Blog: Dinosaur Planet Press Release

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I spent much of yesterday emailing press releases to radio types, magazines, webpages and BLOGS - so MANY emails did I send, in fact, that i BROKE my hotmail account and SWELLED my other two emails to near BURSTING, but I did not mind for LO! it was a vital message that I was sending out i.e. that Theme From Dinosaur Planet was available to DOWNLOAD, also to WATCH.

In order to get this publicised I wrote a PRESS RELEASE, based on a remark by Mr T Pattison that, in putting out a download single and video, we were very much going back to our ROOTS. I liked this idea a LOT, so this is what I sent out:

PRESS RELEASE: Theme From Dinosaur Planet

MJ Hibbett & The Validators, the band who invented the free download single and viral video, are going back to their roots today with the title track from their new science fiction rock opera concept album.

Theme From Dinosaur Planet is available to download for free right now at http://www.dinosaurplanet.co.uk with a fantastic accompanying video. It's the lead track from their forthcoming album Dinosaur Planet, a full cast rock opera based on MJ Hibbett's acclaimed Fringe Show, which tells the terrifying story of what happens the day the dinosaurs return from space.

"It's like a cross between The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Giant Steps by The Boo Radleys," says MJ Hibbett. "Or an indie War Of The Worlds."

In October 1999 MJ Hibbett and the Validators released the first ever free download single, Hey Hey 16K. Four years later b3ta's Rob Manuel made a flash animation for the song and turned it into one of the first ever virals videos, before YouTube had even been invented. It had two million hits in its first fortnight and has continued to be hugely popular ever since.

The video for Theme From Dinosaur Planet features artwork by John Allison, the brains behind one of the most popular internet comic strips, scarygoround.com. He's designed all the visuals for the album, including t-shirts which will be available when the album is released later this year.

In the words of Harold Wilson in Moon Horse, "Good eh?" I was quite nervous at first about making such BOLD ASSERTIONS but then i LOOKED UP the history of the download single and think that YES, we might have a POINT. I remember at the time that Elastica had an offer where they'd EMAIL you an mp3, and Duran Duran definitely released an internet only "MIX" of a song that you could buy in 1999, but I think Hey Hey 16K might well be the first ACTUAL SINGLE (with b-sides and all that) that you could DOWNLOAD, and almost certainly the first that was FREE, like all these singles of the modern day.

The VIDEO a few years later may have come after The Hamster Dance, I'm not sure, but goodness me it didn't half go VIRAL - it was KRAZY round here the week it came out, according to reports it was one of the TOP TEN websites in THE WORLD (and therefore THE UNIVERSE). Imagine what it would have been like if YOUTUBE had existed then, or iTunes!

So yes, I thought I'd put these statements out there to STAKE OUR CLAIM on the achievements. History can be the JUDGE of it all - and while history's looking, I hope it enjoys the video too!

posted 1/11/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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