Gordon in the morning: No promo

Gordon Smart does some reporting today: Record label bosses are, he says, annoyed with Axl Rose:

RECORD label bosses are fuming after GUNS N’ ROSES frontman AXL ROSE went missing for two months – costing the band a No1 album.

The suggestion is that Rose somehow failed to help getting the news out about the record:

Bosses at label Geffen are blaming unpredictable Axl for the disappointing sales after he went AWOL for two months before the release date.

Despite all the effort put into one of the most extravagant rock albums of all time, staff could not contact Axl to get him to promote his rock epic.

This seems a little strange - admittedly, Rose might not have made himself available for Saturday morning's kids TV, but it's not as if Chinese Democracy was under-promoted in any way. There can't be many people left on the planet who were unaware of the record's imminent release.

And given that it took Rose the best part of two decades to deliver the record, did Geffen really expect to be able to control a process over which they've had little control so far?

Anyway, it's unlikely that anyone in the US is that bothered about the UK sales:

But they lost out to THE KILLERS’ Day & Age in Sunday’s UK album chart rundown — with BRANDON FLOWERS’ group notching up sales of 200,000 during the week — 80,000 more than Guns N’ Roses.

It's the US figures which will really be of interest to Geffen - and boy, does Smart make them sound bad:

Chinese Democracy’s first week US sales are between 300,000 and 500,000. Yet their 1987 debut album Appetite For Destruction went on to sell a staggering 28million, so they have a long way to go with their new effort.

It's sold 28 million, yes. But over 21 years, from a start being released into a very different market for music, not available solely through a single store. And when people cared about Guns N Roses.

Is anyone really thinking that getting Axl onto Letterman to let people hear one of the songs would have managed any more sales? On the contrary, the fewer people that heard the record before purchase the better - something Geffen seemed to accept, as it was so heavy-handed about slapping down that early leak.

If there are staff at Geffen who really think there were more sales in a clapped-out band's disappointing punchline, then they might want to think about following Rose off onto a much-needed holiday.