Was Vinnie Vincent Invasion successful ?

[Lord12starkl]

According to Vinnie Vincent the first Invasion album sold somewhere around 1 500 000 - 1 700 000 records/copies and that rock magazines were saying really positive things about it and that the album sold big and fast, this is all based on an audit (an official inspection of an organization's accounts, typically by an independent body) that Vinnie did in 2000 which he himself claims.

Is it really true that the 1st album was a success ? I mean it sold like one million and a half but was that domestic or worldwide numbers ?
I can't find any certifications for the album on the internet, meaning if it turned gold or platinum in some country. Is Vinnie lying about the 1st albums success, I mean there aren't any certifications that i could find.

The 2nd album "All Systems Go" sold somewhere around 600 000 - 750 000 records/copies according to Vinnie. Again I couldn't find any certifications for this album either, i mean these numbers are high enough to become a gold or a platinum album in some country but there's no info about that.

Has Vinnie been lying about the amount of sales of the Invasion albums, stating that the first was a big hit when there's no info about it becoming
a gold or a platinum record in some country ?

Is there any truth to the amount of sales besides the claims that Vinnie has made ?, specifically at the Atlanta KISS expo in 2018 and in an interview he did with Mike Brunn in 2019.

Here are videos of Vinnie saying the amount of sales of the invasion albums.

[Genebaby]

Are you able to find figures on other bands/records?

What there was concerning the first VVI album was a LOT of hype. That hype didn't seem to translate into actual sales as VVI did not become as well known as you would hope, but they were able to tour, opening for much bigger and more established acts.

For the quality of the albums they should have been huge, but it doesn't always work that way, for many kinds of reasons.

The Slaughter debut was much weaker, albiet it was a fun album, and it was quite successful in real terms, in the early days at least. Albums afterwards didn't cement their success, plus the whole grunge thing.

[shramiac]

The Slaughter debut was much weaker, albiet it was a fun album, and it was quite successful in real terms, in the early days at least. Albums afterwards didn't cement their success, plus the whole grunge thing.

GOD I hated that album...even with THAT cover.

Sold it to a mate after one listen.

[VVArchives]

According to Vinnie Vincent the first Invasion album sold somewhere around 1 500 000 - 1 700 000 records/copies and that rock magazines were saying really positive things about it and that the album sold big and fast, this is all based on an audit (an official inspection of an organization's accounts, typically by an independent body) that Vinnie did in 2000 which he himself claims.

Is it really true that the 1st album was a success ? I mean it sold like one million and a half but was that domestic or worldwide numbers ?
I can't find any certifications for the album on the internet, meaning if it turned gold or platinum in some country. Is Vinnie lying about the 1st albums success, I mean there aren't any certifications that i could find.

The 2nd album "All Systems Go" sold somewhere around 600 000 - 750 000 records/copies according to Vinnie. Again I couldn't find any certifications for this album either, i mean these numbers are high enough to become a gold or a platinum album in some country but there's no info about that.

Remember, during this time there were numerous changes at Chrysalis.

So the guys who were in charge when Invasion came out where gone before ASG.

The new guys wanted to downplay the huge success of Invasion and act like they were "breaking" them.

Then after Vinnie left Chrysalis because he was so pissed at what they did to ASG behind his back, then another group came in. And that was part of the buy out.

At least those guys gave credit to VVI fans for breaking Slaughter in Billboard. People "pretend" Slaughter was some new band. But they started off with a huge fan base. And they got all the VVI Fan Club mailing list from Snowden. Also, so many underlings at Chrysalis were the same people who worked on VVI. Slaughter pretty much released their 3rd album instead of it being a debut album. You can debate its merits for sure. "Stick It To Ya" is well over 3M in the states. They never bothered to get it recertified.

Of course, subsequent albums bombed for them and they were dropped after their 2nd album on EMI. And their CMC albums didn't do much at all.

Invasion was a huge seller. And it was on Billboard for 29 weeks and that was with only 1 stinking video. Kiss was barely doing 29 weeks and that was with them releasing 3 music videos. Billboard back then wasn't based on actual sales. But a combination of things: Radio Play, sales samples, Video play, Touring. And Boyz got a ton of airplay on MTV in the states.


One wonders what ASG could have done if it had been released in Nov/Dec 1987 like it was supposed to. But the new guys at Chrysalis screwed that up. Which screwed up the release of "Ashes To Ashes" as the first single/video. Because they wouldn't release it after Kingdom Come's video a few months later. And that also screwed up VVI from opening for Aerosmith, which would have meant huge sales for ASG.

After screw up after screw up, they release Ashes to hard rock stations in the states in May. You don't see "That Time" come out till almost mid July and then boom, they have to drop that a few weeks later to push the video the movie studio paid for to promote the new Freddy movie. At least that was a huge hit on Dial-MTV.

Also, if the album had come out in 1987 they wouldn't have had all that down time which led to the firing of Sewitt and the "manager from hell" they ended up with.

What would have been if the album came out when originally done. Would Ashes video been bigger than "Get It On" by Kingdom Come? Would they have won over a ton of the 12K+ Aerosmith fans each night?

How many singles/videos would they have gotten out of ASG?

Of course, how huge would have the first Invasion album done if they could have /or would have released a second and third single/video? If Sewitt had not of lied to the label? I mean almost 30 weeks on the charts with only 1 song is almost unheard of.

[Safari4ad]

@VVArchives , what happened with Kingdom Come's video by and why did it affect Ashes to Ashes? I was a fan back then, but I was only 10-11 in 1988, so a lot of stuff that happened around that time went right over my head. I do remember every metal magazine at the time pushing the shit out of Kingdom Come with ads and all that stuff.

[metatron]

@VVArchives , what happened with Kingdom Come's video by and why did it affect Ashes to Ashes? I was a fan back then, but I was only 10-11 in 1988, so a lot of stuff that happened around that time went right over my head. I do remember every metal magazine at the time pushing the shit out of Kingdom Come with ads and all that stuff.

The next Led Zeppelin.
VVI's Ashes was meant to be the Zep influenced song
when Air play is looking for that vib. Probably cause of the success of Whitsnake's 87'.

Kingdom Come come in with even more of a Zepplin vibe than VVI, so it got pushed.

[Genebaby]

And this is Kingdom Come today, what happened?

Their performance at this show is getting a lot of attention for how bad it was.

Who is even original, the bass looks like he could be.

[VVArchives]

@VVArchives , what happened with Kingdom Come's video by and why did it affect Ashes to Ashes? I was a fan back then, but I was only 10-11 in 1988, so a lot of stuff that happened around that time went right over my head. I do remember every metal magazine at the time pushing the shit out of Kingdom Come with ads and all that stuff.

The new President of Chrysalis came in after the first Invasion album. Mike Bone. He would later move on to Mercury. He worked for Island and sexually harassed an employee. He left there soon after and became head of Mercury. Then 2 days before the story broke in the LA times about the 5 figure payout to the lady he sexually harassed, he was out on his ass. But then Def picked him up not long after.

But I digress..

"The first single to radio would be the opening track on the album, "Ashes To Ashes" and it came with high expectations. As mentioned, we were trying to capitalize on the 'ode to Zeppelin' trend that Whitesnake had recently instigated with their first single. Granted, quite a few months had passed since its release, but this was even better. No one could say we were trying to rip Whitesnake off... just Zeppelin.

But given the success Whitesnake had with "Still Of The Night", the label was sliding all of their chips into the middle of the table and going all in with "Ashes To Ashes". There would be a big push to radio and a major video, then we would be on our way, likely going three or 4 singles deep on the album."


Now just going to condense what Bob said. They go into the LA offices on Sunset and everyone is dejected. The VVI guys are going what's up? And then they play "Get It On" for them, it was unapologetically Zeppelin.

So now, the label believed there could only be one more Zep rip off and Kingdom Come had beaten them to the punch.

Back to Bob, "With this revelation, the entire All Systems Go" campaign would be altered. Yes, they would still throw 'Ashes To Ashes' out as a token single, but there would be no video, which would mean there would be no real label commitment behind breaking the track, short of miraculously find wings. Instead the first video would not be 'That Time Of Year'... a good song but not remotely representative of the album that 'Ashes' would have been.



None of this would have happened had Mike Bone not pushed back the release date of the album.

VVI would have beaten Kingdom Come to the punch.

VVI would have gotten the full weight of Chrysalis behind the new album.

VVI would have been on a major headlining tour opening up for 10-15,000 a night. That opening slot they had to give up would have easily been so much better than opening for Alice Cooper or Iron Maiden.

There would not have been all that down time 6 months or more which caused many of the problems between Vinnie/Dana and Mark.

They would have never gone through all those manager meetings and ended up with the "manager from hell". Of course George Sewitt sucked (and he also screwed over Ace and Peter but ... )


And who knows, we might have actually heard the new song Vinnie had written for "A Nightmare On Elm Street" instead of them just using "Love Kills".




It's amazing how one small thing can change things from being multi-platinum and riches to everything falling apart. Vinnie could have been on top of the world.

[Genebaby]

No video for Ashes was very bad. The only two videos are for the ballads, great as they are, but a video for Ashes would have been sooo cool.

[metatron]

And this is Kingdom Come today, what happened?

Their performance at this show is getting a lot of attention for how bad it was.

Who is even original, the bass looks like he could be.

Every old band has become a parody of themselves.

[Genebaby]

Yes, it's getting like that. I'm guessing a lack of savings during the "good" years is probably the biggest driver, getting someone to keep a band going with sometimes just them being original, and using the name to keep playing.

Or it could be that they just don't want the "fun" to stop, if they are at a decent level.

Some bands from the 80's are great still, but definitely not all.

[Safari4ad]

Damn, that sucks. I really wonder how different things would have been if ASG had taken off. That first Slaughter album could have been an Invasion record. But then, I never did like Mark Slaughter's voice any near as much as Fleischman's.

[birnie]

The Slaughter debut was much weaker, albiet it was a fun album, and it was quite successful in real terms, in the early days at least. Albums afterwards didn't cement their success, plus the whole grunge thing.

GOD I hated that album...even with THAT cover.

Sold it to a mate after one listen.

At the time..... I loved it.
Just giving it a listen now.......meh.

[shramiac]

Fly to the hhhhhangels! Barf!

[Genebaby]

It's not great but it's better than Every Time I Look At You, and that absolute stinker I Finally Found My Way that they made poor Peter sing.

[pullitt]

And this is Kingdom Come today, what happened?

Their performance at this show is getting a lot of attention for how bad it was.

Who is even original, the bass looks like he could be.

This was a fun viewing exoerience, thanks.

[VVArchives]

@VVArchives , what happened with Kingdom Come's video by and why did it affect Ashes to Ashes? I was a fan back then, but I was only 10-11 in 1988, so a lot of stuff that happened around that time went right over my head. I do remember every metal magazine at the time pushing the shit out of Kingdom Come with ads and all that stuff.

So you were only 10 at the time and claim you watched MTV all the time and only saw it 3X's so according to you it wasn't played much regardless of how much Billboard showed it to be in rotation.

[shramiac]

So you were only 10 at the time and claim you watched MTV all the time and only saw it 3X's

Maybe he had an older brother or two who got him into hard rock early? I did! My older bro is 12 years older than me and his musical choices when I was 10-11 influenced what I listened to!



so according to you it wasn't played much regardless of how much Billboard showed it to be in rotation.

It would be awesome to show them or show a link to the "Billboard stats" for clarity.

[VVArchives]

So you were only 10 at the time and claim you watched MTV all the time and only saw it 3X's

Maybe he had an older brother or two who got him into hard rock early? I did! My older bro is 12 years older than me and his musical choices when I was 10-11 influenced what I listened to!



so according to you it wasn't played much regardless of how much Billboard showed it to be in rotation.

It would be awesome to show them or show a link to the "Billboard stats" for clarity.

It gives them something to do instead of trolling on here. They have the issue dates. All that has been given. Its not too hard.