Scots rock band Mogwai score number one album after 25 years

Scottish rock bank Mogwai have made it to number one in the album charts, 25 years after their first release.

As The Love Continues is the group's 10th album and fought off grime artist Ghetts to take the top spot.

Despite taking to the streets of London in an armoured tank to promote it, Ghetts' third album Conflict of Interest was 2,900 sales behind the Glasgow-based four-piece.

The Official Charts Company confirmed the news on Friday.

Mogwai frontman Stuart Braithwaite said: "I can't believe it - it's something we never thought would happen.

"It's absolutely outrageous and not anything we've ever considered. It's not the kind of place a band that makes music like us usually ends up.

"It's bewildering and amazing at the same time."

Stuart told BBC Scotland's The Nine that when he first saw the email putting them at number one, he thought the report was for one city or one record shop, not the whole of the UK.

Mogwai's previous chart peak came in 2017 when they reached number six with Every Country's Sun.

Prior to that only one of their records had cracked the top 10.

The band, known for their mainly instrumental brand of experimental post-rock, also became this week's best-seller on vinyl and the top seller in UK independent record shops.

The race up the album chart was heightened on Tuesday when Hollywood actor Elijah Wood tweeted support for the record.

The Lord of the Rings star shared Stuart Braithwaite's tweet calling on fans to help make the record a bestseller and wrote "come on folks".

Stuart said the band had never bowed to pressure to change and their chart success has been a long time coming.

"We've always done our own thing, been very independent and been very in our own lane," he said. "I think people appreciate that. There's a lot of people in music and different kinds of culture that go chasing the latest trend and that's never been our thing at all."

He thinks a lot people have been attracted to the record because it reflects current events.

He said: "It's really resonated. The music's quite personal and obviously everyone is going through a hard time right now so that might be a factor.

"Also our fans are really loyal, and we are really lucky new generations have discovered our music in recent years and the people who found out about us in the early years have stuck with us."

Mogwai recorded a recent session for BBC Radio Scotland's Vic Galloway.

And the band had been due to play Glasgow's Hydro this month but like many bands, they have been grounded by the pandemic.

Stuart hopes to get back out on the road as soon as possible.

"We would go anywhere to play and I'm sure it's the same for most musicians. I think once things start opening up it will all happen. I wouldn't imagine we will be very far behind anywhere else."

For the moment, though, the band will celebrate their chart success, lockdown-style.

"We'll probably do a wee zoom. I don't live too far from Barry [Burns], so we'll maybe meet in the park and jump around the swings or something like that," he said.

"Maybe a few glasses of wine and talk about how weird it is."