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One Direction have scored the UK's fastest-selling album for two years, with fans buying 237,000 copies of Midnight Memories in its first week.

Midnight Memories, the boy band's third album, has gone straight to the top of this week's UK albums chart.

It has sold more copies in a single week than any artist album since Michael Buble's Christmas in 2011.

Gary Barlow has a new entry at number two, knocking his Take That bandmate Robbie Williams down to third place.

Since I Saw You Last, Barlow's first full solo album for 14 years, had sales of 116,000 in its first week.

That beat the tally of 109,000 that took Williams to number one last week.

But neither could compete with One Direction, whose new collection has proved more popular than either of their first two albums were in their first weeks of release.

Christmas is normally the busiest time of year for album sales as people buy gifts.

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot said: "The success really does send a signal that the festive season is almost with us - and means 1D are now real contenders to claim the biggest album of the year."

The boy band also have three tracks in the top 40 of this week's singles chart, led by Story of My Life at number three.

At number one is Under Control, a new collaboration between Calvin Harris, Alesso and Hurts frontman Theo Hutchcraft.

Gary Barlow's Let Me Go has risen to number two, with last week's chart-topper - Lily Allen's cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know - dropping to fourth place.