Kaiser Chiefs knock Sam Bailey off top of Official Albums Chart

Ricky Wilson and co. claim their second UK Number 1 album with Education, Education, Education & War.

It’s always a gamble joining a reality TV show, particularly one involving signing, but for Ricky Wilson it seems to have paid off.

The Voice coach and his band mates, the Kaiser Chiefs, have today emerged victorious over Sam Bailey, winner of rival show The X Factor, and have gone straight in at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart with Education, Education, Education & War.

The Leeds band’s fifth album has been neck-and-neck with Sam’s The Power Of Love (Number 2) all week, and it was just 44 copies ahead of the X Factor star’s debut album on Friday’s Official Charts Company sales flash. However, Education… surged ahead at the eleventh hour, and finishes the week nearly 2,000 copies ahead of its closest rival.

Education, Education, Education & War is the second UK chart-topping album of the Kaiser Chiefs’ career, following 2007’s Yours Truly, Angry Mob.

George Michael’s former Number 1 album, Symphonica, slides one place to Number 3 today, while Johnny Cash is new in at Number 4 with Out Among The Stars. The album, which is made up of recently discovered recordings from the 1980s found by Johnny’s son, John Carter Cash, has become the late singer’s highest charting UK studio album to date.

"I am thrilled to hear that Out Among The Stars has gone to Number 4 in the UK,” John Carter Cash tells OfficialCharts.com. “A lot of care and attention went into restoring these recordings so that they could be released as a proper studio album, and it's great to know that Cash fans in the UK are enjoying listening to it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. To achieve this incredible chart position is a real tribute to my dad and I know he would be honoured and excited with this result."

Holding firm at Number 5, John Legend’s Love In The Future completes today’s Top 5.

New Entries

In addition to Kaiser Chiefs’ Education, Education, Education & War (Number 1) and Johnny Cash’s Out Among The Stars (4), there are three other new entries on this week’s Official Albums Chart.

Christina Perri scores her second Top 10 album with today Head Or Heart. The follow-up to her 2011 debut, Lovestrong, is new in at Number 8.

LA-based shock rockers Steel Panther, who are known for their outrageous lyrics and over the top stage shows, claim their highest charting UK album to date with All You Can Eat (12), while Southampton’s Band Of Skulls enter at Number 21 with new offering, Himalayan.

The Official Albums Chart Top 10 is as follows. Click here to see the Official Albums Chart Top 100 in full after 7pm.

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