Artist News Releases

Viola Beach album goes to number one

By | Published on Monday 8 August 2016

Viola Beach

Viola Beach have claimed the number one spot in the UK album chart with the posthumous release of their debut album.

As previously reported, all four members of the band and their manager were killed in February this year when the car they were travelling in fell into a canal in Sweden. In memory of them, their families took the decision to release the album, which came out on 29 Jul. It then went straight to number one on Friday.

The families said in a statement: “The tragedy that ended Craig, Jack, Kris, River and Tom’s lives in Sweden and the pain and sense of loss will never leave us. By sending the Viola Beach album to number one the public have sent out an important message to the world. The tragic circumstance that met Viola Beach and their manager Craig that fateful night in Sweden will not now define their lives. What will now define their lives and what they will be remembered for, forever, is the music they were so passionate about making together”.

They continued: “For that, we will be eternally humbled and ever thankful to every single person who by buying this glorious album has invested in their lasting musical legacy. The pain will never leave us but neither will the affection shown by every fan. Maybe one day that affection will live longer in the memory than the pain. So from us all, a simple but heartfelt ‘thank you'”.

Meanwhile Official Charts Company chief Martin Talbot added: “It is hard to think of an album which more people were rooting for than the Viola Beach release – nor a success which has felt so bittersweet. We – and the wider music community – are delighted that it has taken the number one spot – but it is an awful tragedy that Jack, Kris, River, Tomas and Craig are not here to see themselves take a place in the annals of British music”.

In June, the band’s story was brought back into the wider public consciousness when Coldplay covered their single, ‘Boys That Sing’, during their Glastonbury headline set.



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