Welcome to James Masterton's Chart Watch UK – your essential weekly deep dive into the Official UK Charts!
As the longest-running British music column online, we bring you the ultimate guide to this week's Top 40, unraveling the stories behind the biggest new singles and chart-topping hits. Plus, explore our extensive archives, a treasure trove of nearly 1800 articles documenting three and a half decades of popular music history and expert analysis.
83 years old and not looking a day over 78, Sir Paul McCartney has the No.1 album of the week and takes back over as the oldest man ever to do so. Plus he's thumbs aloft in the picture, so all is well with the world. Meanwhile, we have a new No.1 single, at least for the moment. Please all try to contain yourselves.
"Boys are no longer as shit as they used to be" delcares Maisie Peters (after a fashion). Her third album is her second No.1 in a row. But this was also supposed to be Olivia Rodrigo's week, but this time it isn't. And yet there's still no Cure for the No.1 run of Rein Me In.
Pout all you want Drake, but you don't get everything your own way every time. The man with no quality control filter releases three albums at once, but still can't quite manage a chart clean sweep. Find out what he did manage inside.
This lady is not Michael Jackson. But she is one of the stars of the newly-minted video for a song that becomes a major chart hit for the very first time ever in this country. It is a bizarre world where the golden oldies are taking over. And the songs of 2026 are increasingly struggling to be heard.
