Despacito continues its reign at the top of the singles chart and Ed Sheeran returns to number one in the albums chart.
Despacito stays strong and stable to spend a fifth week at the top of the singles chart. Ed Sheeran returns to number one in the albums chart as Sgt Pepper proves to be a little more weak and wobbly.
In the 32 years since the original Live Aid concert in July 1985 there have been many similar events. We have seen a concert showing support for Nelson Mandela, then still incarcerated in a South African prison, a memorial concert for Freddie Mercury to raise money for Aids charities and Live8 among others. However, none of them were arranged as swiftly as last Sunday’s concert to raise funds for the victims and families of victims of the terrorist attack in Manchester just two weeks earlier.
Getting such a line-up at such short notice was an impressive achievement for Ariana Grande and her team. Indeed, it was such short notice that will.i.am didn’t have time to learn the difference between Manchester and London. The logistical problems in getting together all the technicians required should not be forgotten. A match at the nearby Old Trafford football ground was rearranged at short notice to avoid having tens of thousands of people leaving that event at the same time as a similar number were arriving for the concert.
It has been known for organisers of benefit concerts to be a little self-indulgent in choosing the line-up. In 1985 the Boomtown Rats’ standing didn’t really justify their place on the bill but most people allowed Bob Geldof’s band to have their moment in the limelight. Similarly, on Sunday many people will have thought “Who is Mac Miller” when he came on. The way he and Ariana Grande looked at each other after his first song will have provided a big clue. He is Grande’s partner. So, again, his standing didn’t really justify his appearance but who cares?
As is to be expected, a number of songs performed at the concert have seen a large boost in sales. At one point in the week the iTunes top ten was dominated by such songs. Of course, a high position in the iTunes chart is no longer as important as it used to be. Nevertheless, some of them have ended up in the top forty this week.
It is hardly a surprise that the highest of those songs is Ariana Grande’s One Last Time. It had already returned to the chart in the aftermath of last month’s terrible events and was the penultimate song performed on Sunday night. It spent most of the week at the top of the iTunes chart but was well behind Despacito on the streaming sites.
In the event, its healthy lead on the streaming chart proved to be enough to keep Despacito at number one giving Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber a fifth week at the summit.One Last Time enters the top ten for the first time at number two.
DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper, Lil Wayne, Uncle Tom Cobley and all fall one place to number three with I’m The One. Liam Payne and Quavo drop one place to number four with Strip That Down. French Montana and Swae Lee climb to a new peak of number five with Unforgettable.
Niall Horan’s appearance at Old Trafford has helped his Slow Hands single leap fourteen places to number seven. Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s Something Just Like This is back up to number sixteen after it featured in Coldplay’s set.
For some time on Sunday night we were promised “a surprise”. There had already been rumours that Liam Gallagher would perform which, inevitably, led to speculation that brother Noel would also turn up. In the vent Liam did indeed take to the stage but there was no sign of Noel. Sadly, that led to Liam firing fresh insults at his brother.
Before Liam Gallagher came on Coldplay had performed a version of the (Noel-sung) Oasis song Don’t Look Back In Anger, a song which has become an unofficial anthem of defiance in Manchester. The original Oasis version returns at number 25. The song was Oasis’s second number one single, spending a week at the summit in February 1996.
As well as performing Live forever, Liam Gallagher couldn’t resist the temptation to perform his debut solo single Wall Of Glass. That song enters at number 21, beating the number 31 peak of his previous band Beady Eye’s only top forty single.
The other big television event of the weekend was the final of Britain’s Got Talent, moved at short notice to Saturday night to avoid a clash with the Manchester concert. The semi-finals were shown in the course of the previous week with a musical guest performing each night in the results show. Some of those performances have also contributed to this week’s new entries.
The acts chosen to perform on the Britain’s Got Talent live shows tend to be successful acts. Of course, the fact that a lot of them started on Simon Cowell’s other talent show is just a coincidence. Equally coincidental is the fact that an exception to the rule about successful bands were 5 After Midnight who are former X Factor contestants who just happen to be signed to Cowell’s record label. Even so, their appearance didn’t do enough to propel them into the top forty. What a shame.
Another edition of the show featured the first solo single by former member of Fifth Harmony Camila Cabello. Guess what label she is on. After leaving Fifth Harmony last year she recorded I Know What You Did Last Summer with Shawn Mendes. That song just failed to enter the top forty but her first solo effort Crying In The Club makes it at number 23.
In the albums chart the leader in the first update of the week was the new album from Roger Waters but the battle for supremacy ended up being between Ed Sheeran and The Beatles. The battle was won by Ed Sheeran who sees his ÷ album return to the top once again taking its number of weeks at the top up to eleven. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band slips back to number two.
That left Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters at number three with his new album Is This The Life We Really Want, a question many politicians ask themselves at the end of an election campaign. He released his first solo album in 1984 but has hardly been prolific since then. This latest set is only his fourth solo studio album and the first since Amused To Death was released in 1992, another election year in the UK.
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s Human falls to number four after seven weeks at number three. Dua Lipa’s eponymous solo album enters at number five.
Indie band alt-J (or ∆ if you use alt-J on an Apple keyboard) have yet to have a top forty single but have had two hit albums. Their debut An Awesome Wave reached number nineteen when it was released in June 2012 before climbing to number thirteen when it won the Mercury Prize later that year. The follow-up This Is All Yours went straight to number one when it was released in 2014. Three years on they have finally released a new album, Relaxer. It is new at number six.
Baltimore band All Time Low enter at number seven with Last Young Renegade, the follow-up the the chart-topping Future Hearts. Their previous album was called Don’t Panic. Had they followed a logical path from that title they could have followed with We’re Doomed and My Sister Dolly or, alternatively, Life, Don’t Talk To Me About Life and Here I Am, Brain The Size Of A Planet. There’s more about Marvin later.
After working with J-Hus, MoStack enters at number sixteen with High Street Kid. Following some success in the singles chart Halsey enters at number twelve with the lower-case heavy hopeless fountain kingdom.
At the age of 73 Roger Waters is only the second oldest artist to see a new solo album enter the chart this week as Hank Marvin beats him by two years. Marvin found fame as a member of The Shadows who started life as Cliff Richard’s backing band (originally known as The Drifters before the American group of that name forced them to change) but later recorded their own material as well. They have a special place in my heart as their debut Cliff-less single Apache was the number one single on the day I was born.
Most of The Shadows’ hits were instrumentals and Marvin’s solo material has continued in the same vein. The title of his latest album, Without A Word, leaves buyers in no doubt that this is another album of instrumentals. The album includes two Beatles songs, Michelle and Fool On The Hill, and even a version of the Dr Who theme, all done in his distinctive style. The album enters at number nine.
The crossover between classical music and pop music goes back many years. B Bumble and the Stingers had a big hit with Nut Rocker, a rock version of part of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, back in 1962. Other bands have added vocals to classical themes such as Manfred Mann’s Joybringer based on Jupiter from Gustav Holst’s Planet Suite. On the other side of the coin the London Symphony Orchestra recorded a series of (mostly) instrumental versions of popular songs for their Classic Rock albums.
Now the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have decided to give it a go with their Pop Goes Classical album. By a strange coincidence it features three of the songs performed at the Manchester concert, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Coldplay’s Fix You and Pharrell Williams’ Happy. It also includes three songs to have had lengthy spells at the top of the singles chart, I Will Always Love You, Candle In The Wind and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. The album lands at number 25.
Most chart acts who share a name with a football team do so for a good reason. They are a football team. Some of those who are not football teams change the spelling slightly just in case people get confused. Kaiser Chiefs are such an example. Others are a bit more subtle, choosing to drop a hyphen and an accent.Thus French team Saint-Étienne become the band Saint Etienne.
Saint Etienne had their first top forty hit with a version of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart before enjoying greater success with their own songs such as Join Our Club and He’s On The Phone. Home Counties, a new entry at number 31, is their ninth studio album, the first since 2012’s Words And Music By Saint Etienne. While not making music founder member Bob Stanley has dabbled in journalism and writing books about music and football.
One of the early performances is Manchester was by Robbie Williams. He changed the words of strong to “Manchester we’re strong” but retained the line about looking like Kiss without the make-up. Anyone wanting to see Kiss with the make-up could simply look at the cover of the new compilation from the New York band Kissworld. It is the fourteenth Kiss compilation album (only six fewer than their number of studio albums) but, as a new entry at number eighteen, the first to reach the top forty in the UK.
Thea Gilmore has a new entry at number 40 with The Counterweight. A repackaged version of U2’s classic Joshua Tree album (from the time when they still made good albums) lands at number ten. Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams gets a new lease of life at number 29. Oasis re-enter at number 35 with Definitely Maybe while (What’s The Story) Morning Glory climbs 15 places to number 22 and their Greatest Hits set jumps back into the top ten at number nine.
Published on: 2017-06-09 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 55279 Views
|