The Scottish Albums Chart is a chart compiled by the
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts in ...
(OCC) which is based on how physical and digital sales towards the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
fare in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. The official singles chart for Scotland, the Scottish Singles Chart, which was based on how physical and digital sales towards the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
were faring in Scotland, has not been published since 20 November 2020.
Since 20 November 2020, only the Scottish Albums Chart has been published by the OCC, and it has been based on physical sales only, with the OCC only publishing the albums chart on their website since 11 December 2020.
History
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, ''Radio & Record News'' and ''Record Business'' magazines compiled Scottish charts which were broadcast on
Independent Local Radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...
stations such as
Radio Clyde and
Radio Forth
Radio Forth is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife. Radio Forth is owned and operated by Bauer, based at studios in Edinburgh and forms part of Bauer's Hits Radio network and Greatest Hits Radio ne ...
; these showed particular favour for
hard rock,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
new wave while
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...
and other "black" styles would fare less well; for example, on 23 June 1978, ''Radio & Record News'' placed
Heatwave
A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in th ...
at number 15 UK-wide but number 40 in Scotland,
the O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appearance with the minor ...
at number 21 UK-wide but not in the Scottish Top 40 and
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
at number 26 UK-wide but not in the Scottish Top 40, but
AC/DC at number 38 UK-wide and number 20 in Scotland,
the Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...
at number 62 UK-wide and number 22 in Scotland, and
the Vibrators
The Vibrators are a British punk rock band that formed in 1976.
Early career
The Vibrators were founded by Ian ' Knox' Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis, and drummer John 'Eddie' Edwards. They first came to public notice ...
at number 65 UK-wide but number 39 in Scotland.
In the late 1980s, as frustration in Scotland at perceived isolation from the
Thatcher government grew, pressure was applied for the creation of an official Scottish chart; Brian Guthri of the Scottish Record Industry Association claimed that the official UK charts did not pick up many sales by Scottish acts as they were not polling enough shops in Scotland, citing
Win's "You've Got the Power" (the theme song from
McEwan's Lager adverts) as an example and a month of research determined significant differences from the UK charts, with
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
acts selling particularly well. That autumn, the SRIA voted to set up its own chart, suggesting that the balance of 75 chart return shops in
Greater London to 45 in Scotland was unfair. Although a Scottish chart had been broadcast on
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...
beforehand, the first official Scottish Gallup charts were published on 17 March 1991; notably, they placed Scottish band
the Silencers
''The Silencers'' is the title of a 1962 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin Matt Helm.
Plot summary
When a female agent in Mexico is killed before Helm can complete his mission to extract her, he f ...
at number 6 in the album chart (only number 39 UK-wide) and
the Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
' album higher than the ''
Inspector Morse
Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series '' Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...
'' soundtrack, which was 11 places higher UK-wide. The launch of this chart was heralded by Neil Ross of the Scottish Record Industry Association, who again suggested that the UK charts were disproportionately slanted towards sales in London and the south of England, while music manager Bruce Findlay suggested that Scotland could potentially produce a music TV show with as much international appeal as the then-popular
DEF II
DEF II was a programming strand on BBC2, which aired at 6 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 May 1988 to 23 May 1994, to serve the teenage market. It was produced by Janet Street-Porter, and followed on from her influential youth TV show ''Netw ...
series ''
Rapido''. From 20 September 1991, a short weekly TV programme based around the Scottish chart was broadcast by
BBC1 Scotland on Friday nights, hosted by
Nicky Campbell
Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell, OBE (born Nicholas Lackey, 10 April 1961) is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987.
Early life
Campbell wa ...
, then of
Radio 1 and the chart continued to be broadcast on Monday nights on BBC Radio Scotland although it was dropped, along with other night-time music programmes on that station, during the last year of Gallup's contract.
Frankie Miller
Francis John Miller (born 2 November 1949) is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter and actor.
Miller wrote for and performed with many recording artists and is best known for his 1977 album ''Full House'', the singles "Be Good To Yourself", " D ...
's song "
Caledonia", also included in McEwan's adverts which were only shown in Scotland and Northern Ireland, topped the Scottish chart while only being a minor UK-wide hit. An unofficial ''
Scottish Network Chart'' was also taken by Scottish commercial stations, including
Radio Tay, in the early 1990s.
Archives on the Official Charts Company website go back to February 1994, when Millward Brown took over as chart compilers and the number of retailers sampled throughout the UK increased. After this relaunch,
Scottish Television
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is th ...
launched a show based around the official Scottish chart, called ''Chart Bite''. Until 2000, the Scottish album chart included albums eligible only for the
compilation album chart at a UK-wide level.
How the UK and Scottish charts were compiled diverged several times from 1994. Whereas digital downloads were incorporated into the UK singles chart from April 2005 and albums from April 2006, the Scottish charts remained physical sales only until the week ending 10 October 2009 when digital sales were included. This brought how the two charts were compiled in line for almost five years until the week ending 6 July 2014, when streaming was included in the UK singles chart and later in the UK album chart for the week ending 1 March 2015. The Scottish charts remained complied of digital and physical sales only until the week ending 20 November 2020, when the singles chart was discontinued and only physical sales are counted for the album chart. The final number one single was ''Always'' by Scottish band
the Snuts.
Number ones
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Notes
References
External links
Top 40 Scottish Singles on OCC websiteTop 40 Scottish Albums on OCC website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Singles And Albums Chart
British record charts