Reception
Prior to the release of the single, the Daily Mirror printed a front-page story headed "BAN THIS SICK STUNT" alongside a story by Kate Thornton which said the song was "pro-drugs" and called for the single to be banned. The pre-release single had an inlay which Thornton alleged showed how to make an origami 'wrap' or parcel with the intention of "offering teenage fans a DIY guide on hiding illegal drugs". In an interview with music paper NME on the same day, Kate Thornton was quoted to say: "We wanted to see the sleeve pulled and we thought it was a crusade we would take up single-handedly. I think the sleeve is something that will concern our readers, although it may not concern yours." The band agreed to change the artwork, while continuing to assert that Kate Thornton had misinterpreted the meaning of both the sleeve art and the song's lyrics. Lead singer Jarvis Cocker released a statement two days later saying: "...'Sorted' is not a pro-drugs song... Nowhere on the sleeve does it say you are supposed to put drugs in here but I understand the confusion... I wouldn't want anything we do to encourage people to take drugs because they aren't a solution or an answer to anything. I don't think anyone who listens to Sorted would come away thinking it had a pro drugs message. If they did I would say they had misinterpreted it." The Daily Mirror printed his statement, but he was unhappy that the front page article written by Thornton contained the misquote "I don't want the sleeve to get in the way of what the record is saying, which is an anti-drugs message", which he felt oversimplified the song's meaning once again. He also criticised Thornton's decision to contact the father of a victim of an Ecstacy-related death for a response. The Daily Mirror campaign continued, publishing their readers' response to a poll to have the song itself banned. The original sleeve was replaced with a plain white sleeve once the initial pressing had sold out.
Pre-release orders reached over 200,000, according to Nick Rowe, marketing director for Island Records, the biggest pre-release total in the label's history to that date. The single reached number two on the UK Single Charts.
The furore surrounding the single was spoofed by Chris Morris in the Channel 4 satirical series Brass Eye.
Read more about this topic: Sorted For E's & Wizz
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)