Billie Piper - Day & Night

[Pipo]

How do these things work?? If she ever released another album she won't make a penny out of it due to her being in debt with Virgin?? Can't they just wipe it off? I mean, it's been 24 years.

 

[Eddie]

£9 million?!!

 

[Joseph]

She only released 2 studio albums and deals back then were typically for 5 to 7 albums so she essentially broke her contract.

 

[Sheena]

She only released 2 studio albums and deals back then were typically for 5 to 7 albums so she essentially broke her contract.

They’d never have given her a 5 to 7 album deal at that stage! She’d have been on a one or two album deal with an option at the end of it.

 

[Halli]

Listened to her on Table Manners last night. she's quite a frank and honest interviewee

 

[Joseph]

They’d never have given her a 5 to 7 album deal at that stage! She’d have been on a one or two album deal with an option at the end of it.

Oh I see now I think I read it wrong

A typical record deal with a major record company might be for one year plus four options, calling for five albums.

 

[straightorbroken]

I read this yesterday morning, it's all go among the BP fan world. Would love her to do one more album as a settlement. Can't believe the clip where she's looking at BWWT video and looks the exact same.

 

[Shoat]

What on earth were Virgin thinking - £9m??

Was there some assumption that Day And Night would break the US? Or did they go all in on Walk Of Life despite it being Z-rate Louise?

 

[straightorbroken]

I dread to think how much Tracy Shaw owes.

 

[SystemAddict]

I dread to think how much Tracy Shaw owes.

She, at least, had a lucrative Kwik Save sponsorship deal which more than covered the cost of her heady flops.

 

[straightorbroken]

She, at least, had a lucrative Kwik Save sponsorship deal which more than covered the cost of her heady flops.

View attachment 25320

That they got away with selling over-ripe bananas at 3 times the price by calling them their Tracy Shaw range in account of their bruising is largely considered the reason Safeway was put out of business. Not the biggest melons though.

 

[PercyPig]

How do these things work?? If she ever released another album she won't make a penny out of it due to her being in debt with Virgin?? Can't they just wipe it off? I mean, it's been 24 years.

From that book about pop music, “Reach for the Stars”, Jamelia said she had amassed a similar debt recording “Walk With Me” which the record company ended up writing off.

 

[Halli]

I struggle to see how she is in debt £9 million - there are big fans online saying she didn't even get around to recording hardly any of a third album to even scrap.

So I am assuming the debt is from the second album not clawing back what they spent on it, £9 million sounds steep though, send them some M&S vouchers in the post Bilie and present us with your ROL or RAYE era Fuck the establishment.

 

[Halli]

Geru must owe half her estate for PASSION

 

[Kratz]

Did ‘Day and Night’ even get a US push?

It remains better than anything her US contemporaries were releasing at the same time (also see Precious - Rewind but as one of the biggest selling singles of all time that presumably made a profit).

 

[Halli]

Yes Day and Night was definitely an international hit if Britney had it - I am guessing they wanted to push it internationally not sure if they did. I do remember thinking Day&Night was when she looked and sounded like an international pop star (say that in a Louis Walsh voice pls)

Although back to topic, i prefered H2TBee, Something Deep Inside, and always had a soft spot for Walk of Life

 

[Iguana]

It's surprising that after a £9 million they dropped her after ONE flop single. What a terrible strategy. I guess the album also didn't have legs, but still you'd have thought they'd give her another try.

 

[Halli]

Has SHE mentioned that figure, or just said she is in debt? I don't recall her saying that on Table Manners but she may have

 

[VoR]

The contracts pop stars would be put under at the time were insanely unethical, so the 9m figure doesn't particularly surprise me. Look at what happened to S Club 7.

In the grand scheme of things she was quite fortunate to have another avenue to make an income once her acting career took off. (The marriage and subsequent divorce from Chris Evans presumably gave her a financial cushion while she was making the transition too).

 

[Sheena]

Discogs doesn’t show any US singles or promos for Day & Night. I imagine after the album bombed in the UK, they pulled the plug on any plans- should there have been any.

I still don’t believe that £9 million figure. That is just ridiculous record company incompetence if so, and let’s face it, that’s unlikely. It’s more likely based on projected sales of options on later albums which, of course, never happened. So she’d “owe” that money before she makes any profit on future releases, but she’s not actually in debt to them about it.

 

[Halli]

Yes, I can imagine she had a three album deal max, and a greatest hits planned if not in the record deal.
acts got out of contracts by using a GH back in the day I remember

 

[Slave]

It's surprising that after a £9 million they dropped her after ONE flop single. What a terrible strategy. I guess the album also didn't have legs, but still you'd have thought they'd give her another try.

She wasn't dropped. The Tide Is High was planned to be the next single, but there was all that stuff with her stalker that ended up in court, plus the endless vitriol she got about her relationship with Ritchie from Five. In the end, she's the one who chose to end her pop career after the Walk Of Life single (and I suspect/hope the label was sympathetic to that). Innocent may well have ended up dropping her eventually, since neither album sold massively well, and even her biggest singles were only modest sellers in the grand scheme of things. But I think they'd probably have taken a punt on one more album - or a few singles beforehand, at least - given Billie was the closest thing the label had to a Britney-esque act.

I think I've seen it reported that she was on a three-album deal (I'm guessing that makeshift greatest hits released in 2005 doesn't count). But this was an era where labels like Polydor were handing out five-album deals to Adam Rickitt, so who knows!?