U.K. MIDWEEK CHARTS, ENGLAND’S NEWEST HITMAKERS, REDUX

The Rolling Stones are on track to score their first U.K. album #1 since Voodoo Lounge topped the Official Albums chart upon release in 1994. Blue & Lonesome (Polydor), their first studio album in more than a decade, would be their 12th chart-topper.

Blue & Lonesome, a collection of blues covers, has almost 66,000 combined sales at the halfway stage of the chart week. While this would be their first new album to hit #1 in more than 20 years, they did top the chart with the reissue of Exile on Main Street in 2010; the double album hit #1 in 1972 when it was first released. The Stones first reached #1 with their self-titled debut in 1964.

Last week’s #1, Little Mix’s Glory Days (SYCO), has slipped to #4 at the midweek stage while Michael Ball & Alfie Boe’s Together (Decca) remains at #2. Two of Michael Buble’s Reprise albums have returned to the Top 10: His Christmas is now #6, one slot ahead of his latest, Nobody But Me.

Also in the Top 30 are Phil Collins’ The Singles (Rhino) at #16; Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! (Glassnote) at #26; and Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene 3 (Sony Music CG) at #29.