Sounding great on the airwaves and prompting hysteria in the Twitterverse as it's played at 4.30 by Greg James at No11 on the Midweeks.

The bad news is that it's slipped out of the Top Ten from No9.

The good news is that there's all week to get it back up into the Ten.

His tour around the UK has been fantastic - hundreds of fans at every venue (see the Photo in the Photos section) and literally thousands of CD singles sold (nobody sells CD singles these days).

The question is - has emphasis on those Personal Appearances taken focus away from his iTunes downloads?

It will be interesting to see - he's almost certainly got a second Top Twenty chart hit with his second single - a pretty incredible achievement with virtually no airplay (other than You Tube) or major label deal. The new model works - but takes very hard work.

Still selling well; the tour has been fantastic - it will have sold 3000 CDs in 5 days and should have sold DOUBLE that if HMV, as promised, had carried a few copies in every store.

Combined with iTunes, Amazon and other downloads, it will have sold over 20,000 in the UK this week (and probably even more around the world - totalling about 50,000). Not as good as his Christmas hit but damn good for a second hit - unplayed by radio or TV; unsigned to a major label; minimal expense in making or promoting the video (coming up for 700,000 You Tube views).

It's brilliant seeing hundreds of fans in Billericay on Good Friday queuing to get a signed CD by Alex; this is the kind of excitement for music we need to revive - in my opinion.

And the kind of enthusiasm the dim, dumb executives of major corporations have almost managed to stifle.

I know you're excited about Alex Day but to say the majors stifle enthusiasm
and excitement is just nonsense. Perhaps you might want to look at the queues when
Bieber comes to town. Or perhaps the enthusiasm and excitement One Direction are
causing. Both on major labels may I add. Now good luck to Alex and well done for
mobilising his 500,000 fans all built up from outside of the music industry.
You say this is the new model well try it with a new act and then I will agree with
you. All you're doing is taking advantage of his fanbase and mobilising them to
get him into the charts. Nothing new about that. Try it with someone WITHOUT half
a million fans/subscribers on Youtube.

As Alex was before he built up a following.
And indeed Bieber was building an independent fan base (with several mentions on here before Usher managed to ink him).
And One Direction needed Mr Cowell and his TV empire.
The least good ingredients of their careers has been the major label involvements.

In a few hours I'll know whether I owe my friend a tenner or not. My guess is that Alex Day will be about 22 in the charts. We shall see.

I think you'll find it's Top 15 PH so you'll be out of pocket.
Would have been Top 10 if HMV had - as promised - carried copies in all their stores. I quite understand why they didn't (singles don't sell on CD these days) but if they had carried copies 10,000 would have shifted instead of the 5000 that did.
Still pretty good; first two singles both Top 15 and Godiva should have sold about 50,000 around the world.

So there you go; second highest new entry at 15; over 20,000 sold in a week; plus more than double that oversea where it charted in 14 countries.

Boo !! 'Tis a fix ...

Oh well, it's a long way from The Beatles and will probably be forgotten by this time next year, but well done all involved .. even if it did cost me 20 quid. (I know I said a tenner early on, but that was wishful thinking).

Now to drown my sorrows with Peruvian Coffee and some real music.

The key is, PH - I like helping people get success. I encouraged Alex to make better music (over 3 years). He eventually made one I thought could be a hit (Forever Yours). So I came up with a way of breaking it. Then he did a version of a song I'd played Tommy, which he loved, as a possible followup for Sons of Admirals. I thought that was excellent and we worked out a way of breaking that. Two hits for someone unsigned to a major label; doing it all himself; singing; playing the instruments; producing it; arranging it.

That's what I'm here for. To help people achieve something.

That was why I started The Tip Sheet. To bring good music to more people's attention. Some I'll like. Some you'll like. Some neither of us will like. But if I think it's worthy of greater notice, I try to come up with positive suggestions.

Makes me happy. But, then, I'm odd.

Well done to Alex. Shame it only got in at 15 but I think that's as a result of going down
the CD route. Bad move IMHO. Stick to downloads. The 5,000 CDs could have been an extra 50,000
downloads which would have given Alex a number one. Stick to downloads JK and sign posters or
some other physical product for free and NOT CDs. HMV did you guys in (surprise surprise). Will
Alex climb up the charts in coming weeks? I doubt it but I hope so as I am all for sticking it
to the majors. Incidently Alex is the highest indie in the chart (ignoring SyCO of course).
Any chance you will join AIM?