A clash of the titans is playing out in the U.K., as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds goes head-to-head with Foo Fighters for top spot.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data published by the Official Charts Company, Gallagher’s Council Skies (via Sour Mash) has the edge. It’s a wafer-thin margin. The Foos’ But Here We Are (Columbia) is just 200 combined units behind, for second place on the Official Chart Update.
Gallagher scores U.K. No. 1s for fun. He’s enjoyed an unbroken streak of 10 consecutive No. 1 studio albums, across his career with Oasis (seven) and with High Flying Birds (three). No other individual has a more impressive track record. Furthermore, every one of Gallagher’s studio LPs has debuted at No. 1.
The Foos, meanwhile, have led the Official Chart with five albums, including their most recent effort, 2021’s Medicine At Midnight.
But Here We Are represents a new chapter for Dave Grohl’s band, which is still grieving the sudden death last year of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
There’s a touch of beef to this chart race. As the OCC points out, during the Foos’ set at the 2019 Reading Festival, Grohl told the crowd that he wanted to start a petition to get Oasis to reunite. That apparently didn’t sit well with Gallagher, who, during a subsequent concert in San Diego, joked with his audience: “Is anyone gonna sign that petition Dave Grohl wants to get together to get us back together?… I’d like to start a petition to get the Foo Fighters to split up”.
The midweek U.K. podium is completed by Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Hana (Cooking Vinyl), new at No. 3, for what could be the English pop artist’s fifth top 10 LP, and highest charting title since 2002 debut Read My Lips hit No. 2.
Meanwhile, Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom (Sony Music CG), a collection of rerecorded songs from early in the legendary songsmith’s career, could start at No. 4.
Also eyeing top ten berths are British pop veteran Louise’s career retrospective Greatest Hits (No. 6 via BMG), Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears’s second solo set Last Man Dancing (No. 7 via Mute), and American heavy metal act Avenged Sevenfold’s eighth studio album Life Is But A Dream… (No. 8 via Warner Records).
All will be revealed when the Official Chart is published late Friday (June 9).
