GENNARO CASTALDO WATCH

Eleanor G writes to us with a spotting of our favourite HMV spokesperson in a new setting - perhaps buoyed up by the start of a new year, Gennaro Castaldo has brought his talent for adding very little beyond getting his employer's name in a news story to the field of classical music. Responding to Radio 3's decision to not run a back-to-back Mozart session like this year's Beethoven and Bach splurges, Gennaro fretted:

Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for HMV, said: "You're not going to have the 250th anniversary of Mozart every year. If you can't do it then, when can you do it?"

That was in the Telegraph. But he was also quoted at more length in The Independent:

Gennaro Castaldo, head of press at HMV, said that playing the complete works of Mozart would seem "a more natural fit, because there's been more raised awareness among the public of Mozart and his work that the BBC could have optimised".

What does that even mean? That more people have heard of Mozart than Bach or Beethoven? On the basis that there was a movie about Mozart 21 years ago? And how does one set about optimising a raised awareness?

Luckily, Gennaro was able to get back onto safer ground when the Mirror wanted a quote about Shayne Ward getting to number one on Christmas Day:

Gennaro Castaldo, of HMW, said: "That's My Goal is the fastestselling Christmas number one in recorded chart history. It has flown off the shelves this week."

Depressingly, by the way, Shayne now has the third best selling UK single of all time, bested only by Elton John's song about that posh woman who died when her car crashed and Will Young's debut single.

Indeed, it was Will who Castaldo thought of when the Daily Mail called for a quote:

Gennaro Castaldo of the music chain HMV said: "Shayne's sales figures are incredible. We haven't seen anything like this since Will Young.

"It seems that reality shows can generate sales that traditional artists can only dream about, because the fans are motivated by the fact they rang and voted for their favourite and feel a sense of ownership towards them."

Although, like kids with Christmas puppies, they forget about them a few days later and abandon them on the side of road.

music gennaro castaldo mozart shayne ward x factor