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My Colouring Book - An Autopsy The whole saga of My Colouring Book is an interesting one. The news broke in January and it immediately sent fans and fan organisations into a frenzy that I haven't seen before in my life. Warner Music was very switched on about the whole thing. They were happy to promote the album, and organised promotional schedules for Agnetha. It seems all systems were go. Fans were beginning to work out how much time they could get away from work in order to chase her around as she did her various public appearances. Of course, as is always the case with Agnetha, it all went pear shaped. Agnetha decided to cancel any promotion, and the reason we were given was that there was the reappearance of some kind of stalker. Personally, I believe that Agnetha got cold feet over the whole thing, and the stalker story was put out because it was the one people would "understand" the most. The record company decided to press on with the release anyway, solely due to the hype about the 30th Anniversary of Abba winning at Eurovision, and the 5th year of Mamma Mia! The lead single, If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind was premiered on Swedish radio, closely followed by English radio - with fans listening on the Internet. File swapping of the broadcasts were swift, and unscrupulous dealers even came out with the song on eBay within days of the premiere. Record stores in The Netherlands opened their boxes early, and Dutch fans got a treat by being the first in the world to have the new Agnetha single. I believe this directly contributed to the fairly uninspiring chart performance of the single, which reached 31 on the Dutch official top 40, and 20 on the alternate chart. This also removed any hope for a coordinated international release. Naturally, the single performed best in Agnetha's home territory of Sweden, with a highest position of 2. The UK had the second best chart performance in the world for the lead single, with a highest placing of number 11. This was due to a combination of Abba-hype in the UK at the time, and the ABBAMAIL campaign on the Internet to get fans around the world to buy from the UK to enhance the chart position. Other world chart performance included a number 45 position in Belgium, number 28 in Norway, and number 75 in Switzerland. It is likely that the single was released in Ireland, but did not chart. Warner made a strategic error in my opinion by not insisting that the first single get a worldwide release. Countries such as Australia and Germany elected to release no single from the album at all, which detracted from the exposure that could have been generated in these territories. Warner Music were also a little bit cunning with their promotion. In the UK, they knew their audience and commissioned Almighty mixes of the single, and then released the single in two parts. Sweden got on the bandwagon as well, issuing mixes that were not released in England - ensuring fans spent even more of their cash on this single. Posters were printed. Reviews appeared in the press. All was looking good! From April, the album was released in various territories around the world, suffering widely varying fates. I've heard the album came out in Spain and in France and did not chart. This is not surprising for either territory - Agnetha has never charted in Spain, and Frida has had far more success in France as a general rule. In Australia, the album was released months after the rest of the world, and it only made number 50. Press reports about the album coming up were carried up to two months prior to album release. The delay and the lack of a single (the first time for any solo release in Australia) demonstrated the apathy and lack of knowledge that Warner Music Australia have about Agnetha. Happily, most of Europe rallied behind Agnetha and bought her album. It has to be remembered here that most European record markets are very small and as such sales figures are not spectacular - even if some of the chart positions are. In Austria, the album reached 25. In Belgium, 38. Ireland recorded number 57, and Switzerland recorded number 17. In Scandinavia, the album reached number 2 in Finland, with some very strong chart performance, and in Sweden the album reached the expected number 1 position for a period of two weeks. Surprisingly, the album only reached number 25 in Norway! Once again, the revival and Abba fans pushed the album to a record highest position in the UK for Agnetha - the album peaked at number 12. The album apparently also shipped 60,000 copies and was awarded a Silver disc, quite an achievement indeed! Of course, not all of these have been sold in stores, and copies could be returned as time passes. The Netherlands, traditionally an Abba stronghold, recorded a number 11 chart position for the album which wasn't bad, but it did have a fairly short chart life - as it did in most countries, with one or two weeks the norm. Most surprising of all (in light of no single being released, and the size of the record market) was Germany recording a number 6 peak for the album! I don't think anyone was prepared for that, and I can't explain it. Around this time, the second promotional push for Agnetha was envisaged - with news coming out about her International television special as well as a new single, "When You Walk In The Room" - a fan favourite. The special seems to have only been carried in two or three countries, meaning that most promotional advantage was lost. It did big things for Finland and Sweden, pushing the album back up the charts. One imagines that if it was aired in other countries, the album would also have had a similar fate. When You Walk In The Room was released, peaking at 34 and flopping majorly in the UK. It only peaked at 11 in Sweden as well, which was somewhat of a surprise. It appears that fans don't exactly have their finger on the pulse when it comes to deciding what will sell and what won't sell! In Ireland however, it did better than the first single, entering the charts and peaking at 50. Once again Warner did a good job by getting remixes commissioned for the single, but the fact remains that the video was hardly ever played, and radio support was virtually nonexistent. Another single is unlikely, but fans have the possibility of a DVD release of the special, the clips from the album, and hopefully as a special bonus the original 1988 Warner clips as well :) I'm personally hoping for that as they're more interesting to me than the clips from this album - which were too similar and boring to make any kind of statement. For the future, it would be great to see What Now My Love used in a movie as is rumoured, however I imagine it would be on a Soundtrack and not really ignite the Agnetha album sales so much. I'd also like to see for any future releases a move towards the style hinted at in What Now My Love - that is definitely the direction she should be heading into. My Colouring Book should have been titled, "Opportunities Lost" - but what did you really expect, considering who the artist is? Trent Nickson, Sydney, Australia. |
