Noel Gallagher has fallen short of matching his brother Liam’s debut album sales figures as his latest record hit the top of the album charts.
The older Gallagher, 50, released his third album, Who Built The Moon?, with his solo moniker Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds last week and it has shifted 78,000 units across physical, download and streaming equivalent sales to take the top spot.
But it was not enough for him to topple his younger brother as the UK’s third-fastest selling artist of the year.
Liam’s debut solo album, As You Were, moved 103,000 units with combined sales in its first week of release to top the charts in October.
Responding to his third number one record in a row, Noel told the Official Charts Company he was “convinced from the outset that the people who bought it would love it”, adding he was on a better winning streak than his beloved Manchester City.
“I’m actually on a par with Pep Guardiola. I’m a bit of a wizard, I often thought I was. I’ll see you at the top of the charts – this is where I f****** live,” he said.
But he also failed to match the first-week sales of his previous two High Flying Birds records – 2011’s self-titled debut shifted 122,500 units in the first week of release while Chasing Yesterday (2015) sold just shy of 90,000.
The siblings’ long-running feud has intensified this year as they both prepared to release their respective solo records eight years on from the split of Oasis.
In October, Liam, 45, said he was “upset” after Noel performed a version of Oasis’s Champagne Supernova, while they also clashed following their differing tributes after the Manchester Arena attack.
Noel tearfully performed at September’s tribute concert, prompting Liam to dismiss it as a “PR stunt” and claiming his brother “doesn’t give a f***”.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Noel branded Liam “Mr Angry”, adding: “He needs to see a psychiatrist.”
Elsewhere in the charts, Sam Smith’s The Thrill Of It All is at number two, while Little Mix’s former number one, Glory Days, rocketed back up to third following the release of a platinum edition.
And one year after competing for ratings on TV, Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton Du Beke and X Factor winner Matt Terry transferred their battle to the charts.
It was a comfortable win for professional dancer Du Beke, whose debut record opened at number 21 while Terry’s first album, Trouble, arrived at 29.
In the singles chart, Camila Cabello’s Havana clung on to the top spot for a fifth straight week after a close race with Rita Ora’s Anywhere, as just over 1,000 combined sales separated the two.
Ed Sheeran’s Perfect – which was re-released on Friday as a duet with Beyonce – is in third.
The top five fastest-selling albums of 2017 in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company:
1. Ed Sheeran, ÷ (Divide): 672,000 units in first week of release
2. Rag’n’Bone Man, Human: 117,000
3. Liam Gallagher, As You Were: 103,000
4. Sam Smith, The Thrill Of It All: 97,000
5. Taylor Swift, Reputation: 84,000
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