Mike Oldfield leads surge in album sales for Olympic opening ceremony artists
Music retailer HMV has compared figures of CD and download sales of the featured artists’ albums between the Saturday night and the demand 24 hours earlier on the Friday.
The results showed that Mike Oldfield who performed the title track to Tubular Bells saw an overnight 757 per cent surge in sales of his classic 1973 recording.
In second spot are Underworld, whose music provided the backdrop to the NHS scene and whose Best Of compilation saw sales rise 500 per cent.
Frank Turner, who performed on the Glastonbury Tor stage just ahead of the official opening ceremony, saw demand for his album England Keep My Bones rise 371 per cent on the previous day.
Dizzee Rascal comes fourth, and rounding off the top 5 is Paul McCartney, whose live performance of Hey Jude sent sales of The Beatles 1 album increase by 268 per cent.
The Sex Pistols, Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie, Emeli Sandé and the Vangelis (who composed the original soundtrack to Chariots of Fire) also saw significant increases in album sales.
The album Isles of Wonder: Music for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, which was made available to download upon the finishing of the opening ceremony, will be in record shops from Thursday and is expected to go straight to No.1 in the album charts when the next official UK Charts are announced on Sunday.
The top 10 biggest artist beneficiaries of the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (based on percentage increase in album sales: Friday 27/7 – Saturday 28/7) are as follows:
1. Mike Oldfield / Tubular Bells (757%)
2. Underworld / Best Of (500%)
3. Frank Turner / England Keep My Bones (371%)
4. Dizzee Rascal / Tongue In Cheek (346%)
5. Paul McCartney / Beatles 1 (268%)
6. The Sex Pistols / Never Mind The B*******, Here’s The Sex Pistols (166%)
7. The Arctic Monkeys / Whatever People Say That I Am, That’s What I’m Not (146%)
8. David Bowie / Platinum Collection Greatest Hits (139%)
9. Emeli Sandé / Our Version of Events (116%)
10.Vangelis / Chariots of Fire OST (76%)
Source: Music Week
