Pearl Jam Sets Chart Record

October 4 -- Pearl Jam set a new record this week, when five of the band's European bootlegs debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

Releasing 25 double-CD live albums simultaneously — as Pearl Jam did on Sept. 26, when it made "bootlegs" from virtually every show of its European summer tour in support of its album Binaural available in stores — might have seemed like a commercial folly. But don't underestimate the devotion of Pearl Jam fans. Five out of the 25 debuted on the Billboard Top 200 this week, the first time an act has had more than two titles bow on the chart in the same week.

This is also the first time any artist has had more than one live album on the chart at the same time. The best-selling titles in the series, and their respective chart positions, were: Katowice 6/16 (No. 103), Milan 6/22 (No. 125), Verona 6/20 (No. 134), London 5/30 (No. 137), and Hamburg 6/26 (No. 175).

Two other titles — Cardiff 6/6 and Manchester 6/4 — just barely missed cracking the chart as well. Had Pearl Jam managed to place those two on the charts as well, it would have joined The Beatles, U2, and the Monkees in sharing the record for most albums on the chart simultaneously.

We'll see if the band can repeat the feat next year. On Sept. 28, just two days after the bootlegs when on sale commercially (they had been available online since early September), plans to release similar soundboard recordings from the shows on both legs of the North American tour were disclosed.

The decision to release the live discs was initiated by Pearl Jam to deter sales of expensive bootlegs. Starting in 1995, the band began allowing fans to bring handheld, Walkman-style audio recorders to its shows. Since instituting that policy, the number of Pearl Jam bootlegs in the marketplace has dropped markedly, but five to 10 new ones still surface after each tour.