Copyright 1993 Globe Newspaper Company

The Boston Globe

October 22, 1993, Friday, City Edition

SECTION: ARTS & FILM; Pg. 62

LENGTH: 836 words

HEADLINE: Aimee Mann: Abroad, a star; at home, she is a struggling artist; ROCK NOTES Globe staffer Jim Sullivan contributed to this report.

BYLINE: By Steve Morse, Globe Staff

BODY:

It's a common story. An American rocker goes to England and is better received there than at home. Say hello to Aimee Mann, the Boston singer whose latest album, "Whatever," has been embraced by the English, while she's still struggling to win domestic airplay.

"I've been back and forth to England four times this summer," says Mann, who toured with the Kinks this summer and plays Avalon on Nov. 12. "The record is being received very kindly there. Radio seems a lot friendlier there. They don't categorize things as much."

As a case in point, she cites BBC staffer Jonathan Russell, who flipped over her new song, "I Should've Known." The song received some "alternative" airplay in the United States, but "wasn't completely formattable as they say," Mann notes in a recent phone interview. "But when I asked Jonathan why the BBC wanted to play it, he said, 'Just because it's a good song.' Hey, I didn't think that happened anymore."

Mann's touring band - with Bostonians Clayton Scobel, Milt Sutton and Brian Stevens - has also just been augmented by Britisher Dave Gregory of XTC fame. "He sat in when we played in London," says Mann. "He's out with us for the next two months. He's been great. The band is really rocking now."

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