| André Rieu breaks personal appearance record |
| Monday, 24 September 2007 00:00 | ||||
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The admiration for acclaimed Dutch violinist, André Rieu, by his Australian fans was evident prior to him arriving in Australia by the 300,000-plus sales of his DVDs and CDs in the last twelve months. However his fans came out in force on Saturday 22nd at Eastland Shopping Mall (Melbourne) and yesterday at Warringah Mall (Sydney), for André’s only personal appearances in this country. André Rieu made history when his personal appearance generated sales of close to 1000 units at J.B. Hi Fi in Melbourne on Saturday and was attended by over 3000 people. It is estimated that around 7000 people were at the event in Warringah Mall yesterday; Mall Music sold over 1000 units of André Rieu product yesterday. "This is by far the biggest personal appearance we have hosted in over 26 years of retail," says Geoff Bonouvrié, owner of Mall Music. "He is the most important act the music industry has seen for the last 10 years," says Songland Records owner and founder Brian 'Frog' Harris. "He is appealing to the demographic that doesn't usually visit record stores, is not over-concerned about price point but is passionate about music.”  André released the following statement just before departing Australia: "I'm overwhelmed by the warm reception from the Australian people. Everyone has been so friendly and down-to-earth. I'm ecstatic about my Australian chart success and I can't wait to return for my concert tour in November 2008. I feel that my life has entered a new phase and Australia has played a very important role in this.”With worldwide sales of over 27 million units of his recordings, André Rieu made his first visit to Australia last week to promote his latest recordings and to announce his concert tour planned for November/December 2008. Whilst here, André appeared on several TV and radio programs. Radio station switchboards went into meltdown when it was announced that André would be coming on. It is unquestionably apparent that the communicative power and flair of André Rieu have travelled across the Pacific and arrived in Australia. At events held in Sydney and Melbourne last week, André was presented with awards by George Ash, Managing Director of Universal Music Australia, to mark his spectacular sales success in this country. André Rieu’s DVDs have overwhelmed the DVD charts since the release of New York Memories in April this year, with seven titles in the Top Ten DVD chart this week (including the first three positions) and ten in the top fourteen. In fact, since April, André Rieu DVD titles have never been out of the Top Ten DVD charts and in the last 3 months his titles have occupied nearly 50% of the Top Ten DVD chart real estate. Dates to André Rieu’s concert tour will be announced later this year and are set to include dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Television viewers will be pleased to know that the Ovation channel will continue to broadcast André Rieu TV specials for the foreseeable future, with a couple of Australian André Rieu specials due for broadcast in December. October 6 sees the release of the DVD and CD of La vie est belle (“Life is Beautiful”) and November will see the release of the fairytale spectacular, André Rieu in Wonderland in CD, DVD and High-Definition DVD formats.
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