The Hoosiers: 'We didn't chart high enough'

The Hoosiers have admitted that their number 11 chart placing for last single 'Choices' was not enough for their record label.

RCA opted not to release another single from the group's second album The Illusion Of Safety and halted its promotion. The label has since returned the master tapes to the band and they will reissue the LP themselves with extra tracks as Bumpy Ride.

Frontman Irwin Sparkes told The Guardian: "The impression we got is that after two years away we'd done well. We were really pleased. But it only got to number 11. And that wasn't high enough."

Drummer Al Sharland added: "It's really sickening how much those few chart positions matter. If you get on the big TV shows you start hitting big audiences, and those big shows pick their bands based on whether they've had a top 10 or not... It's all b*llocks, really, and it shouldn't make any difference. But it does, apparently."

As 'Choices' stalled at number 11 in the midweek charts, the band claimed that its position was partly due to timing, as they were told the same sales figures would have earned a top five slot earlier in the year.

Of the decision to re-release their album via their own Angelic Union imprint, Sharland said: "There's a little bit of doubt about an album that's already been released, to all intents and purposes.

"At the minute we've got enough money just to tick along and go to radio and test the water with a single, and hopefully work from there... for a pop band signed to a major, radio play is the be-all and end-all."

> Click here to read our review of single 'Bumpy Ride'