Arctic Monkeys Set For Album Sales Record

The debut album by The Arctic Monkeys sold close to 120,000 copies on its first day of release, figures showed today.

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not had been estimated to shift 60,000 copies. But the album did almost double that with sales of 118,501, outselling the rest of the top 20 album chart combined and taking the industry by surprise. It is on course to become the fastest-selling debut album in chart history. The record is currently held by Hearsay's debut Popstars, which sold 306,631 copies in its first week in March 2001, but chart experts believe the Arctic Monkeys could sell more than 350,000.

The Sheffield band's record label Domino has only shipped 250,000 copies of the album to record stores, more will have to be supplied or shops will run out by the end of the week.

HMV head of music Phil Penman said: "We knew Day One sales were going to be big, but nobody could have expected them to be this huge. It's pretty phenomenal, really, it's as if they'd won the X Factor, but achieving the same kind of sales without the benefit of a massive TV audience. They're well on their way to having the first million-selling album of 2006. If it continues to sell at this rate, there's even a danger shops could sell out by the end of the week."

The album has already sold more in one day than the debut efforts from Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand sold in their first week.

The four-piece, fronted by Alex Turner, are currently number one in the singles chart with When The Sun Goes Down. They rocketed to fame last year with I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. The band have four nominations at next month's NME Awards, Best British Band, Best New Band, Best Live Band and Best Track.