Richard Carpenter's UK Promotional Tour 2019*

is it me or was he really annoyed with the last question of "what is your favorite song?" (it gets tiresome to answer that I guess)
 
Richard appearing on Australian TV earlier this week, filmed in the UK during his promo tour. Great interview from Richard. Apparently, there’s a Part 2.



As always, thanks for sharing things like this that aren't always easy for some of us to get a hold of. To another's question - Richard didn't seem annoyed to me with the question about his favorite song, maybe surprised him because it was outside the scope of the RPO discussion, but not annoyed.

I don't know when this interview took place in context to his travelling and such, but he does appear very tired, to me. In some ways he's been on a wizz-bang promo tour for this album, at age 72!
Richard walking off with a fan’s pen!



Richard doesn't look very happy here. I know he loves the fans but whether he is exhausted, under a strict time constraint, or whatever, he seems really annoyed.
 
He’s commented before that Superstar is one of their best recordings and should be in the music hall of fame, if I recall. Feel free to correct me Harry. I think it’s the best cut in the RPO disc as well. Totally blew me away with emotion and tears on first listen.
 
RPO album number 12 on the UK top 100 this week. Let’s hope many more people get to hear this joyful album. Really hope it holds high for next week too. The album deserves to keep doing well.
 
Richard appearing on Australian TV earlier this week, filmed in the UK during his promo tour. Great interview from Richard. Apparently, there’s a Part 2.


I genuinely believe that Richard is getting a lot of pleasure from this project, it must of taken a certain amount of emotional energy to get out there and publicise this RPO recording, he’s doing a fantastic job.
 
So far promotion in Japan, UK, Australia. Where next? Brazil....USA......China.....Europe? This could be global.
 
I've read that the week Richard was here RPO sold 5,880 copies and last week sold 5,780 copies.

So by the start of January it sold 60,000

So we're at 71,660 copies confirmed

It obviously continued selling through January - March but I couldn't guess how many.

We can't be far from that 100,000 for Gold !
 
These figures are indeed encouraging. You’re right working on the hypothetical physical sale figures. I have been sad to see the album drop in the Amazon sales rank (currently around 11). I was hoping to see the presence of the RPO album back riding high in the sale charts at retailers and supermarkets. Though there has been improvement with stocking, it is not at the levels it was during its initial release. In the UK chart midweek update, it is still in the top 20.

I hope the album makes a great impact in the Countries Richard’s promotional tour hits. He really deserves to see the rewards for investing his time and energy. It has been long enough for a Carpenters release to fully receive not just the critical success but more worldwide commercial sales.
 
I've read that the week Richard was here RPO sold 5,880 copies and last week sold 5,780 copies.

So by the start of January it sold 60,000

So we're at 71,660 copies confirmed

It obviously continued selling through January - March but I couldn't guess how many.

We can't be far from that 100,000 for Gold !
It would be interesting to know what would be classed as successful sale figures to fuel the record company to reach out to Richard to look at another RPO themed release.

The other thing we have to consider for a volume 2 to make sense. Is there has to be commercial hunger for the album to be a sales success. The buyers/collectors of the first album, have to feel the enticement of a second volume. We would also have to be realistic that a further collaboration would probably be the last Richard would do in the RPO reimagined style.
 
It would be interesting to know what would be classed as successful sale figures to fuel the record company to reach out to Richard to look at another RPO themed release.

The other thing we have to consider for a volume 2 to make sense. Is there has to be commercial hunger for the album to be a sales success. The buyers/collectors of the first album, have to feel the enticement of a second volume. We would also have to be realistic that a further collaboration would probably be the last Richard would do in the RPO reimagined style.

I was thinking the same thing. My knee-jerk reaction to 2 separate top 10 placings was delight but I don't know what Universal consider success enough to warrant a sequel.

The price of the album has hovered between 7 and 10 pounds - maybe an average of 9. If it's sold 72,000 in the UK that means it's made around £650,000. Considering the vastly increased populations of USA and Japan (but the far lower charting) let's say it's sold the same again in both territories plus other sales world-wide which makes around £2,000,000 world-wide (2.6 million US dollars). The above are purely guesses. . .I'm most likely way out.

But I have no idea how much it cost to make this album. DIY Musician state the average is between $150,000 to 1 million. Even though this is ostensibly a compilation album Richard himself stated that for many tracks he was working from the ground up. . .in effect creating new songs. Add to that the huge cost of the RPO sessions, his own hefty fee and expenses, plus the studio time back in LA this album could have cost up to a million. Even so, that would mean a profit to Universal of 1.6 million dollars and counting (I'd presume we've still got a couple of weeks worth of middling album sales to come).

Is that enough to green light a part 2. If it is they'd need to push it for a release this year. There's no mention of the 50th anniversary in any of the current blurb which means if they brought out RPO 2 they could tout it as a 50th anniversary celebration. . .maybe Dec 7th again 2019 - (the 2 Elvis projects came out exactly one year apart, after all). And maybe Richard could coincide his lonnnnnnnnnng delayed Xmas album release. He could champion both new releases in the inevitable promo tour.

This is where you guys in the know need to pick apart my figures and tell me where I've gone wrong.

Laters

Neil
 
Re: Brian's "Today Show" Post. There we have it...Richard's favorite Carpenters song is Superstar!! I always thought that his favorite was between either Goodbye To Love or We've Only Just Begun. Nice post Brian, Good on ya mate!:)
 
Re: Brian's "Today Show" Post. There we have it...Richard's favorite Carpenters song is Superstar!! I always thought that his favorite was between either Goodbye To Love or We've Only Just Begun. Nice post Brian, Good on ya mate!:)
No worries, Carpe diem. Btw, ‘Part 2’ of this feature is out there somewhere. Can’t find it.
 
As always, thanks for sharing things like this that aren't always easy for some of us to get a hold of. To another's question - Richard didn't seem annoyed to me with the question about his favorite song, maybe surprised him because it was outside the scope of the RPO discussion, but not annoyed.

I don't know when this interview took place in context to his travelling and such, but he does appear very tired, to me. In some ways he's been on a wizz-bang promo tour for this album, at age 72!


Richard doesn't look very happy here. I know he loves the fans but whether he is exhausted, under a strict time constraint, or whatever, he seems really annoyed.

I know you're nothing without your fans but it must get rather tedious repeatedly signing your name.
 
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