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Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Wedding preparations
Back when Charles and Diana got married - whatever happened to her, by the way? - the ceremony was released on records by both ITN and BBC. Scientists say that most of the discs actually rolled themselves direct from Woolworths to the nearest branch of Oxfam.
Still, it was 1981, and if you wanted to enjoy the ceremony over and over again, you pretty much had only a record as a way of doing it.
Quite why they're bothering to stick out a record of the forthcoming wedding between William and Koo Stark isn't clear, but they are. Chief regal nuptial expert at HMV, Gennaro Castaldo, is excited:
Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, which will be among the online and high street stores selling the album, said: “We’re expecting huge demand for what, no doubt, will prove a highly collectible recording and piece of royal memorabilia.Really? The download version isn't really a souvenir, being a digital file - tricky to take to Antiques Roadshow - and are there really enough people interested in specific parts to push bits up the singles chart?
“We could well be looking at the first ever number one royal album, and you could even have a situation where the Royal couple find themselves at the top of the singles chart as well.”
I do like the possibility that Kate and William might be invited to mime to bits of their wedding on the Christmas Top Of The Pops, though.
Wouldn't you just tape it on your Sky+ if you were that bothered, though?
2 comments:
Castaldo evidently did not grow up on Rice & Gambaccini. The BBC's release of the 1981 royal wedding actually reached number one in the album chart at the time, although I think a lot of people were buying it for Kiri te Kanewa's contribution. No record of whether it included any of Tom Fleming's purple prose about pigeons.
Difficult to see how something can be both a huge seller and a collector's item. If value is conferred principally by rarity, then what you want to do is buy a significant flop, or perhaps a flawed misprint of some kind, rather than a huge smash.
Does Gennaro know something we don't?
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