One Direction’s ‘Midnight Memories’ Is No. 1 In UK, Has 2013’s Best Debut Week NEWS By Paul Sexton

One Direction have achieved the U.K.’s fastest-selling artist album of 2013 to date, and of their career, with an opening 237,000 sales for their third set “Midnight Memories” (Syco Music/Sony). Calvin Harris debuted atop the singles chart with “Under Control” (Columbia/Sony), featuring Swedish DJ Alesso and Hurts frontman Theo Hutchcraft.

The 1D album trounced the pop idols’ previous opening tallies in their home country for 2011’s “Up All Night” (139,000) and last year’s “Take Me Home” (155,000). The previous best artist total for the year was Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” (Columbia/Sony), with 165,000 units. One Direction also scored two new entries in the singles chart with tracks from the new album, “You & I” at No. 19 and “Don’t Forget Where You Belong” at No. 21, while the single “Story Of My Life” jumped back 10-3.

Take That songwriter Gary Barlow’s new solo set “Since I Saw You Last” (Polydor/Universal) arrived at No. 2 on sales of 116,000, which is 7,000 more than his colleague Robbie Williams’ “Swings Both Ways” (Universal Island) sold to debut at No. 1 last week. That fell to No. 3 on the new Official Charts Company survey, while Barlow’s “Let Me Go” single climbed 3-2.

A special edition of Olly Murs’ third studio album, 2012’s “Right Place, Right Time” (Epic/Sony), sent the title back into the top 75 at No. 4. It features seven new tracks including “Hand On Heart,” which made its singles bow at No. 25. Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” (Interscope/Universal) fell 2-5.

Also new inside the artist album top ten were the reformed Boyzone’s “BZ20” (Rhino/Warner Music) at No. 6 and Susan Boyle’s “Home For Christmas” (Sony/Music) at No. 9. Dido’s “Greatest Hits” (RCA/Sony) made a modest bow at No. 27, with Mary J. Blige’s “A Mary Christmas” (Verve/Universal) at No. 28. “Now! That’s What I Call Music 86” (Sony Music CG/Virgin EMI) started a second week atop the compilation chart.

Calvin Harris previously topped the U.K. singles chart as lead artist with 2009’s “I’m Not Alone” and “Sweet Nothing,” featuring Florence Welch, in 2012. He was also the featured artist on Dizzee Rascal’s “Dance Wiv Me” in 2008 and Rihanna’s “We Found Love” in 2011, both of which were also bestsellers.

With Barlow at No. 2 and One Direction at No. 3 on the new singles chart, Lily Allen’s “Somewhere Only We Know” (Parlophone/Warner Music) fell three places from last week’s No. 1, and Bastille’s “Of The Night” (Virgin/EMI) 2-5. Pop stalwarts McFly returned at No. 6 with “Love Is On The Radio” (Super), while Breach, aka U.K. DJ-producer Ben Westbeech, started at No. 9 with “Everything You Never Had (We Had It All)” (Atlantic/Warner Music), featuring Andreya Triana.

Share This Post
Have your say!
00

Leave a Reply