Pink Floyd ride the gravy train

Pink Floyd have seen their album sales rocket 13-fold following their triumphant appearance at Live 8.

The supergroup were reunited on stage for the first time in more than 20 years.

Yesterday fans flocked to record stores to buy copies of the band’s greatest hits album.

Sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd are up 1,343% at HMV.

The Who and Annie Lennox also registered massive increases.

In fact, every act who played at Hyde Park on Saturday has received a sales boost – except for Pete Doherty.

Doherty, whose shambolic duet with Sir Elton John was the lowlight of the concert, is the only artist to see his sales fall since Live 8.

Sales of Up The Bracket, the album he recorded with his former band The Libertines, are down 35%.

HMV compared sales at its 200 stores yesterday with the previous Sunday.

Coldplay sold the most albums yesterday but only registered a 3% increasebecause new release X&Y also sold huge numbers last week.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: “Even allowing for the relative nature of this exercise, where back catalogue sales of the more established acts are being measured from a fairly low base, this snapshot shows that Live 8 is having a marked effect on sales – just like its predecessor 20 years ago.

“Iconic acts like Pink Floyd and The Who have done particularly well. It shows that when acts like these perform, it reminds everybody how fantastic they are and people flock to buy the records that perhaps they never got around to buying when they first came out.

“Razorlight and Joss Stone have also registered big sales increases, so they obviously went down very well with the audience.

“It’s likely the impact of Live 8 will become more pronounced throughout the week, as more fans and record buyers respond to the combined effect of the weekend’s televised event, the G8 summit and all the ensuing publicity.”

Sales increase at HMV between Sunday June 26 and Sunday July 3:

1 Pink Floyd – Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd – 1343%

2 The Who – Then and Now – 863%

3 Annie Lennox – Eurythmics Greatest Hits – 500%

4 Dido – Life For Rent – 412%

5 Razorlight – Up All Night – 335%

6 Robbie Williams – Greatest Hits – 320%

7 Joss Stone – Mind, Body and Soul – 309%

8 Sting – The Very Best of Sting & The Police – 300%

9 Travis – Singles – 268%

10 Madonna – Immaculate Collection – 200%

11 Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters – 174%

12 Mariah Carey – Greatest Hits – 170%

13 Snoop Dogg – Rhythm & Gangsta – 166%

14 The Killers – Hot Fuss – 131%

15 U2 – Best of: 1990-2000 – 116%

16 Elton John – Greatest Hits: 1970-2002 – 111%

17 Keane – Hopes and Fears – 101%

18 The Beatles – 1 – 71%

19 Snow Patrol – Final Straw – 69%

20 REM – Reveal – 50%

21 Stereophonics – Language Sex Violence Other? – 36%

22 Coldplay – X&Y – 3%

23 The Libertines – Up The Bracket – - (minus) 35%