Liam Gallagher and John Squire hit No.1 with their first collaborative album.
It wasn't even close after all. The halfway leader, Liam Gallagher & John Squire (via Warner Records) outsold its nearest rival by a ratio of 3 to 1, the Official Charts Company reports, posting 39,400 chart sales in its first week.
Of that total, 94% are sales (physical and downloads), according to the OCC. Liam Gallagher & John Squire was the best-selling album on wax, with vinyl accounting for 45% of the week's tally.
Gallagher and Squire are Manchester rock royalty. Gallagher, as frontman for Oasis (eight No.1s), Beady Eye and as a solo artist (five), now claims 14 UK No.1 albums in a career that began in the 90s.
For Squire, lead guitarist with The Stone Roses, first UK No.1 album. As a member of The Stone Roses, Squire has scored four top 10s, including multiple appearances on the band's 1989 self-titled debut and a top 10 with the Seahorses. Do it yourselfpeaking at No. 2 in 1997.
This distant, second album is another collaboration between all Brits, Rod Stewart and Jools Holland Swing Fever (EastWest/Rhino), which slips from the zenith of the map, 2-1.
Another legendary British rocker, Bruce Dickinson, is at No. 3 on the Official Chart, published on Friday, March 8. Dickinson, best known as lead singer of Iron Maiden, best earns a solo chart with The Mandrake Project (BMG), his seventh solo album.
Leeds guitar band Yard Act enter the chart at No.4 with Where is my utopia? (Island), their second studio album. It's the sequel to 2022 The Overloadwhich reached No. 2.
After cleaning up at the Brit Awards, where she collected a record six wins, RAYE returns to the top ten with My 21st Century Blues (Human Re Sources), peaking 98 places at No. 5. Winner of the Brit Award for British Album of the Year, My 21st Century Blues initially peaked at No. 2 upon its release in 2023.
Close behind is the Kaiser Chiefs' Easy eighth album (Kaiser Chiefs), new at No. 6. This is the Leeds indie band's eighth top 10 appearance, a career that includes a 2007 No. 1 Yours truly, Angry Mob.
Manchester's famous music scene produces another top 10 title this week, Everything Everything's Mountainhead (BMG), new at No. 9 for the rock act's seventh studio album.
Finally, British rapper and songwriter Skrapz (real name: Christopher Kyei) scores a career best with his fourth studio collection Reflection (1&Only). It's new at No.10, its first stint in the UK top 10.
