MOGWAI have landed their first number one album - 25 years on from the release of their debut single.
The Scottish band's tenth studio album The Love Continues debute at No.1 on the UK Official Albums Chart.
The Scottish rock group have been facing off with British grime MC, rapper and songwriter Ghetts for this week’s top spot, with the UK rapper taking to the streets of central London in an armoured tank hoping to blast his third album Conflict Of Interest to the summit.
Mogwai finished the week 2,900 chart sales ahead of Ghetts, resulting in landmark moment for the band.
Mogwai front man Stuart Braithwaite: “We’re unbelievably happy to have the Number One album in the UK.
"We want to thank everyone at Rock Action Records - both of you - and mostly to thank everyone who has bought, downloaded and streamed the album, and supported us over the last week, and the last 25 years. It’s something we’re amazed by. We’re taken aback by everyone’s support, kindness and generosity."
It was 25 years this week that the band released their first single Tuner/Lower, the first release on our own label Rock Action Records.
Mr Braithwaite added: "We didn’t start the band or the label to get into the charts. None of us ever envisaged either the band or the label being in a position where having a Number One record would be a possibility.
"We started the label with a loan of £400 from my now-brother in law. Martin Bulloch's folks generously helped us out by paying for the studio to record the songs. We were just kids that wanted to make an amazing noise and get our record played on John Peel.
"Amazingly John did play the record, and one thing led to another to get us to the point we’re at now. It’s been an incredible journey making music together over the last quarter century, taking us to places we never dreamed of and getting to play our music to more people than we ever imagined.”
Mogwai’s debut album, Mogwai Young Team, was released in 1997 and reached No 75.
They cracked the Top 30 with Come on Die Young two years later, and their career has steadily built ever since, along with a successful sideline in scoring film and television, including drama series Les Revenants and ZeroZeroZero and documentary films Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and Atomic.
Their previous two studio albums, Rave Tapes (2014) and Every Country’s Sun (2017), reached the UK Top 10.
The term post-rock was seen by some as having been invented for the because of their appetite for the experimental, characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs.
The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums).
The band were for several years signed to Glasgow label Chemikal Underground, and have been distributed by different labels such as Matador in the US and Play It Again Sam in the UK, but now use their own label Rock Action Records in the UK, and Temporary Residence Ltd. in North America.
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