Radiohead tops list of best-selling albums

A reissue of Radiohead’s album OK Computer has been the best-selling album in independent record shops since last year’s Record Store Day, the Official Charts Company has said.

The album celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017 and first topped the charts in the summer of 1997.

Some 82% of the album’s sales in independent record shops over the last year were on vinyl.

The second biggest seller was the special edition of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, which achieved bumper sales in its 50th anniversary in thanks partly to an enhanced anniversary release.

In third place was Ed Sheeran’s Divide, which dominated the charts in 2017, followed by LCD Soundsystem’s American Dream and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Villains.

Independent record shops account for more than a quarter of the sales of 12-inch vinyl and more than half of the newly resurgent cassette market.

The top-selling female artist in record stores was Courtney Barnett, whose collaborative album with Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice, came 13th, while Bjork’s Utopia came in 24th place.

Classic albums on the list include David Bowie’s Hunky Dory at 17 and The First And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust at 19.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: “This countdown of the biggest-selling albums sold by indie record shops highlights the broad range of music which is supported by this thriving sector – from Radiohead and Beatles reissues, to huge mainstream successes by Ed Sheeran and Rag’n’Bone Man via more left field releases by the likes of Public Service Broadcasting, LCD Soundsystem and Royal Blood.

“The number of independent record shops in the UK has grown by a third in the past eight years and are clearly flourishing.”

Radiohead tops the charts.