HW: NEWS FLASH !!!!

[Andy Gilham]

Damon says

>I remember back in 73, the Space Ritual tour was being promoted by the
>record company, with radio airplay to support it. I first heard Sonic
>attack and TWL on the radio, and have ben hooked since. If I recall,
>wasn't this the peak of HW's popularity?

Absolutely, but I'd hazard the main reasons were (a) the freak success of the
"Silver Machine" single, and (b) the simple fact that they were better then
than at any time before or since.

Not (c) astute marketing. :)

I'm probably enough of an old fart to be irritated by the way discussions of
popular music often get subverted into discussions of marketing.  I also find
it curious that discussions swing from dissing record companies, management,
etc because "they're only in it for the money", to dissing them for showing
insufficient business acumen!

So someone underestimated demand for merchandise!  I would probably tend to a
low estimate myself, on the grounds that I'd rather sell out of everything
and lose a few sales, than be stuck with lots unsold.  A mistake in
hindsight, sure, but then again so was putting a fiver on England to beat
Switzerland 1-0 :(

- Andy