Billy Lockett celebrates chart-topping new album Things Are Looking Up
Billy Lockett is celebrating after his second album topped one of the UK’s official album charts and featured in the top 10 of four others.
Lockett released the album Things Are Looking Up last week, the successor to 2023’s Abington Grove.
The singer-songwriter was joined by friends at his Northampton home last week when he learned of where the album had charted.
Things Are Looking Up topped the Independent Album Breakers Chart and featured in nine other of the Official UK Chart Company’s charts.
Reacting online, Lockett said: “Best day of my life. Thank you so much everyone.
“Things Are Looking Up in its first week of release has secured five top 10s, one number one and a top 50 album overall.
“The cherry on the cake is we beat Ed O’Brien from Radiohead to get the number one. Radiohead is my all-time favourite band ever since I was a kid so this makes it even more surreal.
“We’ve done this independently, purely the power of a real genuine fan base built up over 13 years.
“No label. No big marketing budget or big writers or fancy studios - just me in my cellar in Northampton for three years making it with a few mates on a laptop.”
The Independent Album Breakers Chart compiles the UK's biggest independently released albums of the week by an artist who has not yet reached the Top 40, based on sales of digital bundles, CDs, vinyl and other formats, across a seven-day period.
The record also reached number four in the Independent Albums Chart, 34, in the Official Record Store Chart, 14 in the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, eight in the Official Physical Albums Chart, two in the Official Albums Downloads Chart, six in the Official Albums Sales Chart, 12 in the Official Scottish Albums Chart, 33 in the Official Albums Chart Update and 50 in the Official Albums Chart.
Lockett added: “I hope this can give new artists the belief to trust their own opinions on the music they make and realise you don’t need money or labels or ‘industry experts’ in 2026.
“You just need to work hard, be honest and learn to listen to your gut.
“This is an amazing start but it really is just the start, the charts and numbers are great but what’s really exciting is this is thousands of people learning all the songs and now when we tour you’ll all be able to sing along, me and the band honestly can’t wait for that.”
Because of how the Official Albums Chart compiles its lists and because of how streaming influences it, many of the albums which feature in the main chart by artists such as Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Oasis, Elton John and Abba have become ‘mainstays’, making it challenging for new artists to displace them.
As a result, many artists and fans look towards charts such as the one Lockett topped as a better indicator of ‘new’ releases.
Things Are Looking up is available across streaming platforms and on CD and vinyl, in record stores and online at https://billylockett.com