Some context: The Residents are an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, Meet the Residents (1974), the group has released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs. They have undertaken seven major world tours and scored multiple films. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, the Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects.
In October 2016, The Residents released Rushing Like a Banshee, the first single off their next album, alongside a video directed by John Sanborn. It was announced later found that it was part of a longer piece on The Ghost of Hope. In early 2017, they announced a new show, titled In Between Dreams, was to premier at the Blue Note in Tokyo, the first show in Japan since the 13th Anniversary Show. Rather than "Randy", "Bob" and "Rico", the show was to feature "The Real Residents", the "original" group featuring four members, much like their earlier years. Three of the members wore blue and white checkered suits, plague doctor masks with dark lenses and white bowler hats while the singer wore a cow-pattern bodysuit with a fake cow nose and plastic horns. Two shows were to be played over the course of two days, and later the same show was to be played at the Safe as Milk festival in the Wales. The show in the Wales, however, never happened as the festival was cancelled in early April. Later, in March 2017, they announced the tour to officially begin in Copenhagen, Denmark, in November 2017. Less than a week after the premiere of In Between Dreams, on March 24, 2017, the group released their first album in over 4 years, The Ghost of Hope. The album, based around historical train wrecks from the late 19th century and early 20th century, featured guest players such as Eric Drew Feldman ("who has worked with everybody cool") and Nolan Cook. The album gained large media attention, with notable magazines like Billboard and Wired covering the album shortly before its release. Several months later, in late October 2017, the full In Between Dreams tour kicked off in Copenhagen, featuring the same cast and decorations as the Tokyo show, though with a substantially changed setlist that included preview tracks from an upcoming blues-styled album: "Die! Die! Die!" and "Tell Me." In Between Dreams was the first show featuring the "Real Residents"; Tyrone, the singer, Eekie, the guitarist, Eekie, the keyboardist, and a new member, Cha Cha, a percussionist (the first in the band since "Carlos'" departure.) The decoration of the show consisted of a blue and white checkered (with the iconic eyeball with the top hat breaking the pattern every so often) backdrop, several dynamic and color changing lights, and the same giant ball screen from Shadowland for displaying videos in between every couple songs. The videos consisted of various well-known figures reminiscing of dreams they had; Richard Nixon's dream about being a blues singer, John Wayne's nightmare about a lone ballerina that disappears when he attempts to approach her, Mother Theresa's dream about a train wreck, and so on. The tour ran through Europe from late October all the way to the end of November 2017, and later the United States from early April to early May 2018.
Was the album successful?
A: The album gained large media attention, with notable magazines like Billboard and Wired covering the album shortly before its release.
Some context: Steeleye Span are an English folk rock band formed in 1969. Still active today, along with Fairport Convention, they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat". They had four Top 40 albums and achieved a certified gold record with sales of "All Around My Hat". Throughout their history, Steeleye Span have seen many personnel changes.
With their star now conspicuously ascendant, the band brought in producer Mike Batt (best known for his musical association with the Wombles and, more recently, Katie Melua) to work on their eighth album, All Around My Hat, and their biggest success would come with the release of the title track as a single - it reached number 5 in the UK Charts in late 1975. The single was also released in other European countries and gave them a breakthrough in the Netherlands and Germany. Other well-known tracks on the album included "Black Jack Davy" (sampled by rappers Goldie Lookin Chain on their track "The Maggot") and the rocky "Hard Times of Old England". But while All Around My Hat was the height of the band's commercial success, the good times were not to last long. Despite touring almost every year since 1975, they have not had another hit single, nor any success in the album chart since the late 1970s. The follow-up album Rocket Cottage (1976), also produced by Batt, proved to be a commercial flop, despite having much in common musically with its immediate predecessor. The opening track, "London", was penned by Rick Kemp as a follow-up to "All Around My Hat", in response to a request from the record label that Kemp describes as "we'll have another one of those, please", and released as a single. The song failed to make the UK Chart, in complete contrast to "All Around My Hat", despite having much in common with its predecessor - a 12/8 time signature, upbeat tempo, solo verses and full harmony chorus. Rocket Cottage also included experimental tracks "Fighting for Strangers" (with sparse vocals singing concurrently in a variety of keys) and, on the final track, excerpts of studio banter between the band members and a seemingly impromptu rendition of "Camptown Races", in which Prior gets the lyrics wrong. But while their seventh album, Commoners Crown, was one of their most interesting and varied, including the epic "Long Lankin", the advent of punk saw the mainstream market turning away from folk rock almost overnight, heralding a downturn in commercial fortunes for the band. However, as a thank you to their committed fans (and also to possibly to garner some publicity for their underperforming album), Steeleye Span showered attendees of a November 1976 concert in London, England, with the then-equivalent of US$13,600 in British pound notes. The unannounced idea was Maddy Prior's, and--remarkably--no-one was injured in the rush to grab the falling bills. Indeed, contemporary press reports indicated that it took some time for the crowd to even realise what was happening. Thanks to their connection with Mike Batt, band members appeared in Womble costumes on Top of the Pops, performing the Wombles hit "Superwomble".
How well did the band perform when they brought in the producer Mike Batt and Katie Melua?
A:
All Around My Hat, and their biggest success would come with the release of the title track as a single -