Chart bosses are threatening to disqualify thousands of sales of Liverpool's Hillsborough single amid "bulk buying" fears.
Some fans have bought multiple copies, arousing suspicion that the sales figures are innaccurate. This week at Liverpool One’s HMV store one fan bought 96 copies of the £2 CD – One for each Liverpool fan who lost their lives.
The move to disqualify "bulk buying" figures, by the Official Charts Company, was today criticised by the Liverpool Collective behind the song.
A warning memo sent by analysing firm Millward Brown said bulk purchases could compromise the eligibility for the charts.
A sale of over five copies can arouse suspicion from watchdog bosses. But city figures behind the Fields of Anfield Road project today blasted the move as “ridiculous and frightening”.
And they argued there was no commercial incentive as cash from the CD was being donated to the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
Liverpool Mayor Cllr Steve Rotheram said: “This is not a commercial venture. People are buying to give presents to friends and colleagues. This needs to be challenged as this interpretation of what we’re doing here is frightening.”
The Picket's Phil Hayes said: “This CD has more significance than just another record.
“We’ve organised this project to be commemorative, not to cynically commercialise it.”
The Official Charts Company, which highlights any record bulk buying, began to monitor sales to combat irregularities first spotted in the 1980s.
Many believe that The Sex Pistols' first single, God Save the Queen was forced from the top spot in 1977 because it was thought it would cause offence.
The Fields of Anfield Road, inspired by Peter St John’s Irish folk ballad Fields of Athenry, was reworked by the Liverpool Collective.
Artists John Power, of the La’s, Peter Hooton, of The Farm, Nick Kilroe, from Echo and the Bunnymen, James Walsh, of Starsailor, and Rob Taylor of the Troubadours, joined forces to record and produce the song.
Also on the track is the Kop Choir made up of ex-players Kenny Dalglish, Phil Thompson, John Aldridge, Bruce Grobbelaar, Howard Gayle and Alan Kennedy. The single stands in the Top 20. It can be bought at HMV stores in Liverpool, Speke, Birkenhead and Southport, downloaded on iTunes for 79p, or bought from Liverpool’s Anfield stadium’s club shop.
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