VIRGIN EMI UPS RIVALLAND

Marketing expert and long-time UMG U.K. exec Mike Rivalland has been promoted to General Manager at Virgin EMI as the label enjoys a particularly exceptional run of success. The imprint has two new albums in this week's Top 5 and recently boasted a record breaking 10 singles in the Top 20.

He succeeds Tom March and Clive Cawley who were formerly joint GMs; March is now co-President of Polydor and Cawley is MD at Virgin.

Rivalland, alongside his campaign management team, has made a significant contribution to a purple patch for Virgin EMI. The Top 20 singles feat was in part due to Virgin's urban roster, overseen by Rivalland, which includes Russ, Tion Wayne, Krept + Konan, MoStack and Hardy Caprio.

Add that to Lewis Capaldi going gold with his debut, which is heading for its fourth week at #1 on the albums chart. With new albums from MoStack and Avicii starting at #4 and #5, and it's not hard to see why label President Ted Cockle might be feeling particularly generous.

"As the company continues in its #1 AES market share position, its #1 artist album position and is looking on course to regain its #1 singles company position, it feels majorly appropriate to recognise Michael’s sizeable contribution and announce his promotion at the label,” he said.

Rivalland joined Mercury in 2007 as Marketing Co-ordinator, working his way up to Product Manager and then Senior Marketing Manager at Virgin. During his time at the label, he's worked with a diverse range of acts from Chase + Status, Nero, Sub Focus and Duke Dumont, to Black Sabbath, Libertines, Paul Simon and Mark Knopfler.