Stars of CCTV

Archer says that he is no longer friends with Cheekee because of an incident involving Archer describing his night club to a newspaper like a bad wedding he defended himself by saying ..but everyone likes a bad wedding so I don t see what the problem is . She later became a bit of a talking point both in the music press and on the fans forums. June 20, 2005 (UK) April 18, 2006 (US) .

Then we had to do it again cos it was a right palaver. Its peak position was number 1, on the UK Album Chart. The NME described the album as the album of the year and gave the album 9/10 in a very positive review. Q gave it 4 stars and said that it was A rousing debut . Other magazines to give it positive reviews were given by Billboard. In the band s biography, there is an odd description of the album. When Archer was told of this description he seemed rather confused and said, What s a disco wig factory? The album does not bear the Parental Advisory sticker, in spite of the profanity used in Living for the Weekend. All tracks written by Richard Archer. Singles from Hard-Fi s debut album Stars of CCTV. Like all of the Hard-Fi releases, various formats carried subtle changes to differentiate them on the shelf, making them all collectable, such as Hard to Beat s changing sky to Living for the Weekend s countdown to 18:00. The Tina mentioned on some of the sleeves formed a subplot throughout all the single releases.

The band used to try and make their music sound more environmental by putting a microphone in the corridor, this added echo, however, people would walk past whistling or humming as well as the fact that planes would fly by and could be heard while the band recorded the album, and, if listened to carefully, can still be heard on the record as the band could not get rid of it. Two places higher than it originally went in on the week of its release.

However, it quickly sold out, receiving critical acclaim and radio play, proving a lot more successful than the band had imagined. So we spent a year planning, then recording it ourselves, and we did all the artwork ourselves too.

It was first released on July 4, 2005 (see 2005 in music) on Necessary/Atlantic and Warner Music UK. Even our web site was designed by us.

Stars of CCTV is the debut album from Staines-based British band Hard-Fi. We got a book out of the library so we could learn how to do it.

Talking about the situation, Archer said; We had no money but time was a luxury that we did have. 1000 copies of this record were pressed with only 500 going on public sale, and the initial plan was to sell 1000 each time.

A few months after, the album had been going on sale on websites such as eBay for £25. After a successful campaign by Atlantic, the Stars of CCTV album re-entered the official UK album chart at #4 on January 1, 2006.

It was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize, and reached #1 in the UK albums chart in January 2006, taking it about 5 months to reach #1 mainly due to the preceding single Cash Machine catching the sellers attention; its original peak position was #6. The band used the TL Audio Fatman compressor for the album, Archer said It s alright, it s cheap, you don t have to know what you re doing.. . The album was originally released as a mini album, a very limited release which sold out very quickly.

So after all that, things took off really quickly and went crazy in the space of two months, which was quite surprising. The album s launch party was scheduled to be July 7, 2005 at Cheekees night club in Staines (where their top ten single Hard to Beat was filmed), however this was cancelled due to the ill health of Richard s mother, and the London bombings also occurring that day. The launch party was rescheduled for July 13, 2005 and the venue changed to Ladbroke Grove, London.

The band s re-release of Cash Machine entered the official Top 40 singles chart at #14 on January 1. The album was listed for 102 weeks in 7 different charts. Stars of CCTV finally got to #1 on January 22, 2006.

It has reached sales of 1.2 million copies worldwide and sales of 300,000 in the UK alone. The majority of Stars of CCTV was recorded in a variety of unusual acoustic environments - in bedrooms, in pubs, and played back in their producer, Wolsey White s, BMW. Her death resulted in the band pulling out of the Glastonbury festival.

In a disused mini cab office, which cost them about £300, is where most the album was recorded and is known to this day as the Cherry Lips Studio. Its first appearance was week 28 in 2005 in the UK Albums Chart Top 75 with its last appearance being week 40 in 2007 in the UK Album Chart Top 75.