I Eat Music

Now, obviously I’ve seen all those stories in the tabloids about JLS getting mobbed by fans, but I assumed they were some sort of joke. Or just lazy gossip columnists reprinting whatever the PR folk were telling them. But, no, it seems that JLS actually do have a lot of fans. Enough fans to not only put them at number one in the singles chart this week, but to give them the highest first week sales for a debut single this year. In fact, with 100,000 units sold, only Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bonkers’ has sold more copies in a week than ‘Beat Again’. Who’d have thought? It also means that ‘X Factor’ has now spawned ten number one singles.

Also new in the top ten is Chicane with ‘Poppiholla’, which goes straight in at number seven, and Pitbull with ‘I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)’, which moves up from 13. New in the top 40 are Beyonce with ‘Sweet Dreams’, which is up from 52 last week, 3OH!3 with ‘Don’t Trust Me’, which is a new entry at 21, ‘Never Forget You’ by Noisettes, which moves from 41 to 30, and ‘21 Guns’ by Green Day, which moves from 60 to 40.

In the album chart, ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’ is still at number one, and the recently departed singer also holds the third and forth slots, as well, with Florence & The Machine at two and Lady GaGa at five. Although Jacko sales have tailed off a little this week, dropping to a still impressive 300,000 records, he still has five albums in the top ten, and while ‘Man In The Mirror’ has slipped to number eight in the singles chart, he still has 37 of the top 200 singles.

New entries on the album chart are Jack White’s new band Dead Weather at 14, the New Seekers’ greatest hits package at 17, Leonard Cohen’s greatest hits at 29, followed by VV Brown’s debut album ‘Travelling Like A Light’ at 30, and Billy Talent with ‘3′ at 35. It’s also worth noting that two Killers albums have re-entered the chart this week, with ‘Day & Age’ at 23 and ‘Hot Fuss’ at 39.

The charts are stuck on the fridge by the mum of The Official Charts Company and then thrown away when she thinks they’ve forgotten about them.