ALBUMS
Two weeks after introductory single Black Chandelier debuted and peaked at number 14 on the singles chart, Biffy Clyro's sixth studio album, Opposites, secures the Scots band its first UK number one.
Their fourth album Puzzle did set the pace on initial midweek sales flashes on its debut in 2007 but eventually had to settle for a number two debut on sales of 37,346 behind Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad, in a week when there were seven debuts in the Top 10. Biffy Clyro's follow-up, Only Revolutions opened with an even higher first week sale of 43,113 in 2009, good enough only for a number eight placing in a more rarified sales climate in the lead-up to Christmas. It peaked 42 weeks later at number three in the immediate aftermath of the band's acclaimed (and televised) performances at the Leeds and Reading festivals. With sales to date of 653,405, it is by far the band's biggest seller, with Puzzle a distant second on sales of 314,112.
It was plain sailing for Opposites to reach number one this week, as it sold 71,584 copies - 94.01% more than the motion picture cast recording of Les Miserables, which ends a two week stint at the summit, slipping to number two on sales of 36,898 copies. Opposites topped the chart by an even bigger margin in the band's native Scotland, where it sold 352.42% more than Les Miserables.
From the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock, Biffy Clyro support Scottish independence, with frontman Simon Neil pushing the separatist agenda in the NME last week. Scotland likes them back - all of their albums have peaked higher there than in the UK as a whole hitherto: 2002 debut Blackened Sky at number 25 (UK:78), 2003's The Vertigo Of Bliss at number 18 (UK:48), 2004's Infinity Land at number 13 (UK:47), 2007's Puzzle at number one (UK:2), 2009's Only Revolutions at number two (UK:3). The 2009 live set iTunes Live From London reached number 77 (UK:172) and 2011's Revolutions: Live At Wembley reached number four (UK:9).
Although both Calvin Harris and Emeli Sande have planted the saltire atop the album chart already this year, Biffy Clyro is the first Scottish group to have a UK number one album since The View's Hats Off To The Buskers topped the chart, six years ago last month.
It's nearly 35 years since Fleetwood Mac's seminal 1977 album Rumours reached number one - and to mark the occasion it has been released in expanded and remastered editions, with a triple CD set containing the original album in remastered form, unreleased live recordings from a 1977 tour and previously unissued outtakes.
A deluxe edition of Rumours adds a DVD featuring a 1977 documentary, and a vinyl edition of the album. Helped by the re-screening of the 2009 documentary Don't Stop on BBC2 eight days ago, and group leader Mick Fleetwood's subsequent appearance on BBC1's The One Show, the newly retooled set sold 25,675 copies last week to re-enter the chart at number three. It is its first appearance in the Top 10 since 25 March 1978, though it did reach number 18 in 1997.
Although now one of the UK's 20 biggest selling albums, with sales of 3,437,677, Rumours started slowly. First charting on 26 February 1977 - nearly 36 years ago - it debuted at number 57, then jumped to number seven and reached number one for the first and only time on its 48th appearance in the chart, nearly a year later. Four singles from Rumours made the Top 50 but none made the Top 20, with Dreams providing its highest charting hit by reaching a modest number 24. But the album had massive staying power, and according to OCC its tally of 493 weeks on the chart is the highest of any album.
The chart organisation has marked the occasion by revealing Fleetwood Mac's biggest-selling tracks of the digital era here - which shows five of Rumours' 11 tracks to be among the Top 10. To supplement that list, we present Rumours' tracks ranked in order of their popularity as stand-alone downloads in the context of both the album and Fleetwood Mac's entire catalogue.
The first position shown is their Rumours ranking, the second (parenthetical) figure is their overall rank among Fleetwood Mac downloads in the digital era, the third is the track's title and the fourth is a comparative sales ranking : 1 (1) Go Your Own Way - 100, 2 (2) The Chain - 78, 3 (5) Dreams - 41, 4 (8) Don't Stop - 21, 5 (10) Songbird - 19, 6 (17) You Make Loving Fun - 9, 7 (18) Never Going Back Again - 9, 8 (22) Second Hand News - 5, 9 (23) Gold Dust Woman - 5, 10 (28) I Don't Want To Know - 4, 11 (30) Oh Daddy - 2. Stevie Nicks wrote the number three track Dreams but also all of the three least popular. Overall sales of tracks from Rumour passed the 500,000 mark last week.
32 weeks after Justin Bieber's Believe debuted atop the album chart on sales of 38,115 copies, the Canadian has released a stripped down version of the album, containing acoustic and live versions of some of its tracks, and three new recordings. Believe - Acoustic debuts at number five (18,932 sales), but of the new songs only Nothing Like Us (number 68, 4,278 sales) sold well enough to dent the Top 75. The original Believe rallies 103-73 (2,058 sales), bringing its career sales to 151,425 - a slim haul compared to his breakthrough album My World, which was issued in both 2.0 and Acoustic versions, and has thus far sold 744,967 copies. Five songs from the original Believe made the Top 40.
Less than three months after the compilation Opera became his 16th Top 40 album, 54 year old Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli secures his 17th, debuting at number nine (9,711 sales) with Passione. Essentially a collection of love songs - presumably recorded with one eye on the Valentine's Day market - the album includes such classics as The Girl From Ipanema, Love Me Tender and When I Fall In Love, and boasts duets with Nelly Furtado, Jennifer Lopez and the late Edith Piaf. Opera pushed Bocelli's UK sales over the 5m mark, Passione becomes his eight Top 10 album since his 1997 breakthrough.
Welsh band Funeral For A Friend's sixth album, Conduit, is the Top 40's last new entry this week, debuting at number 34 (3,725 sales).
Albums in the Top 10 not mentioned above: Emeli Sande's Our Version Of Events dips 2-4 (20,217 sales), Jake Bugg's eponymous debut slips 4-6 (11,669 sales), Rihanna's Unapologetic falls 5-7 (11,370 sales), Calvin Harris' 18 Months falls 3-8 (10,853 sales) and Ellie Goulding's Halcyon jumps 13-10 (8,537). Triggered by the use of Explosions (33-21, 14,381 sales) in a current ITV house commercial, the album's return to the Top 10 comes after a 15 week absence.
Appearances on Jonathan Ross' ITV show help Jools Holland's The Golden Age Of Song (15-11, 8,529 sales) and Alicia Keys' Girl On Fire (38-13, 8,024 sales). Holland's album debuted nine weeks ago at number 21, and this is the third week in a row that it has reached a new peak. It is also a new peak for Keys' album, which debuted at its previous peak (number 15) 10 weeks ago.
Just three months after its original release, Mick Hucknall's American Soul album has been released in a deluxe edition, which contains a second CD housing 16 live recordings from September 2012 performances. The album, which debuted and peaked at number six (18,429 sales) in its first incarnation, leaps 167-36 (3,607 sales).
After securing the band its first ever Top 10 entry last week, I Am Kloot's sixth studio album Let It All In crashes 10-80 (1,979 sales). Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar In Marrying The Gunner's Daughter is in an even bigger hurry to depart the chart, sinking 25-130 (1,075 sales). I Am Kloot's slump is the biggest natural decline from number 10 in the 21st century, beating the record set last May by Garbage's Not Your Kind Of People, which suffered a comparatively modest 10-63 slide. The Sound Of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits dropped from number 10 right out of the chart in January 2009, but only because it became ineligible after a wholesale price reduction.
On the compilation chart, The Trevor Nelson Collection spends its second week at number one (18,421 sales).
Overall album sales are up 3.13% week-on-week at 1,816,687 - 6.50% above same week 2012 sales of 1,705,829. It is the fifth time in six weeks they have exceeded sales from a year earlier.
SINGLES
Dutch dance duo Bingo Players spend a second week atop the singles chart with Get Up (Rattle). Also featuring American hip-hop trio Far East Movement, the track sold a further 51,450 copies last week but was outsold in the later part of the week by Thrift Shop, the introductory hit for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz). [On Saturday, Thrift Shop sold 35.13% more than Get Up (Rattle)]
Already number one in The USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, Thrift Shop was in the bargain basement of the chart a fortnight ago but looks increasingly like a number one for Macklemore/Lewis/Wanz here too. It exploded 81-24 last week, and now jumps to number two, with sales up 237.20% week-on-week at 44,189. It is attracting attention to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' album The Heist, which jumps 187-98 (1,466 sales), which also features the pro-gay follow-up Same Love, which ended Thrift Shop's seven week run atop the Australian chart, and has itself been number one for the past fortnight. The only other act to replace itself atop the Aussie singles chart this century? Black Eyed Peas. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are also becoming a chart phenomenon in Ireland, where they currently have three singles moving up the chart: Thrift Shop jumps 13-9, Can't Hold Us climbs 24-21 and the title track of The Heist improves 73-62.
Most of the rest of the UK Top 10 is very steady this week: Scream & Shout slips 2-3 (40,443 sales) for Will.I.Am feat Britney Spears while becoming the longest running top three hit (eight weeks) for both, I Knew You Were Trouble is down 3-4 (35,018 sales) for Taylor Swift, Stay falls 4-5 (33,449 sales) for Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko, Drinking From The Bottle is down 5-6 (32,164 sales) for Calvin Harris feat. Tinie Tempah, Animal retreats 6-7 (26,280 sales) for Conor Maynard feat. Wiley, Clown holds at number eight (24,844 sales) for Emeli Sande and My Life falls 7-9 (22,423 sales) for 50 Cent, Eminem and Adam Levin. Four months after Watchtower (feat. Ed Sheeran) reached number seven to become his first Top 10 hit, rapper Devlin scores his second with Rewind (feat. Diane Birch), which debuts at number 10 (21,764 sales). Both tracks are on Devlin's second album, A Moving Picture, which drops today (4th).
The only other Top 75 debut to sell enough to land in the Top 40 is Disclosure's White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge), which arrives at number 28 (11,932 sales), while their debut hit Latch, which reached number 11 in December, dips 28-36 (9,406 sales). Expect White Noise to make a big jump next weekend - it only came out on Friday (1st), and its chart placing is therefore based on just two days sales.
Dizzee Rascal's Bassline Junkie (25-14, 17,192 sales), Rita Ora's Radioactive (32-18, 14,784 sales), Flo Rida's Let It Roll (23-17, 15,320 sales) and Droideka's Get Hyper (42-29, 11,731 sales) all continue their climbs.
PSY's Gangnam Style is out of the Top 20 after 19 weeks, falling 16-22 - but the 13,954 copies it sold last week raise its career tally to 1,004,747. It thus becomes the 129th single to sell a million copies in the UK. South Korean PSY is only the third act born in Asia to reach the target, the first two being Anglo-Indians Cliff Richard and Engelbert Humperdinck.
Overall singles sales are up 2.86% week-on-week at 3,522,200 - 2.34% above same week 2012 sales of 3,441,554.
