Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Rush for Oasis: know what I mean?

Agnes Severin
Monday 07 July 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

No maybe about it. The Gallagher brothers' new single is definitely heading for number one in the charts.

Released yesterday, the new Oasis single, "D'You Know What I Mean", has already sold thousands of copies, with some fans even beginning to queue on Sunday night to take advantage of a special midnight opening at 20 HMV stores.

In the Mancunian band's home town, 200 fans queued outside the HMV store, and a similar number did the same in Nottingham to enable them to buy a copy at the first opportunity. Mark Fletcher, manager of the Nottingham store, said several hundred people crowded into his shop during a 45-minute period to be the first owner of the record. "It's definitely outsold our expectations and is certain to do very well,"he said. "The publicity surrounding the new record has created a lot of awareness for the new album too which is due out in mid-August. Now our plan is to do this again and open at midnight for the album."

HMV anticipates selling 100,000 copies before the end of the week. "Every other single that is being bought is an Oasis single," said a spokesman.

A spokesman for the Virgin Megastore, in central London, said about 1,000 copies had already been sold, and he added: "We expect to sell 10,000 by the end of the week." The total figure for the chain's 76 UK stores would be about 50 000, he said.

Two other Virgin stores - in Aberdeen and Norwich - also opened at midnight. In Norwich, 326 copies were sold within 20 minutes.

Tower Records, in Piccadilly, had sold 323 copies of the single by mid- afternoon yesterday. "This is more than the number of singles we would sell for a whole weekend," said the head of the singles department. "Such sales are really unusual. Singles are not sold like that. People are used to waiting for the album to be released."

A spokesman for Tower Records said: "We expect to sell 1,500 copies by the end of the week. Oasis's single is already number one of our chart. It will be number one in the national chart next week."

Leading article, page 15

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in