I don't know whether this is the place and time to get into this, but I
noted Carl's Globe and Mail piece on Rufus Wainwright, who I first met when
he was 14 or 15. I also noted, either on this list or somewhere else, that
total sales on his album in the US had now crawled up to 35,000.
If this figure is true, one must surely ask some questions. As a
publicist, I've been both astonished and mightily impressed by the hype
level around this artist - surely no-one in recent years has had this much
promotion; the boy must be exhuasted by giving this many interviews.
He does deliver an excellent show, and one that almost matches the
hype. The record, if you believe the publicist, cost Dreamworks a million
dollars, and probably another $250,000 on the promotion campaign. All this
for 35,000 copies?
So why isn't the record a chart smash? Well, you can mutter all
you want about radio play - the one part of the promotional equation that
has not happened - and that without it sales just don't take place.
I suspect the reason is deeper and darker. Rufus pushes the "gay
thing" to excess, and I'm convinced it's this that has managed to turn off
the straight audience
completely. Had I been consulted, I'd have recommended he downplay the gay
thing - which he emphasises to excess, all the time, and interminably - and
just deliver the music. In addition, I don't hear any "tunes" (and
obviously radio doesn't), and some more "accessible" material on this
record might have helped.
kd lang, with whom I worked in her very early years, smartly kept
the gay thing out of the front pages until she was WELL established; by the
same she came out - spectacularly and with no warning to her management -
she was a star, so it didn't matter. Rufus, alas, came "out" all guns
blazing before his career had even begun; I'm convinced he would have been
further ahead today if he had held his natural impulse to show off in
check. Then, of course, he wouldn't be "Rufus" - but he would, I'm
convinced, have sold a hell of a lot more records.
Cheers, and really ready for SXSW, and to heck with the cost of wrist bands!
Richard
PS: I agree with Carl; Martha is the real star in this family. I had her
open a Dar Williams show in Toronto last year, and she damn near stole it.
She also appears with Anna's daughter Lilly, this giving us Kate & Anna
(Mk. II). She has accessible material, a sympathetic stage presence, and
the voice of an angel...
