Tim Bailey, head of label at Earache Records, has spoken to Music Week about Those Damn Crows’ hugely successful chart campaign for God Shaped Hole.
The Welsh metal band debuted at No.1 with 16,412 sales (6,376 CDs, 3,400 vinyl albums, 184 cassettes, 358 KiTs, 5,895 digital downloads and 199 sales-equivalent streams), according to the Official Charts Company. God Shaped Hole managed to hold off a strong challenge from former chart-topper Short N’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter (15,454 units).
It also marks the first No.1 for the Nottingham-based rock label, which was founded 40 years ago. It follows Earache Records’ No.2 result with Skindred in a close fought battle in 2023, coincidentally also against a Polydor act (Cian Ducrot).
Those Damn Crows’ campaign had a well-timed boost when the team put on a Pryzm outstore show with an album bundle on sale in the midst of the chart contest.
“I’m thrilled to see the support for Those Damn Crows on this campaign,” Bailey told Music Week. “It’s taken 10 years for the band to reach this moment, and is the result of a decade of consistently raising the bar with each record. For me, Shane Greenhall’s songwriting craft and vocals truly set them apart from anyone else in British rock music.
“It’s been a brilliant team effort from the band, management, label and everyone who was brought in to help elevate this record to where it deserved to be – whether that’s pluggers, PRs, designers, videographers or their brilliant crew,” he added. “Whilst this chart result is incredibly validating for all involved, what’s most important is the band have built the fanbase to have a long, sustainable career ahead of them.”
Those Damn Crows improved on the No.3 peak and week one sales for previous album Inhale/Exhale, which opened with 10,071 sales in 2023.
“I’m lucky to work with a band that have really captured the hearts of their fans the way Those Damn Crows do, and it’s a pleasure to work with such a creative band, management Ryan Richards and Sean Smith, and Ross Warnock at UTA,” said Bailey. “Live Nation have really stepped up to help on the album campaign side too – big thanks to Andy, Phoebe, Andra and team there. Austin and Oli at AC promotions have done brilliant work at radio, and Kirsten at Cosa Nostra has helped the band reach new heights with press.
“It's always a team effort, and I’m grateful to have a director in Digby [Pearson] who’s open to all out of the box ideas,” he added. “We have such a brilliant team at Earache – Dan in label management, Jeni in label management/marketing, Mike working retail, Rich on digital, Ana in production, Al in the US office, Jim working to impossible design deadlines and our accounts and tech team Lisa and Ashley for keeping the wheels turning. We do everything in-house, and our webstore team have moved mountains to ship thousands of units – so a big shout out to Phil, Katie, Ben, Kez and Tom there.”
Those Damn Crows will continue to play in-store/out-store shows this month as part of the album campaign, followed by dates in Europe and the UK this year.
Here, Tim Bailey relives the chart contest and opens up about the growth of the band as a major force in British metal in the UK and beyond…
Following Top 3 success last time, how did you approach the release week for this album?
“I was really careful to choose a week where we knew that it would fit in with the live schedule. We knew that it was unlikely that there would be another really big new release, just because people swerve that week because of Record Store Day. So it was certainly intentional. You can never be sure with these. You try to place things in a way that will work to your advantage, but you can't predict it.”
How did you work with Virgin on the campaign?
“Virgin are our physical distributors, and have been since the Kris Barras campaign. So on frontline titles, they've been a real revelation. They're extremely engaged, and we really feel like a priority. Dominic Jones, Alessandra D’Alesio and Reece Ismael have been brilliant there. We were able to track the week's sales with their expertise. So it's been really great having that pool of knowledge that we can lean on.”
What’s most important is the band have built the fanbase to have a long, sustainable career ahead of them
Tim Bailey
How busy was the chart week schedule?
“The schedule is really busy. We had to work alongside Live Nation to make sure that everything would fit with the campaign. So live and the album cycle worked really well together. We had an underplay tour, which really drove loads of excitement about seeing the band at events, and then the outstore campaign is running for two weeks, which is quite long. But we had to be mindful that they're playing their biggest ever shows in Q4, so we couldn't go out and play big electric shows as out-stores.
“The in-stores are a full band acoustic set with a full meet-and-greet. So we squeeze them into record shops, we put them into small rooms. I always find that offering fans something unique, or something they rarely see, as an in-store is arguably as powerful as offering a full electric show in a venue, because they don't get to see the artist up close and personal there. They don't normally get to see these songs stripped back. It's worked really well because of that, and we decided to take the same tact with the big out-store at Pryzm [November 29]. It's a celebration party with a full acoustic set, which may never be redone. So at every point it was trying to find unique value in what we're offering.”
What was the physical music offering for fans on this release?
“The fanbase are collectors, so it's important for each product in our collection to have its own unique value. The album sleeve reflected themes or elements from every single song, so we're able to draw those out to build unique versions of the record, which was just a really nice creative job as well as something that a collector would want.”
So was there quite a range across retail and D2C?
“There were four D2C vinyl editions, we made sure there were a couple of signed versions for the fans that maybe can't meet them at a show or go to an in-store. We had three different alternative covers which worked with different versions of the album. We eventually added a fourth at the end. They played their biggest ever show at Cardiff Arena in December, and I wanted to make something which was unique to that event. So we employed a photographer, got them to take a beautiful shot from the stage at the end, so everybody could have a physical memento of them in the crowd at the show, and that became the cover of the Cardiff arena exclusive. It’s just thinking about ways that makes that makes each edition special.”
How is their live business shaping up?
“Live has really changed from cycle to cycle. It looks like the Q4 tour is selling better than any previous tour. I think them doing an underplay tour early in the year, which sold out really quickly, really built that appetite. I feel like the kind of rock music that Those Damn Crows play tends to do really well in the regions, but London tends to be a little more difficult generally. But it feels like we've broken that barrier, and London's [O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire] well on its way to selling out. So that's an amazing achievement for the artist, for management, for the agents, and for us that we've all collectively built the band up over these over these cycles.”
How have the band developed since the last album, including a Download performance last year?
“Yeah, I think they have done really well from the major festivals. They've really built a community in a way that many of their peers haven't. They were really savvy in lockdown beginning their podcast The Crowcast, which has run really frequently ever since. I think that's helped the fans build that deeper connection. And whilst that seems very tangential to their music, you can see that people are really into the band and people go to multiple shows. There's a real dedication to their fanbase.
“The idea of only playing one headline show last year and it being Cardiff Arena was a really brilliant play by agent, management and the band. I think it really helped elevate their profile. To fill an arena is no mean feat for a band that's doing 1,000 tickets regionally, and it shows how passionate the fanbase is, that everybody travelled to that show and it was an incredible success.”
How important was announcing that Pryzm show during the chart week?
“Yeah, that's been in discussion for a long time. Because we devised something that wasn't a traditional show, and because we priced it at a price that is really reasonable for fans, everybody got on board. It's been wonderful to have the independent stores really supporting us. Those kind of events are really important, it sold 720 albums in eight hours. We all know how the charts are increasingly set up for the big streamers. So we have to be more and more creative to keep up really.”
And you even launched a new format for this campaign…
“We introduced the KiT format from Korea. I think just really being both creative and having that attention to detail is what the fans want. We included extra tracks with the KiT format, we included an exclusive photo gallery, we included all the lyrics, I just think that format really brings you closer to the fan and closer to the artist, and it's something that I'm really passionate about.”
Finally, they are heading off to Europe soon, how’s it building there for Those Damn Crows?
“The band have made real progress. They played some really huge outdoor shows last year in Germany. We're seeing some real encouraging growth in Europe. We've got some major radio playlisting in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Europe has really grown cycle to cycle as well. We've had good support at DSPs across the board, which has been really promising. So I think Europe is going to be really strong for them this year. They’ve definitely put the groundwork in with support touring in Europe and in Scandinavia. So they will definitely continue to grow there.”
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