At the top of the chart two live LPs battle it out in the race for this week’s Official Number 1 album, with blur going head-to-head with Ghost at the midweek mark.
Currently leading the pack is blur’s Live at Wembley Stadium recording, captured at the iconic venue across two nights in July 2023. Eyeing a Number 1 debut, the album precedes the group’s blur: Live at Wembley Stadium concert film, due for release in cinemas on 6th September.
Should the record hold on, it’d earn the London-formed rockers an eighth UK Number 1 album, potentially joining Parklife (1994), The Great Escape (1995), blur (1997), 13 (1999), Think Tank (2003), The Magic Whip (2015) and The Ballad of Darren (2023).
It’s not a done deal yet, though, as Swedish heavy metal outfit Ghost are hot on the boys’ heels. The group, comprising Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus IV), A Group of Nameless Ghouls and Papa Nihil, are expected to land a Number 2 debut with Rite Here Rite Now, the soundtrack to their concert film of the same name.
Recorded at the group’s show at LA’s Kia Forum in September 2023, the LP could see Ghost score a fourth Top 10 album in the UK. Previously, the band enjoyed similar success with 2018’s Prequelle (10), 2022’s IMPERA (2) and 2023 release Phantomime (8).
Eastbourne export Sam Tompkins could be celebrating his first-ever Top 5 album with hi, my name is insecure. this week (4). The singer-songwriter previously saw 2022 record Who Do You Pray To? land a Top 10 placing (7).
Following its reissue as a multi-format super deluxe edition, The Police’s fifth and final studio album Synchronicity could return to the Top 10 for the first time in 41 years, predicted for a Number 9 re-entry. The record debuted at Number 1 on its original release in 1983.
Benson Boone’s debut Fireworks & Rollerblades looks to rebound 28 places to its previous Number 16 peak following its release on vinyl.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Rhode Island new wave outfit Talking Heads reissue their Stop Making Sense live LP as a multi-format deluxe edition. The re-release could see the record return to its Number 24 peak, eyeing a return to the Top 40 for the first time in 24 years.
And finally, Morrissey’s 1993 live album Beethoven Was Deaf, recorded across his London and Paris shows in 1992, looks to return to the Top 40 for the first time in 31 years (39). The album has been remastered at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, receiving a 2024 physical and digital reissue.
