Irish record stores hinder Rubberbandits’ chances of securing Chritmas No. 1

The Rubberbandits are leading the race for Christmas No. 1 with their single ‘Horse Outside’, but only in online sales.

The 'Bandits smashed the biggest ever weekly sale for any download in Irish chart history last week with 15,000 sales but the Limerick lads are a long way behind in physical copy sales in major record stores nationwide.

"Matt is currently outselling the Rubberbandits by a margin of nearly 3 to 1," said Head of Press & PR for HMV, Gennaro Castaldo.

So, it's looking very good for Matt to claim Ireland's Christmas No. 1 when the official chart is announced tomorrow."

The Rubberbandits may be hindered by the fact HMV in Galway and Dundrum Town Centre do not have physical copies of ‘Horse Outside’ on the shelves, while Matt Cardle’s single continues to sell well in stores.

“Since Matt Cardle released his single we’ve sold 2,776 copies,” said a HMV Dundrum Town Centre sales assistant.

“In general, single sales have been poor. We don’t even sell the Rubberbandits.”

The HMV store in Galway also informed us that they have not yet received any stock of the Rubberbandits single but that Matt Cardle’s track is selling quite well.

It has been reported that the HMV store in Limerick sold out of copies of ‘Horse Outside’ in a matter of hours last Friday.

5,000 copies of the YouTube hit flew from the shelves and 25,000 copies are to arrive in store today (Wednesday) to satisfy demand in the area.

What is keeping the Rubberbandits in with a real chance of securing the Christmas No. 1 is the volume of download sales.

They are currently topping the iTunes charts with Matt Cardle's track in second and, interestingly, Glen Hansard and Damien Damien Dempsey's version of 'The Auld Triangle' is in the sixth.

The 'Bandits single has 3.38 million hits on YouTube but, of course, this is not taken into account for topping the chart. Since 2006, one download on iTunes is the equivalent to one CD purchase.

So, let's hope everyone gets behind the Rubberbandits to bag that No. 1 spot.

You can buy their single 'Horse Outside' here.