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Artist News
Iron Maiden top HMV’s favourite British album poll
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 29 May 2012
HMV has announced the results of a public vote it conducted ahead of the Queen’s ‘hey, look how long I’ve been Queen’ party this weekend to identify Britain’s favourite British album and film.
Or, perhaps more likely, to identify which British cultural phenomena have the most committed and web-savvy fanbases. Which is probably why Iron Maiden and Depeche Mode topped the music list published yesterday, ahead of the more usual suspects of The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Queen, who come slightly lower down the top ten. It’s also presumably why Monty Python do so well in the films list.
Commenting on the poll, HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo told reporters: “The beginning of Elizabeth II’s reign, and the bright new future it represented, didn’t just coincide with a flowering of British popular culture, it helped to provide the very spark that lit the touch-paper for an explosion in music and film talent. Since then, the Queen has presided over the richest period of ultural achievement in our nation’s history, so it’s only right that her Diamond Jubilee, which ironically also encapsulates sixty years of the official charts, should be a period when we reflect on the greatest British albums and films of the past six decades”.
Meanwhile, responding to the news his band had topped the music poll with their 1982 album ‘The Number of the Beast’, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson told CMU: “We’re astonished and delighted to hear ‘The Number Of The Beast’ has been named number one in HMV’s Diamond Jubilee survey for the greatest British album category. Some of the most influential and classic albums from the past 60 years were in the running so it’s a testament to our incredibly loyal and ever-supportive fans who voted for us. Iron Maiden is a proudly British band, so to win this category as voted for by the British public, in Jubilee year, is very special. Thank you to all our wonderful fans!”
And here is Britain’s favourite British albums according to the HMV poll (with percentage of overall vote in brackets):
1. Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast (9.18%)
2. Depeche Mode – Violator (6.30%)
3. The Beatles – Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (5.69%)
4. The Beatles – Abbey Road (5.67%)
5. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon (5.23%)
6. The Beatles – Revolver (4.01%)
7. Queen – A Night At The Opera (3.98%)
8. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (3.91%)
9. Adele – 21 (3.07%)
10. The Beatles – White Album (2.60%)
And here’s the film list:
1. Trainspotting (6.00%)
2. Monty Python And The Holy Grail (5.48%)
3. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part Two (4.79%)
4. Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (4.78%)
5. A Clockwork Orange (4.37%)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (4.29%)
7. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (3.69%)
8. The Italian Job (3.11%)
9. Shaun Of The Dead (2.95%)
10. The Kings Speech (2.66%)
