Tubular Bells Is Olympics Biggest Seller

Mike Oldfield, Underworld and Frank Turner records more than triple their sales figures after featuring in the Olympic Ceremony

Artists performing in last Friday’s Olympics opening ceremony are enjoying a massive sales spike, report Music Week.

HMV compared demand for CDs and downloads of the featured artists between Friday and Saturday night, and have compiled a top ten list of the biggest sales hikes.

Leading the list is Mike Oldfield, whose 1973 magnum opus Tubular Bells had a massive 757% leap in sales. Second were Underworld, who curated the night’s music; their Best Of surged 500%. Completing the top three is Frank Turner who, having performed a warm-up set before the ceremony began, is raking in 371% more royalties for his album England Keep My Bones.

Sadly, Quietus favourites Fuck Buttons and Blanck Mass don’t feature in the list, despite their songs ‘Solar Surf’ and ‘Olympians’, and ‘Sundowner’ respectively, playing a major role.

A compilation album collecting music from the event, Isles of Wonder: Music for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, which has already been released digitally, with a physical release coming Thursday via Universal – and does feature ‘Olympians’ (by F-Buttons) and ‘Sundowner’ – is expected to shoot straight to number one in the charts this week.

Here’s HMV’s full list, showing the percentage increase in sales between Friday 27 – Saturday 28:

  1. Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (757%)
  1. Underworld – Best Of (500%)
  1. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones (371%)
  1. Dizzee Rascal – Tongue In Cheek (346%)
  1. The Beatles – Beatles 1 (268%)
  1. The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols (166%)
  1. The Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say That I Am, That’s What I’m Not (146%)
  1. David Bowie – Platinum Collection Greatest Hits (139%)
  1. Emeli Sandé – Our Version of Events (116%)
  1. Vangelis – Chariots of Fire OST (76%)

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