Tony Blair Band Aid 20 shock

[RuffRyders]

BEST SELLING BAND AID!

BAND AID 20’s ’DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS?’ is the best selling single of the year so far – and today TONY BLAIR pledged his support by buying two copies.

The release has already shifted more than 200,000 copies and is in line to hit 300,000 sales by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday (December 5).

Yesterday’s sales (December 2) hit approximately 40,000 copies – a figure matched by Wednesday’s (December 1).

Today, Prime Minister Tony Blair bought a copy while in Edinburgh.

Staff at the record store at HMV on Princes Street were “surprised” when Blair walked into the store at 9am, accompanied by a number of aides and local police.

Shop manager Clive Smith said: "When the store opened at 8.30am, there were, what I thought at the time, some slightly suspicious looking people hanging around the front entrance, and it was only later, when the Prime Minister came in, that I realised they must have been carrying out a security check.

”When Mr Blair came in unannounced, we were all pretty gobsmacked, to say the least. Our customer helper approached him to see if he needed any assistance, and it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the Band Aid single rather than the latest album from Eminem, which is our current best seller."

HMV spokesperson Gennaro Castaldo said that the single remains well on course to top the UK singles chart this Sunday.

He said: "With two more sales days to go this week, including Saturday (December 4), when a lot of people will be out, having just been paid, to do their Christmas shopping, Band Aid 20 is really well placed to go past its unofficial week-one target of a quarter of a million sales and, if anything, may now get closer to the 300,000 mark."

He added: "This would not only represent a great step towards the single becoming a million-seller, but would underline early confidence that it's almost certainly likely to be this year's Christmas Number One."

The previous best selling single of 2004 had been Eamon’s ’/censored.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='(cens)' /> It (I Don’t Want You Back)’ released on April 12, which sold 153,000 copies in its first week.

[url="http://www.nme.com/news/110717.htm"][Source][/url]