Stuff of Dreams: Fleetwood Mac topped Ireland's vinyl album charts last year

rumours fleetwood mac

Fleetwood Mac sat atop the charts with their seminal album Rumours in 1977, and its popularity remains the stuff of Dreams as it was the top-selling vinyl album in Ireland last year.

While industry officials feared that they were Never Going Back Again to the popularity of times gone by, sales of Vinyl records are booming, and rose by over a third in the last year, according to the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA).

The Chain of hits by acts from both at home and abroad helped to propel a strong year in record sales, even as the pandemic meant that many acts could not tour for a second year during Covid restrictions.

American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2021, dominating the singles and album charts in Ireland, and she’ll be hoping that popularity Don’t Stop as she looks forward to a headline gig at the Marquee in Cork in June.

It’s a mix of the old and the new in the top 10 of Irish record sales, with Rodrigo, Dermot Kennedy and Adele joined by greatest hits albums from Queen, Abba and Fleetwood Mac in the official albums chart for 2021.

John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Neil Finn, Mick Fleetwood, and Mike Campbell of Fleetwood Mac perform onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Vinyl sales rose 38% year on year, and this helped to propel an overall growth of 35% in the Ireland albums market. 

One-tenth of all albums sold (407,000) were vinyls. Ireland’s album market rose to €18.47m in 2021, up from €13.67m in 2020.

Adele’s album 30, which was released in November, was Ireland’s fastest-selling release of 2021.

The top Irish album release of the year was Life in Colour by Picture This, followed by Christy Moore’s Flying into Mystery and Wild Dreams by Westlife.

Also featuring in the top 10 was Inhaler, Mick Flannery & Susan O’Neill, Imelda May, Bicep, Villagers, For Those I Love and Declan O’Rourke.

Audio streaming, meanwhile, helped to propel growth in Ireland’s singles market, with a 15.5% year-on-year growth to 81.2 million chart sales across all formats.

Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran topped the singles chart, followed by  Drivers Licence and  Good 4 U from Olivia Rodrigo.

In the Irish homegrown releases in the singles chart for 2021, Dermot Kennedy comes out on top with Better Days, followed by Anne-Marie and Niall Horan with Our Song and Talk About by Rain Radio/DJ Craig Gorman.

IRMA spokesperson Willie Kavanagh said: “While premium audio has powered the expansion of the singles landscape, the continued adoption and collectability of vinyl means the format now makes up one tenth of album consumption, and has played an important role in driving up the value of Ireland’s albums market by over a third this year.

“There’s never been more ways for Irish music fans to access their favourite music, and these robust market numbers for 2021 demonstrate the ability of both digital and physical formats to coexist and thrive.

“A special mention also to Inhaler for an outstanding breakthrough year, bringing home the biggest Irish debut album of the year, as well as becoming the first homegrown debut act to top the UK chart in over a decade too.”