The Vamps take surprise lead over Ed Sheeran in bid for first NUMBER ONE album

Sheeran has been at the top for 13 of the last 18 weeks with ÷ [Divide], with only Kasabian, Harry Styles, The Beatles, London Grammar and Royal Blood interrupting the reign.

Now, The Vamps – defying their critics despite not having a Top 10 hit since 2014 – are leading the charge to this week’s summit.

According to midweek data from the Official Charts Company, they are leading Sheeran by two copies to one at this halfway stage, and stand to benefit further from having performed on The Voice Kids final.

Night & Day is a unique two-part project for the quartet, with the Night Edition out now and the Day Edition to follow at the end of the year.

The record includes All Night, their song with Matoma, and Middle of the Night, a team-up with Martin Jensen.

If the boys hang on, the LP will be their first ever number one: in 2014 their debut Meet The Vamps peaked at No2, and 2015’s Wake Up bowed at No10.

Explaining the two-part album strategy earlier this year, Tristan Evans told the Belfast Telegraph: “People release albums like once every year now.

“Ours are a little more delayed but I think we do take time and they are right.”

Brad Simpson added: “With the first two we wrote about 50 to 70 songs for each album and we all got attachments for certain songs that didn’t make it.

“But with having a two-parter we get to release a lot more and it’s always great to have more material out there.

“Especially now when people are releasing stuff all the time and consumers want something instant and quick.”

This week’s final rankings will be announced on Friday.