Robbie Williams tops midweek chart

Robbie Williams is on course to score his first solo number one single in eight years with his comeback single Candy topping the midweek charts.

The track, which was co-written by Gary Barlow, has notched up sales of 73,000, leaving him likely to reach the top spot for the first time since he hit number one with Radio in 2004.

Candy, is also one of the fastest selling singles of 2012 so far – which will come as a relief for fans of the singer, who had threatened to quit music if the song did not do well.

‘I don’t want to emotionally blackmail the whole nation but if Candy’s not a hit, I’m not touring,’ Williams recently told Radio 1 DJ Greg James.

Last weekend’s number one, the Labrinth/Emeli Sande duet Beneath Your Beautiful – has slipped to number two.

Meanwhile, Wiley’s ‘Can You Hear Me’ lands at number three and Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ rises two spots from seven to five.

Outside the Top 10, The Lumineers leap 23 to 14 with ‘Ho Hey’, Paloma Faith’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ vaults 29 to 16, and fun. lift 18 spots to 20 with ‘Some Nights’.

Hot Natured’s ‘Benediction’ debuts at 31, Asaf Avidan’s ‘One Day/Reckoning Song’ starts at 36, and Calvin Harris and Tinie Tempah’s ‘Drinking From the Bottle’ enters at 39.

On the album chart, Harris’s 18 Months is leading the tally, while Kylie Minogue’s The Abbey Road Sessions is 5,000 copies behind at two.