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Record album sales recorded

29/01/2006

The Arctic Monkeys' first album has become the fastest-selling debut album of all time, prompting industry insiders to compare the band to the Beatles.

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not sold more than 360,000 copies last week.

The young indie band from Sheffield have achieved the extraordinary feat of outselling the rest of the top 20 albums combined together.

The band have been heralded for spearheading a new approach to record industry marketing, because they built up a committed fanbase via the internet before signing to any label.

The approach worked, as their first single went to number one, a success now matched in the album format.

"In the space of just a few weeks the Arctic Monkeys have gone from being relative newcomers to becoming a household name," said a spokesman for major record retailer HMV.

"In terms of sheer impact... we haven't seen anything quite like this since The Beatles," he added.

Richard Ashcroft's new album Keys To The World sold 75,000 in the first week of its release to enter the charts at number two – an amount that would normally guarantee top spot.

And the Arctic Monkeys were denied simultaneous top spot in both formats' charts when When The Sun Goes Down was knocked off the top of the singles chart.

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