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I thought I'd wait a week for the dust to settle before blogging about the recent Delirious? Single Paint The Town Red. As everyone now knows, it didn't turn out to be all that successful. In fact, in terms of its chart position it was the least successful of the nine singles Delirious? have released. Since See The Star was released in 1999, Delirious? singles have been on a steady decline in their chart placings:

See The Star #16 (1999)
It's OK #18 (2000)
Waiting For The Summer #26 (2001)
I Could Sing #40 (2001)
Paint The Town Red #56 (2005)

I've been criticised for some of my slightly heated 'rants' in the past couple of weeks about the latest single. But the truth is, I'm really disappointed that not enough fans went out and bought 'Paint The Town Red' to make it chart higher. It's not because I want to see d: on TV again, or see them get into the Top 10 for the glory of it. But getting the single high into the charts would have brought Delirious? to a whole new group of people who wouldn't have heard them, or their message before.

I think Delirious? have been quite badly let down by some of their fanbase. It's not often that fans can do something to really make a difference and help a band - but this single was one of those occasions. All it needed was for every UK fan to spend 79p on iTunes and Delirious? would have gone soaring into the charts. But not enough people bothered. We know that there are enough fans in the UK to achieve a huge chart success. I keep banging on about it - but in December about 13,000 fans will go to a Delirious? gig as part of the UK Tour. A band only needs to sell 10,000 copies of a single in a week to get in the Top 10 of the single chart. So if every person who goes to those concerts had bought the single, just imagine what could have happened. If even half of them bought the single it would have gone Top 20.

So why don't Delirious? fans buy singles anymore? Six years ago Delirious? could quite easily achieve a top 20 hit with each single they release. Since then, single sales as a whole have dropped, but with the increasing popularity of download services such as iTunes it is now easier and cheaper than ever to buy music. So we can rule out the arguments of (a) not enough fans, (b) fans can't afford it, (c) it's too hard to buy. As far as I can see, that just leaves attitude. Delirious? fans no longer have the desire or motivation to come together and have a big push at getting the band into the charts. A lot of people probably have the small-cog-in-a-big-machine mentality, "it won't make a difference if I buy it or not".

It's disappointing. But we shouldn't dwell on the negative for too long. The single actually did reasonably well on iTunes, and maybe even earned the band some new fans through that medium. The single didn't work out as planned, but it's time to move on. There's a new album to look forward to in two weeks time! The Mission Bell is coming.