Pink Floyd's River reaches No.1

Pink Floyd topped the UK album chart last night with final album The Endless River.

The band’s tribute to late keyboardist Rick Wright had already broken online retailer Amazon’s pre-order record, achieving more advance sales than pop acts One Direction, Robbie Williams and Take That. They’d also sped ahead in the midweek chart.

Their number-one placing meant the Foo Fighters’ latest album, Sonic Highways, was beaten into second place. Queen Forever, featuring three previously unreleased tracks by late frontman Freddie Mercury, entered at number five.

A spokesman for David Gilmour and co said: “Pink Floyd is both thrilled and surprised at the level of international interest in their final album. They want to thank the fans for their support and hope that, in some small way, The Endless River has reminded them of the old-fashioned joy of listening to an album in its entirety.”

Foos mainman Dave Grohl admitted: “If we’re going to take a number two to anybody, I’ll take it to Pink Floyd.”

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.