No Rock And Roll Fun

PROSPECTUS: We know that trying to turn Charlotte Church from 'screw-up who used to be a churchy girl' into rock star is going to be a challenge, but we're still slightly surprised to see her PR machine is already hailing the success of her first pop album:

"Charlotte can do concerts and TV appearances off the back of her name alone. That could all snowball. She's likely to be earning at least $1 to $1.50 for each album sold, more considering she's written and co-written some songs.

"If she sells two million records, which is likely with her high profile in the States, it would be a hit and three million would be seen as a great success."

Some astonishing degree of managing down expectations there, then - they're setting a fabulously low level of two million albums worldwide. For someone who has the profile of Church, that would actually be a spectacular disappointment - they shipped a third of a million copies of 1999's self-titled album for release week in the UK alone; she's well-known enough in the US to have appeared on Hollywood Squares and the late-night chatshows. That they're trying to suggest such a slow take-up would be great news shows just how little impact they're thinking her record will have.