LONDON: British pop veterans Take That scored their first chart-topping single for six years on Sunday, beating "Do They Know it's Christmas?", a song intended to raise money to fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa, into second place.

The UK's Official Charts Company said Take That's "These Days" sold just 2,500 more copies than the charity single by Band Aid 30, a collaboration between well-known British artists that aimed to repeat the success of a 1984 song that raised millions of pounds to fight famine in Africa.

The narrow success gave Take That their 12th career number one, 21 years after their first chart success. Olly Murs was in third place with "Wrapped Up", ahead of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking out Loud" and "Real Love" by Clean Bandit.

Murs had more success in the album chart as his newly-released "Never Been Better" sold 93,000 copies - 20,000 more than nearest rival Ed Sheeran's "X".

Last week's number one, "Four" by One Direction, fell to third place, pushing Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" into fourth and "The Endless River" by Pink Floyd into fifth.