Blast from the past kick ass.(The Market)

With runner-up Anastacia's self-titled album suffering a 9% dip in sales week-on-week, Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits'--down just 6%--widens its margin of victory at the top of the chart. The Guns N' Roses album sold nearly 49,000 copies last week, to bring its six-week sales tally to 471,000, a total beaten among artist albums this year only by Katie Melua's Call Off The Search (858,000), Norah Jones's Feels Like Home (709,000) and George Michael's Patience (493,000).

Sales of the Guns N' Roses and Anastacia albums together only just beat the third-week tally of 87,562 registered by compilation chart topper Now That's What I Call Music! 57. Sales of Now 57 dipped by 44% last week, but it still sold far more than twice as ninny copies as compilation chart runner up Clubland X-treme 2. Its 20-day sales tally of 578,809 means that Now! 57 has already sold more copies than Now! 54--its 2003 equivalent--which has sold only 518,026 copies in more than a year in the shops, and which registered third-week sales of 53,816, a total Now! 57 exceeded by 62.7% last week.

UK acts are having a tough time on both singles and albums ...