British Music Experience announce exhibition celebrating the Official Singles Chart from 1952 to 2022

The UK’s Museum of Popular Music, British Music Experience (BME) in Liverpool, has announced a new temporary exhibition celebrating 70 years of the Official Singles Chart.

The installation, in partnership with Official Charts, with have a particular focus on Number 1s - from legendary chart battles to Christmas hits, record breakers, novelty records, one-hit wonders and more.

Harvey Goldsmith, CBE and Chair of the Trustees of the British Music Experience, says, “We are delighted to have collaborated with the Official Charts Company who keep meticulous records about the records we love. For a band or an artist to climb to the pinnacle of the Official Charts was a true honour and badge of success.

For us at the British Music Experience, the Official Chart informs the great story of popular music in the UK. You won’t find a single track in the Museum that was not at some point chronicled by the chart but in this temporary exhibition visitors will look more closely at some of the meteoric success and dramatic races to the top.”

Chief executive of the Official Chart Company Martin Talbot adds, “The Official Singles Chart has chronicled the nation’s favourite music for 70 years now, spanning eight decades (from the Fifties to the Twenties), and more than 1,400 Number 1 singles. The race to top the Official Chart means as much to artists now as it has ever done and we are delighted to be partnering with the BME to mark this anniversary moment.

"The BME and the Official Charts share a joint mission – to celebrate all that is great about British music, in all its glory, and we intend to do just that through this brand new partnership.”

70 Years of the Official Singles Chart runs at the British Music Experience in Liverpool’s Cunard Building from 16 November 2022 until 5 March 2023. Click here for more information.

To launch the exhibition, BME will host a special evening in conversation with Peter Hooton and Keith Mullin from The Farm – they will discuss their heroes and influences, as well as their own singles successes including the 2012 Christmas Number 1 with the Justice Collective, He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.

Tickets for the launch event on 17 November are £8 each and on sale Friday 14 October from www.britishmusicexperience.com.

For your chance to win tickets to the launch event, simply answer the following question: