Ed Sheeran honoured at Wembley with first ever Official Number 1 Album Award for x

As the doors open for the first of Ed Sheeran’s three sold-out Wembley Stadium shows tonight, the star singer-songwriter has another reason to celebrate; his album x is back at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.

A year after the record’s release, Sheeran logs a fourth stint at the summit on a landmark week in chart’s brand new Friday slot. x was the biggest and fastest selling album of 2014, and has spent a total of 13 weeks at Number 1, while its biggest track Thinking Out Loud became the first song to spend a whole year inside the Official Singles Chart Top 40.

Ed Sheeran receives the first Official Number 1 Album Award ahead of his three sold-out shows on July 10 at Wembley Stadium.

Ed Sheeran receives the first Official Number 1 Album Award at Wembley Stadium

As well as becoming the first solo performer to headline Wembley Stadium tonight, Sheeran is also honoured today with the first ever Official Number 1 Album Award; a companion to the successful Official Number 1 Award for singles, the gold-plated trophy is launched to coincide with the inaugural Friday chart and the beginning of the 60th anniversary year of the Official Albums Chart.

Ed told OfficialCharts.com: “This is cool, I’m happy with this! Being Number 1 again after the album has been out for a year is pretty mad, I didn’t expect it! Everyone was saying they hoped it would happen around the Wembley shows, but I didn’t think it would.”

Elsewhere on this week’s Official Albums Chart, British hip-hop duo Krept & Konan score the highest new entry with their debut album The Long Way Home. The record features a plethora of guest singers, including Emeli Sande, Skepta and Sheeran himself.

Last week’s chart-topper, Lionel Richie & The Commodores’ The Definitive Collection, is at 3, James Bay’s Chaos and the Calm slips a place to 4 and Taylor Swift’s 1989 completes the Top 5.

New entries and high climbers

Nottingham singer-songwriter Saint Raymond makes his first appearance on the Official Albums Chart today with Young Blood at Number 7, and Lucy Rose’s second studio album Work It Out debuts at Number 9.

Further down the chart, Italian-English singer Jack Savoretti's Written in Scars rebounds 29 places to re-enter the Top 40 at 16, Sheeran’s debut album + leaps nine spots to 17, and US musician Ezra Furman is new at 23 with his third solo album Perpetual Motion People.

Finally, Neil Diamond’s All-Time Greatest Hits reappears in the Top 40 at Number 30, and Led Zeppelin’s reissue of their 1973 album Houses of the Holy lands at 34.

See this week's Official Top 100 Albums Chart