Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Sounding the Klaxon

Having more-or-less predicted the Klaxons' Mercury win (or, at least, having made such a vague 'rule nothing out' prediction beforehand that if anything up to and including Noel Edmonds winning had happened, he'd have sort-of-not-said-it-wouldn't happen), Gennaro Castaldo is now rushing forward with the news that winning awards sells albums:

HMV's Gennaro Castaldo said: ""While Klaxons are enjoying a significant boost to their album sales, they now also have a real opportunity to reach out beyond their established fanbase.

"Even if she didn't collect the prize many people felt she deserved, Amy Winehouse is also among the big winners - her acclaimed album 'Back To Black' now has the momentum to power towards the two million sales mark over the coming months."

Who are the "many people" who felt Winehouse deserved the prize? Has there been a popular uprising we've missed?

Elsewhere, The Klaxons are going to donate their winnings to a science-fiction charity. We don't know if that's a charity that helps victims of sci-fi (Babylon 5 shut-ins, people who can't cope with passers-by saying 'Alyson Hannigan would make a great Doctor Who, don't you think?') or a charity that works in a sci-fi way (helping close temporal folds, translating the Bible into Klingon). On the other hand, they might just give it to their Mums.

Back at HMV, they've had some uncharacteristically cheery news, as bad weather, Desperate Housewives boxsets and Harry Potter have helped lift their ailing sales a smidgen or two. Indeed, providing we don't have an Indian Summer, the company as a whole might just scrape ahead of dire predictions made for it at the start of its trading year.