At points last week it looked as if Yes stood a good chance of topping the chart, giving the band their first number one album since 1993’s Very and the second of their 25-year chart career.

This came despite the album being mistakenly released on iTunes.co.uk on Friday, March 20 – three days before its official release date.

In those three days it sold 2,557 copies via iTunes, enough to elevate the album to number two this week, and would have charted at number 86 last week had it been eligible. However, these sales did not qualify for the chart as Official Chart Company rules state that “sales of digital variants will only be eligible for the combined chart in the week of the official release date of corresponding physical variant”.

A spokesman for the group says that the band are “extremely disappointed” at the mishap and also flagged up problems with the physical release of Yes. These include a printing error with the booklet of the two-CD edition, meaning certain pages were printed in the wrong order.

The band have already apologised for the mistake on their website, petshopboys.co.uk, advising fans to fill in a form in order to receive a new booklet.

An EMI spokeswoman says the album going up on iTunes was “an isolated incident, the result of a human error in data inputting”.

Labels: charts, Pet Shop Boys