The all-star fundraising cover of Simon & Garfunkel's “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Syco Music/Sony) is on track for a second week at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart as a cluster of star performers from last week’s Glastonbury Festival prepare to crash the national albums survey.
The Artists for Grenfell's fundraising single, recorded in response to London's Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, became the U.K.’s fastest-selling single of the decade as it raced to No. 1 last week from just 40 hours of sales, according to the Official Charts Company.
At the midweek stage, "Bridge" has a lead of more than 13,000 downloads and streaming equivalent sales over the closest competition, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's “Despacito” (Def Jam/RBMG/Republic/UMLE) featuring Justin Bieber.
Another good-hearted project is flying high on the Official U.K. Singles Chart Update in “Smile For Bradley,” proceeds from which will benefit the Bradley Lowery Foundation, established in honor of the terminally ill child Bradley Lowery. The track, a cover of Charlie Chaplin's “Smile” (Liv'n'G), is performed by Hartlepool duo Liv'n'G (aka Olivia Crawford and Georgia Fletcher) and is currently at No. 4.
The clean-up from another successful Glastonbury Festival is well underway, though some of the high-profile performers at this year’s event should clean-up when the albums chart is published this Friday.
One of the beneficiaries of headlining Glastonbury 2017 is Radiohead, who lock-up No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart Update with the 20th anniversary reissue of their classic set OK Computer (XL). The prog-rocker’s latest album A Moon Shaped Pool also returns to the top 40 (at No. 39) and their career-altering sophomore album The Bends finds its way back inside the top 75 (at No. 60).
Another performer reaping rewards from their Glastonbury headline slot is the Foo Fighters, whose Greatest Hits (RCA) compilation returns to the top 10 (at No. 7), while Ed Sheeran should convert his closing performance by seeing all three of his albums inside the top 40 when the weekly chart is published. The Bee Gees' greatest hits set Timeless (Capitol/UMC) opens at No. 25 on the Chart Update after Barry Gibb's performance in the Sunday afternoon “Legends” slot at Glastonbury.
The BBC's TV and online coverage of this year's festival achieved record viewing figures as nearly 21 million people tuned into the TV coverage for at least 3 minutes, a rise of 12% on last year, the Corporation reports.
Meanwhile, U.S. alternative rock outfit Imagine Dragons open at No. 2 on the midweek U.K. chart with their third album Evolve (Interscope), while a reissue of Prince & The Revolution's Purple Rain (Paisley Park) re-enters at No. 5.
