Following the ignominious demise of Beady Eye, it’s highly likely that Liam Gallagher is punching the air as his debut solo album, As You Were, is hurtling to the top of the UK albums charts.
According to data released by the Official Charts Company, Liam Gallagher’s As You Were is outselling the entire top 20 combined at the midweek point with 79,000 units sold and streamed. And that adds up to Liam Gallagher already having a sales total greater than any Number 1 since Ed Sheeran’s ubiquitous ÷.
Gallagher is certainly no stranger to being in the pole position. As the frontman of Oasis, he occupied the Number One slot on separate occasions. And lest we forget, the band’s third album, the overblown head full of snow that was Be Here Now, sold a staggering 696,000 copies in just three days – a record that’s yet to be matched.
Following Oasis’ somewhat public and rancorous split, Liam returned with Beady Eye – the band up of former Oasis members Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock. Their two albums, Different Gear Still Speedimg and BE, hit Number Two and Three and respectively.
Trailing behind the re-invigorated Britpop godhead are grime artist Giggs and his Wamp 2 Dem mixtape in the Number Two slot, while pop-metallers The Darkness’s fifth album Pinewood Smile is at Number Three. Norwegian 80s popstars a-ha are Number 4 with MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice and Marilyn Manson’s 10th studio album, Heaven Upside Down, crashes in at Number Five.
Elsewhere, the sad passing of Tom Petty at the age of 66 has seen his Greatest Hits enter the charts at Number 16.
