Platinum rockers Simple Plan are ringing in the new year by celebrating the rise of their debut album No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls ascent into the Billboard Top 40. The band’s album officially charted at #35 this week on the Billboard Top 200, marking the band’s highest charting position of their entire career.
Since the release of their album in March 2002, Simple Plan is considered by many to be one of the biggest artist development stories in recent history. No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls first entered the Billboard Top 200 57 weeks ago and has continued to move up the chart steadily. The album spawned a series of chart topping singles including “Addicted,” “I’d Do Anything” and their current monster single “Perfect” which is #4 at Top 40 radio.
No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls is officially Platinum in the U.S. and Canada and reached Gold status in Japan. The album has sold over 1.3 million units domestically and is currently outselling artists such as Good Charlotte, Trapt, and Pink. In fact, Simple Plan scanned 300,000 records over the holiday season. Simple Plan is also nominated for “Favorite Pop Act” at this year’s MTV Asia Awards which tapes February 14th in Singapore. In addition, the band recently released a comprehensive DVD entitled A Big Package For You which is expected to achieve Gold status in the next few weeks.
Simple Plan also ushered in 2004 with a high-octane punk rock performance on MTV’s New Year’s celebration in Times Square. The band jump-started the festivities with an explosive medley rendition of Pink’s “Get the Party Started” leading into “Where Is The Love” by the Black Eyed Peas. The band will also kick off their highly anticipated U.S. headline tour beginning January 26th featuring MXPX and a variety of up-and-coming acts. The tour is sponsored by Fuse and Alternative Press, who currently feature the quintet on the cover of their annual readers poll issue, available on stands now. For more information, go to www.simpleplan.com.
