oops so I was wrong about Ellie-Halcyon, I thought she had gone straight to #1 with the re-issue that included Burn but it actually went to #1 the following year, what was the reason? I see t was in January, was it cos of a sale? or Jan low sales?

 

I'd say a culmination of the huge year she'd had in 2013 and it being the January lull.

 

I think 'Goodness Gracious' was the single being promoted at the time, although that wasn't massive but probably also helped it.

been looking at old MW reports

and when Halcyon first went to #1 it was the 1st week of 2014

the report says:

 

Facilitated by its low price point and the ongoing presence of latest hit How Long Will I Love You in the Top 10, Ellie Goulding's second album, Halcyon, reaches the top of the album chart for the first time.

 

Jumping 6-1 (37,507 sales), Halcyon debuted and previously peaked at number two in October 2012, and has remained on the chart continuously ever since, without falling below number 61.

 

Originally spinning off the hits Anything Could Happen, Figure 8 and Explosions, it was released in an expanded Halcyon Days edition last August, since when bonus tracks Burn and How Long Will I Love You have been major hits, peaking at one and three respectively.

 

The latter track jumps 7-5 (35,942 sales) on its eighth straight week in the Top 10, equalling the longevity of Goulding's longest running hit, Your Song. Most of the album's sales are accruing from the Halcyon Days edition, which is currently priced at or just under £5 at Amazon, HMV and iTunes.

 

and found this on White Ladder, all kinds of amazing facts...

 

In topping the chart on its 65th week, Halcyon was just one week away from tying the record set in 2001 by David Gray's White Ladder. Gray's album topped the chart on its 66th straight week in the Top 75 (64th in the Top 40), and did so without the extremely generous discounts currently being offered on Halcyon. Even more incredibly, it didn't make the Top 200 at all for well over a year after its first release, and topped the chart on its 128th week in the shops. It sold 10 copies on its first week but should join the elite group of albums which have sold more than 3m copies later this year, having thus far shifted an impressive 2,992,361 copies.

 

I have White Ladder now on 3,050,000 copies