It is indeed 7 times platinum in the UK, as these are granted on distribution to retail outlets, not sales to the customer. Just means 2.1 million copies have gone out. Staggering when you consider he was very much starting from scratch with regard to a fanbase, unlike Coldplay and a lot of the others who have released this year. Very heartwarming to realise that talent as opposed to hype still has a place at the top of the charts.

I quite like JB and the album but I do think that due to the hype that he is getting he will be cursed with "difficult 2nd album" syndrome.

I like James Blunt. Love all three singles he's released so far this year. I've got to admit I hadn't heard of him before he released You're Beautiful. I really think he deserves all the success he's had and he should have won ROTY last week. I really can't believe he only finished 4th.
As for the next album, I'm sure it will be very good, but I would imagine its going to be almost impossible for him to equal the success he's had with Back To Bedlam. That surely has got to be the album of the year.

I'm not sure where I stand on James Blunt. On the one hand I think he's a brilliant songwriter/artist, but on the other hand there's something really annoying about him, and I think it could be his diction or his poshness - still - he should worry

You are in luck. He will be doing a series of Outdoor concerts next summer. If you are a member of GetLive or want to register you can get presale tickets on Thursday otherwise you can buy them from Friday.
Looks like his album will climb the charts again this week with another strong increase in sales.

Yes, it's part of the Summer Night Series of concerts trawling the stately homes of the UK. Blimey, Blunty has finally 'arrived'! Just read on his forums that BTB is up to 4 in the midweek albums chart on sales of 30k, btw. 2 million up come Sunday?

He should end up beating the calendar year sales record for the 21st century currently held by Dido with around 2 million and 108,000 copies. To think that this time last year he sold 327 copies in a week.

Back To Bedlam is the highest gainer on the Billboard Top200 US album chart this week. Up from 76 to 47! You're Beautiful is also the 4th most (legally!) downloaded song in the US at the moment.

He's actually done better than that. Apparently, he sold an astonishing 273,000 copies of Back To Bedlam in Xmas week, which takes his yearly total to over 2.3 million. That is the highest EVER total of albums sold in the UK between 1st Jan and 31st Dec inclusive, beating the previous record held by Shania Twain in 1999. Plus there's still this week's sales to be added on, of course. Back To Bedlam could very well enter the Top 10 biggest selling UK albums of all time by as early as the end of next year.

I have a feeling he will be concentraing more of his efforts on the US next year. All the signs are he's on the brink of being a major new star over the pond in 2006. I bet the bloke just can't believe what's happened in the last 7 months. His bank manager will no doubt be rubbing his hands, though.

I don't know why - the album's not even that good - only three good songs on it - all released as singles. He will not pull off the 2nd album, but whether people will buy it or not is a different matter.

those of you with bad enough taste in music to buy his awful album- shame on you. there's enough crap in the charts as it is, without this skinny whining idiot and his lyrics from his ABC book. pants pants pants.

I don't even know what that means??

Wouldn't really call him skinny, he seems in shape really - that not skinny not fat kind of look. Suppose its not really the purpose of this thread but ah well.

no, i agree. it wasn't the main purpose of my post either, if you read it properly.

I hate the way this guy is been lauded as some sort of great singer/songwriter for a generation. The guy is profiting by recycling other artist’s work and getting the praise for it.

"You're Beautiful", for example, is a non-to subtle re-write of Ryan Adams' "La Cienega Just Smiled".

Wake up and smell the coffee people.

Whatever does this mean?


I really like the song 'High', and I seen James on the tv in the program :James Blunt live, and he was great.

Everyone seems to think that he will be a 'One-Album Wonder'.
It will be interesting to see how well the 2nd album does but that wont be for a while yet as he will be concentrating on the US next year.

What it says, wake up and smell the people who are made of coffee

Well sorry but not being from UK I dont understand what it is suppose to mean.

I think it means Dark Drums believes he knows best when it comes to music and Ryan Adams is probably a favourite artist of his (but unfortunately for Mr Adams not many people in the UK share his views)

I think he's had too much airplay and people are starting to turn against him. He's come top in a few polls I've read for most annoying singer/celeb. There's only room for 1 huge male singer in this country and that will always be Robbie, Blunt will never come close.

But Robbie Williams also tops many peoples hate lists (including mine!)

I think your sentence was grammatically incorrect and should have read:

"Mr Drums is the don, the fountain of all musical knowledge and we shall respect his judgment for he is never wrong"

Hope this helps

I know it wasnt, but just wanted to defend skinny guys, as I am one. Anyway enough of this uselessness.

I prefer Blunt to Robbie. At least James Blunt doesn't have an ego the size of Manhatten.

This is obviously only really of interest to Blunt fans and really shouldn't be viewed by anybody who feels their favourite artist should be outselling him by millions . It's pretty long at 12 mins but includes live (accoustic) performances of the brilliant Cry and Billy. It's apparently going to form part of a documentary of Blunt on his quest to crack the US (that appears to be a given judging by his sales at the moment) and I think may be shown on VH1 at a later date.


http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/cc-...?&artist_id=48