The Official Charts Company Midweek Sales Flash is in and Sam Ryder has taken an early lead in the albums chart.

At the end of a successful breakout year in which he soared to fame as the UK’s contender in the Eurovision Song Contest, Ryder’s album There’s Nothing But Space, Man! has 16,470 sales to its name at the first midweek count. Of that total, 14,588 derive from physical, 1,164 are from downloads and 718 are from streams. Sunday’s ...