Olympics soundtrack races into British charts

Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: London’s 2012 Olympics opening ceremony raced into the British charts on Sunday with a collection of music from the kaleidoscopic extravaganza becoming the week’s fifth-best selling compilation album after just 24 hours on sale.

Friday’s 27 million pound ‘Isles of Wonder’ spectacle, devised by filmmaker Danny Boyle and watched around the globe, was performed to a roller coaster of British music that ran from Mike Oldfield’s blockbuster ‘Tubular Bells’ to Dizzee Rascal’s 2009 hit ‘Bonkers’.

Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ Enigma Variation shared the Olympic Stadium’s stage with Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys and British electronic duo Underworld, who were music directors of the event.

All feature on the anthology, which had sold 10,000 copies by the sales cut-off time on Saturday, enough to make it fifth in the compilation album charts, which are separate from the main album rankings, the Official Charts Company said.

The week’s best-selling album, ‘Ill Manors’ from London singer Plan B, brought another Olympic connection to the charts as it topped the rankings on its debut.

The album is the soundtrack for a low budget crime film of the same title written and directed by Plan B – under the name Ben Drew – set in the run-down London area of Newham which includes the Olympic Stadium in its boundary.

Other new entrants in the album stakes were ‘Handwritten’ at number two from US rockers Gaslight Anthem, Jennifer Lopez’s greatest hits collection ‘Dance Again’ in fourth place and English singer Joss Stone’s ‘The Soul Sessions Volume 2’ at number six.

English rock band Florence and the Machine held on to the top spot in the singles charts with ‘Spectrum’.

English singer Conor Maynard was a new entry at number four with ‘Vegas Girl,’ while US duo Karmin were also new in sixth place with ‘Brokenhearted’.