Orchestral manoeuvres in the chart

Goldenhorse's 'Riverhead' was a wee sleeper.

Goldenhorse were once darlings of student radio. They were formed from the remnants of quirky Flying Nun one-album-wonder art-pop band Bressa Creeting Cake. They seemed destined to stay in the left-field airwaves.

Now they're a household name, and their debut album Riverhead - released in late 2002 only to slip out of the charts soon after - is one of this year's biggest sellers.

When Riverhead was released in October 2002 it entered the national chart at No 43, dropped out by Christmas and a year after its release had sold only around 7500 copies.

Now it's been in the charts for 68 weeks, sold more than 50,000 copies and was one of the 10 biggest-selling albums of 2004.

Talk about a sleeper hit. But what was the secret to the album's slow-burning success?

Well, the music helped. "Their songs treat the audience with a bit more respect than other pop songs," says manager Michael Keating.

He says the single, Maybe Tomorrow, was the first hint of the band's crossover appeal. The main indicator of this was when student radio station bFM stopped playing it and the mainstream ZM network picked it up.

The single also featured in a TV commercial.

There was a sales spike in the middle of this year, helping the album to briefly top the national charts - more than 18 months after its release - just as the group played concerts backed by the Auckland Philharmonia and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. To coincide with these performances, EMI released a repackaged Riverhead. .

Keating says up until July the album had sold 30,000 copies. After the concerts, and with the re-release, it hit the 45,000 mark and has now sold more than 50,000.

"We'd set up these gigs with the Auckland Philharmonia. That generated unprecedented media attention, and the crossover market picked up on it."

He says because of the thriving local music industry people are becoming less concerned about bands doing what a few years ago would have been termed "selling out". Sometimes it pays.