January 25, 2006

Fat Freddy’s Drop’s stellar year continues with the Wellington seven-piece group the most successful New Zealand act on the album charts in 2005.

Based On A True Story is the second best selling album of the year, just pipped at the post by James Blunt whose album Back To Bedlam was a December favourite.

And to Fat Freddy’s four Tuis at the Vodafone  New Zealand Music Awards you can add a second triumph – the album has been six weeks at top of the Chart, equalling Split Enz’ Time And Tide which set the benchmark in 1982. 

The only other ‘local’ album by a band to spend longer on top is Crowded House’s Recurring Dream which stayed at number one for eight weeks in 1996, a feat FFD may yet reach.

The figures are compiled by Media Sauce Ltd. for the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) which has just released The Official Chart sales data for the year to December 31 for across-the-counter sales to consumers.

Hayley Westenra’s Odyssey capped off another high-selling year climbing into the top 10 at eighth most popular album for the 12 months.  Westenra’s Pure was the seventh highest selling album in 2004.

Hayley is the only Kiwi act featuring in December’s and the year’s most popular 10 DVDs with Live In Concert in at number nine for the month and 10 for the year.

On the singles front, Savage had a great year and was the only local act to make it into the Top 10 Singles Chart - and with two entries.

Moonshine, featuring US rapper Akon, was the third highest selling single for 2005.  Meanwhile Swing, the first single from Savage’s debut album Moonshine, came in at number eight on the end of year charts.

RIANZ chief executive Campbell Smith says 2004 was a hard act to follow when New Zealand artists produced seven of the top 20 singles and eight of the top 20 albums.

“Fat Freddy’s hard work has paid off and the band’s number two position is a well deserved success for a group that works so hard and does things on its own terms,” Smith says.

“By spending six weeks at the top of the chart the group has this week stamped its place in New Zealand music history.”

Altogether 20 New Zealand artists featured in the top 100 chart albums for 2005 including the feelers at number 16 with Playground Battle and Bic Runga at 20 with Birds.  There were 23 locals in the top 100 albums in 2004. There were 16 NZ artists in the top 100 singles chart in both years.

The top 20 selling albums for 2005 were:

The top 20 selling singles for 2005 were:

Issued for the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand by Pead PR

Contacts:

Campbell Smith, CEO, RIANZ, Tel: 0-9-360 5085

email: campbell@rianz.org.nz

Bonnie Smail, Pead PR, Tel: 0-9-918 5581, Mob: 021 722 276,

email: bonnie@peadpr.co.nz 

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