Did You Know? Chad Kroeger is officially the first artist ever to have four tracks in the top 10 on the US heritage rock radio audience chart simultaneously. The four songs are as follows: Nickelback’s “Never Again” (#9), “Too Bad” (#6) and “How You Remind Me” (#7), along with Chad’s “Hero” (#3). Sham. For those of you who are unaware, ‘heritage rock’ is basically what one would call a ‘classic rock’ station…you know, Boston, Cream, Led Zep…and now, Nickelback. Classic rock in current times. Classic. 29/7/02: Did you know? “Hero” was recently nominated for a US MTV Video Music Award for “Best Video From A Film.” 15/7/02: When you are checking out the movie trailers for Stuart Little 2 be sure to watch out for the Spiderman parody version. You’ll spot ‘Hero’ playing in the background! US Chart Update: Hot 100 Chart – #3, Hot 100 Airplay Chart – #3, Modern Rock – #5, Mainstream Rock – #3, Adult Contemporary – #4, Adult Top 40 – #5 with bullet, and Top 40 – #4 with bullet! And ‘Hero’ is still hanging around the UK charts too – just outside the top 10 at #11. As for Ireland, ‘Hero’ holding tight at #4. 8/7/02: The latest on US Radio from the Billboard charts: still moving up! Number 3 (with a bullet) – Hot 100 Singles and Number 3 (with a bullet) – Hot 100 Airplay. What else? Still in the UK Top 10. Double the number of plays last week to the week before on VH1 and The Eagle in Guildford… and continuing to be shown on the Pepsi Chart Show. Don’t forget to cast your vote for Chad in this year’s Kerrang Awards on the K! website. They’re accepting worldwide votes we believe so exercise your democratic right and make your opinion known. Chad Kroeger and music mogul Jonathan Simkin have joined forces to create a production company licensed under Roadrunner Records, 604 Records. The Canadian duo aims to seek out and develop undiscovered talent in the music world not only in North America, but globally. As Nickelback’s attorney, Simkin has been working with Kroeger for almost 7 years. Simkin states, í¢ä‰åñChad and I are doing something we are passionate about and enjoy. Not only do we get to directly participate in the production of new talent, but we also get to explore both the creative and business forces behind it. It is extremely rewarding.í¢ä‰åŒ The first signing to this company is Theory of a Deadman, a band that garnered attention by Kroeger and Simkin with its unparalleled capacity for songwriting. In a scene that is preoccupied with creating a specific sound, Theory’s frontman Tyler Connelly has a unique gift for sculpting poetic lyricism and relaying stories in his songs- situations which he may not have necessarily experienced firsthand, but convincingly writes about. The founders were also moved by the band’s live presence – it’s seemingly rare these days that a band can generate an album where every song is appealing and for that band to effectively execute such songs on stage. First stop, Theory Of A Deadman this summer. Did You Know? The ‘604’ in ‘604 Records’ comes from an area code up there in Canada. True. 21/6/02: We told you that Hero was #4 in Ireland last week. Take note: Hero is #3 in Ireland this week!! Silver Side Up still hanging in there at #8 too doncha know. 18/6/02: Wondering how ‘Hero’ is doing in the USA? We’ve got a few chart positions to share with ya. Point to note: a ‘bullet’ in this case, refers to a big jump – sorta like a highest climber ranking. Read ’em and weep: Hot 100 – #12 with bullet, Hot 100 Airplay – #12 with bullet, Modern Rock Radio – #1 with bullet, Mainstream Rock Radio – #1 with bullet, Adult Contemporary Radio – #3, Adult Top 40 Radio – #14 with bullet, and Top 40 Radio – #15 with bullet! That’s a lot of bullets to be sure. ‘Hero’ is OUT NOW. The song is featured in the Spiderman movie! The tracklisting for the single is: 1.’Hero (Movie Version)’ 2.’Hero (Gold Mix)’ 3.Theory Of A Dead Man ‘Invisible Man’ 4.’Hero (video)’ Available on CD (퉌£3.99) and cassette (퉌£1.99) from Woolworths, HMV, Virgin, VShop, Sanity, Our Price, Asda, Tescos, WHSmith, and all good indies. 17/6/02: Happy to report that ‘Hero’ crashed into the Irish and UK singles charts at number 4! What was higher besides The King (JXL/Elvis)? Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis Bexter. Interesting point #1: Most sales of Hero took place on Friday/Saturday (not during the England-Denmark world cup match though we bet). Interesting point #2: Sales were best in Scotland, the South West, Wales & the South. Interesting point #3: Of the stores selling ‘Hero’, Safeway, Tescos & WHSmiths rankest highest. More charts: ‘Hero’ also climbed 2 more places on the UK radio airplay chart to #24. Speaking of radio play, if you live in the London area you might have noticed you heard Hero much more last week on Capital FM as plays nearly doubled! As for TV, Hero has now been ‘A’ listed at MTV UK, MTV2, and MTV Hits! VH1 have moved the video up to their ‘B’ list too… and you can catch the video again on the Pepsi Chart Show this week. Or just go watch the new Spiderman movie. 13/6/02: So, what’s new? Hero is now on the ‘A’ playlist at UK Play TV, and will be played on the Pepsi Chart Show, Newsround, and Popworld (on Sunday) this week – tune in and check it out. It’s also been added to the ‘hitlist’ at Capital FM Radio, and is picking up plays on The Box faster than I can type. We’re sure you’ve been hearing this alot more on the radio recently as Hero has jumped from #41 on the UK airplay chart last week to #26 this week! Not to mention that ‘Spiderman’ hits movie screens across the country this week too… for which Hero is the lead tune. You can check out a few photographs from the video shoot in the gallery. The Latest From The UK: As of today, 30 May, we are pleased to report that Hero has been moved up the Radio 1 playlist, to the ‘B’ list. Roll on the ‘A’. You can also select the video for Hero on The Box (selection #425), QTV (selection #425 ) and Smash Hits TV (selection #425). The Latest From The USA: Moving on up those charts: Hot 100 Chart – #28 with a bullet, and Hot 100 Airplay – #29 with a bullet. So check this out: though not a Nickelback song per say, “Hero” was written and performed by Chad Kroeger. That being said, along with the Nickelback proper songs “How You Remind Me” and “Too Bad”, the 3 combined mark the 1st Time In Rock History that 3 songs sung by the same person were simultaneously in the top 10 on the radio rock charts. True. Did You Know? The fastest ascent to the #2 spot at Modern Rock thus far this year goes to “Hero”, which reached that benchmark during its 5th chart week. To find a quicker jump to #2, one would have to go back exactly one year in time when Weezer’s “Hash Pipe” went to #2 in only 4 weeks. Shim Sham. However, the #2 spot is now old news – word came down this morning that “Hero” is now #1 at the modern rock format. This now means that all three of the above tracks (not including the Weezer song, this is a Chad/Nickelback update) have held a #1 position at one point in time on at least one of the rock radio formats. True. VIDEO! Not managed to see the awesome video for Hero on TV yet? You can now check it out online in the VIDEO section. Written and performed by Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) and also features Josey Scott (Saliva). The video for the track was shot on March 24th with Nigel Dick directing. You can even see the lovely Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire in it, as the video contains clips from the forthcoming Spiderman movie! 27/5: Hero is still climbing the UK airplay chart – currently # 68 this week and rising… watch out for super cool Spiderman/Hero postcards coming soon to 260 UK cinemas… speaking of cinemas, through June you’ll be able to see the video for Hero playing on Carlton screens in foyers of Odeon, ABC, UCI, and indie cinemas! Hero currently running on the A list for maximum play at Capital FM radio… sitting at #2 on the Kerrang! TV chart…. and holding #3 on The Box. Radio 1 have playlisted Hero this week, we’ve heard it going out on the Sara Cox breakfast show already. Tune in, get requesting, and check it out!! 20/5: In ‘Hero’ radio & TV news, the song has been added to the Capital FM radio playlist this week! You can also catch it on MTV Hits, The Box, VH1, UK Play, Total Rock, Kerrang! TV, and Q TV amongst others! In the UK radio airplay chart, Hero has jumped from #152 last week to #75 this week and it’s continuing to climb rapidly as radio stations catch on to this cool song! Hero is currently #3 on the Kerrang! TV chart, and having debuted on The Box at #10, it’s currently #3 there too! 14/5: Word From Abroad… Hero is #66 on the US Hot 100 Airplay chart in its 1st week. It is also #69 (Hot Shot Debut) on the US Hot 100 chart in its 1st week. Expect that airplay chart number to rise rapidly over the next few weeks! The US Hot 100 chart is calculated on sales as well as airplay so the chart position earned by Hero is purely on airplay, as the USA is not commercially releasing the song as a single! NUMBER ONE IN CANADA… Well, word from Canada is that the commercial release of Chad’s song “Hero” debuted at #1 on the Canadian Top 100 Soundscan chart! Congrats Chad & Josey! Wanna see the video? You can check it out on Kerrang! TV selection # 431 and on The Box as #425.