Planet Notion - Robbie Williams at Knebworth the biggest selling music DVD!

29/04/2008

The DVD player has been around for ten years. We’re talking British shores obviously, as the Americans and the Japanese are way ahead of us when it comes to technology. I guess you could say they’re ahead of us as far as the health service goes as well but – hey, I’m no expert. Still, we don’t have licenses for guns and stuff and the Americans do, which is crazy, so I guess that’s one-all. But then gun-crime is on the rise in the UK and people don’t even have licenses. To borrow a quote: “We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell”.

To the story and further proof that “we are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell” with news that Robbie Williams’ ‘What We Did Last Summer’ DVD has been named (by industry experts) as the best-selling music DVD of the last decade. Cough, choke, spit and splutter! Bang you head against a wall and fill the room with claret. “How can this be true?”

“Who are these experts on DVD sales”, I hear you cry as you scratch your balls, befuddled and confused, “Where’s the evidence? Where’s the science? We need proof damn-it – SOLID PROOF!” Well, proof comes from the British Video Association (BVA), who obtained their data from the ‘Official UK Chart Company’. Well, if they’re official, it has to be true; despite sounding as barmy as the Tooth Fairy and Joe Pasquale.

Here’s some data to drool over; history, if you were. By the end of 1998 UK DVD (disc) sales stood at a meagre 200,000. When you consider that an estimated (non-official) forty million people own four TVs and some households own more than four TV’s, 200,000 is a pretty low number. These statistics are ‘predicted’ and cannot be proved as scientific fact. They’re a rough estimate. But rest assured they’re close enough.

So, the sale of DVD discs was a meagre 200,000 in 1998, but exactly one year later (to the second, minute and hour) in 1999 that figure had risen by 4 million. Now, this represents that people in the UK were either breeding like sex-starved nymphs and the population had rapidly grown, or that the DVD craze was spreading like an STI (probably originating from those god damned nymphs).

It gets even crazier. 2007 marked new heights of 248 million DVD sales with that figure increasing by 63.3 million in 2008. We’re nearly in May. About four month’s into 2008. There are twelve months in a year. 4 x 3 = 12. So we can predict that 63.3 million will treble to 189.9 million by the time the year is over with experts (yes, experts) predicting that the Christmas period will push the figure up by more. Wowzers! So there we go; the science is done and dusted and, I’m proud to say, no calculators were used.

So back to the story. Robbie Williams’ ‘What We Did Last Summer’ has sold roughly 500,000 copies. It was recorded live at Knebworth and, yes, people do apparently like Mr. Williams because he has two entries in the top ten music DVD’s of the last decade. That’s two! 2. Deux. It would appear the public are like lemmings; Williams sings “LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU” and they’re happy to jump into musical oblivion... The fiery gates of hell.

Allow us to present a quote from ‘What We Did Last Summer’. An indication, if you were, of why the nation have ingested a Robbie Williams live performance with such relish. An indication of why Mr. Williams’ live performance at Knebworth is so damn special. An indication of why we, the Great British public, are by far the most intelligent nation. Proof. Fact. Pudding. Go on Robbie, go for it - shoot, show us why the UK can't get enough of that DVD: “Good evening everybody, my name is Robbie Williams, this is my band and for the next two hours YOUR ARSE IS MINE!” Words: Dave Dryden