Got a message recently from Vijayan Almeida a top DJ on ALL INDIA RADIO asking could I send him a copy of the album so he could play our tracks. Many of the tracks from 'Endangered Species' are now on the playlist and get regular airplay. They even play our version of 'Scarborough Fair'. I have recorded several messages for broadcast with the tracks. Some general, one for India's Republic Day and one showing our solidarity and thoughts for the victims of the recent tragic events in Mumbai. VJ is a multi-talented musician in a band called KIXMET who have songs with an anti-terror message not disimilar to our own but from an Indian perspective. VJ has recorded a Flute track to one of our songs 'Lest' we Forget 7/7'. This collaboration across continents and cultures is in the process of being mixed and sent back to England where it will feature on the next batch of albums.
Anglo Saxon breaks the States !
Although we have had U.S. and international downloads (itunes) and a few Cd's have found their way to Europe. Recently we had our first official exports of the album to the United States. So congratulations to Tracy Blevins from Fort Worth, Texas and Greg Gatzke from Lake City, Florida for owning the first U.S. imports of ' Endangered Species'.
We have just recently had our largest single order. Thanks to Lucy from Doncaster who bought some Cd's and a DVD for herself and then decided to send some as Christmas presents to friends in this country, Italy, the United States and Australia.
The website now gets over 12,000 hits a month and plays on YouTube, Myspace, Metacafe, google video and various others are heading for 500,000. On myspace we have over 8,000 fans and 'This is England' is the most popular profile song by an independant unsigned UK artist. We have links on hundreds of websites and magazine reviews both at home and abroad. The tracks get radio airplay in both the UK, abroad and have been used on network television.
Gaining Cult status
Although official sales and downloads are only approaching a thousand our full tracks are all over the internet and easy to get. There are tens of thousands out there on phones, ipods, mp3 players and computers. Anecdotal evidence of Soldiers and Marines blue toothing tracks to everyone in the barracks. A Para told me the other day they play them through the external loud speakers of Armoured Vehicles while on patrol in Afghanistan etc. To the point we now appear on file sharing sites such as limewire. There will be few if any other artists appearing on file sharing sites who have never had any kind of record deal.