The Glastonbury effect: Unpicking the festival's impact on the charts

The Glastonbury effect: Unpicking the festival's impact on the charts

There’s no getting away from it, Glastonbury is over for another year. Really, given the upcoming fallow 2018, it’s actually going to be absent from our lives for two years. But while the festival will soon revert back, once again, to being a massive green field, its impression on the charts is plain to see. So, who stands to benefit most from the priceless exposure of a prominent slot at Glastonbury?

The obvious answer is Friday bill-toppers Radiohead, given that their newly reissued OK Computer sits at No.1, according to Monday’s midweeks (which do not include streaming data for Sunday). Yes, they would have likely been eyeing top spot anyway, but it’s not just OK Computer (17,495 sales) that’s shifting units for Thom Yorke’s band this week. Last year’s A Moon Shaped Pool re-enters the chart at No.39; 1995 classic The Bends is new in at No.60; In Rainbows returns at 112; and Kid A is at No.161.

But before awarding all the spoils to Radiohead, we must consider their fellow Pyramid headliners the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl and co rocket 45-7 with Greatest Hits (5,025 sales), and Wasting Light (No. 107), Sonic Highways (No.140), Echoes, Silence Patience & Grace (No.182) and The Colour And The Shape (No.185) all return to the Top 200. 

Sunday’s headliner Ed Sheeran, of course, is harder to gauge – his records have been selling by the bucketload for months. That missing streaming data may yet bump him up nearer to Radiohead in top spot, but as it is he’s at No.3 (÷), No.17 (X) and No.27 (+) - and the midweek chart data stopped counting shortly after his Sunday night set ended. Wednesday's midweek update is likely to give a clearer picture of the true impact of his set.

The other acts from Glastonbury’s main stages in the Top 20 are Royal Blood (How Did We Get So Dark?, No.4, Royal Blood, No.15); Rag’N’Bone Man (Human, No.6); London Grammar (Truth Is A Beautiful Thing, No.8), Lorde (Melodrama, No.11) and Dua Lipa (Dua Lipa, No.19). Of those, the only placing with any real swing so far is Royal Blood’s debut, which rockets 41-15 thanks to 2,113 sales.

But there’s still time for further shifting before Friday’s published chart as people return from the festival and catch up with sets on the BBC iPlayer, so watch this space, and thank you Glastonbury. 

Click here to catch up on our reports from days one, two and three at Glastonbury.



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