"Labour Of Love" becomes UB40's first No 1 album today and as expected detracts sales from the lead single "Red Red Wine" which tumbles 1-2 but still sells 107,000 copies, that's the first time in 24 weeks that the No 2 single has breached the 100,000 mark, hard to believe that just 6 weeks ago the No 1 single could only attract 47,000 buyers which would only be good enough for No 6 this week. "Red Red Wine" has now sold 524,000 copies in total and should nestle into the Y/E top 10 if it continues in its current form, but anyone expecting Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson to steal a week at the top will be disappointed as they tumble 2-3 (87,000) and must have suffered from the lack of TOTP. Instead the honour of deposing UB40 goes to Culture Club who celebrate their second No 1 single in just under a year as "Karma Chameleon" bounces 3-1 and was indeed never under any pressure from UB40 in terms of being chased for the accolade as it sells a record breaking 204,000 copies in the last week, that's a 1983 record and indeed the first time the 200,000 mark has been punctured since W/E 14.08.82 when "Come On Eileen" sold 234,000 copies and that track eventually went on to sell over a million and is currently the best selling single of the 80s!
For a singer with such a long career and to be so influential for the last 11 or so years 1983 is arguably Bowie's most successful year. His last three singles all went top 3 and now "Modern Love" looks like it will be four in a row as it debuts at No 8 on a sale of 33,000, it's also the first time in his career that he's had three singles all debut in the top 10 consecutively following "Let's Dance" (No 5) and "China Girl" (No 8). Those singles (along with "Modern Love") are from his current album "Let's Dance" which hasn't left the top 20 since it was released 23 weeks ago in April and should easily be one of the top 10 albums of the year.
In other news Paul Young climbs 6-4 (66,000) but is highly unlikely to replicate the success of his last single, whilst Modern Romance finally climb 9-7 (34,000) after three weeks at No 9 and can thank TOTP for that move!. Fallers this week are Genesis (4-5, 57,000), Ryan Paris (5-6 , 42,000) and Rod Stewart 7-10 (27,000).
A 16th top 10 hit is next up for Status Quo which is coincidentally from their 16th studio album "Back To Back" which is due in time for Christmas, "Ol' Rag Blues" climbs 11-9 (30,000) and proves that even as they approach the 16th anniversary of their first hit you can't quite write off the Quo, some consternation has been reported in the group however as the demo version featured the vocals of Lancaster who also co-wrote the song however the label insisted on Rossi's version being released as the single version (and presumably the album version)- either way it hasn't impacted on sales.