David Bowie tops charts

The late David Bowie has scooped his first US number one album. The 'Lazarus' singer's 27th studio LP, 'Blackstar', sold 181,000 copies in its first week of release, knocking Adele's '25' off the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The chart takes into account traditional sales, streaming equivalent albums and track equivalent albums (TEA) and the record - which was released two days before Bowie died of cancer aged 69 on January 10 - sold 174,000 pure sales, the musical icon's biggest week of sales since electronic tracking of point-of-sale music purchases began in 1991. In addition, nine of Bowie's previous albums also appeared on this week's Billboard 200 chart, including the 'Best of Bowie' greatest hits collection - which originally peaked at number 70 in 2002 - at number four and 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' at 21. Over in the UK, 'Blackstar' debuted at number one with sales of 150,000. Over 500,000 Bowie records have been purchased in the last week in Britain, with 19 of his previous albums making the top 100, and 10 LPs taking slots in the top 40.