Hey ho heydays

Have newspapers suffered a downturn in circulation? Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese paper, has a circulation of 9,690,000. If that's a downturn in technology central then it's still an impressive enough figure to keep the presses rolling - or whatever they do these days.

The Da Vinci Code, it pains me to say, is now the largest selling book even though seasoned readers will know the sources for this grand conspiracy.

As we've mentioned in a previous post, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin each have circulations of over 22 million.

BBC World Service has 188 million weekly listeners and is broadcast in 32 languages.

If you're wondering what the recent spate of interest in the anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales was all about, the biggest event on television since the moon landing was her funeral, watched by two billion people worldwide.

Jaws was the box office champion until the Star Wars franchise and, while Avatar now rules the cinema records, Jaws remains the most watched movie on television.
105.9 million viewers tuned in for the final episode of M.A.S.H. 

Theatre has natural constraints for single attendance and concerts have to move outdoors to meet a certain capacity.
There have been more than twelve thousand performances of Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera

I finally see what the purpose of a cover/tribute act playing the circuit with Tubular Bells. I know it was a huge hit when it was released but Jean-Michel Jarre holds multiple records for concert attendance: a million in La Concorde, Paris in 1979, 1.2 million in 1995, 1.3 million at Rendezvous Houston Festival in 1986, 2.5 million for Paris La Défense: A City in Concert in 1990 and a world beating 3.5 million people went to see Oxygen in Moscow in 1997. This figure is shared by Sir Rod Stewart for his 3.5 million audience at the Copacabana in 1994. 

Guns'N'Roses and U2 have the current highest grossing tours. The Beatles still manage to sell more vinyl than anyone else. Only 'new' names like Justin Bieber disturb the image further piled on by Metallica and Depeche Mode of music being dominated by old farts or legends, depending on your outlook or which station you listen to.