The Lathums: Wigan indie band score debut number one album

The Lathums are fronted by singer-songwriter Alex Moore

Wigan band The Lathums have secured a UK number one with their debut album.

Their LP, How Beautiful Life Can Be, held off competition from fellow UK band Public Service Broadcasting, as well as North American stars Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Nas X.

It means British bands have accounted for more than a quarter (28%) of album chart-toppers so far in 2021 - compared with 17% in 2020 and 15% in 2019.

"It'll take a while for this one to sink in," said frontman Alex Moore.

"It proves what's possible for young British artists with a pure-at-heart ambition to reach people with songs like ours, making friends every step along the way and finding that dreams can come true.

"How Beautiful Life Can Be is about seeing the good in things, holding on and coming through difficult times with a smile at the end. Today our smiles couldn't be any wider."

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UK groups have topped the album chart for 11 out of 39 weeks so far this year, according to new research by the BPI, which represents the UK recording industry. There were nine in the whole of 2020, and eight in 2019.

Other British guitar bands to have had number one albums in 2021 include Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers, Bring Me The Horizon, London Grammar, Royal Blood and You Me At Six.

"New British bands have been quietly breaking through in recent years, but this trend has really exploded in 2021, propelled by streaming and vinyl and fuelled by a new wave of brilliant guitar groups drawn from all over the UK," said BPI spokesman Gennaro Castaldo.

The Lathums also reached the top 20 of the album chart in July 2020 with a compilation of their first two EPs, but it wasn't an official album.

They then made the BBC Sound of 2021 longlist at the start of this year, while in May the band supported Blossoms at a joyous government pilot event in Liverpool, the first music festival to be held before lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Their album, produced by The Coral's James Skelly, was recorded at the city's famous Parr Street Studios.

Elsewhere on Friday, Ed Sheeran's track Shivers held on to top spot in the singles chart for a third week.