Dylan gets first US number one for 30 years

Bob Dylan has hit the top spot of the Billboard chart for the first time in 30 years with his album ’Modern Times’.

The LP, the veteran's first chart-topper since 1976’s ’Desire’, sold 192,000 copies in its first week on the shelves.

Dylan is the oldest person ever to go straight in at Number One in the American album chart.

Although his most recent studio albums - 1997’s ’Time Out Of Mind’ (1997) and 2001’s ’Love & Theft’ - hit the Top Ten, neither managed to grab the Number One spot.

Last September enjoyed a tenfold sales resurgence in the UK following the release of Martin Scorsese’s two-part retrospective documentary ’No Direction Home'.

Meanwhile as previously reported, the star is about to embark on a North American tour with the likes of The Raconteurs, Foo Fighters and Kings Of Leon being lined up as support.

With Kings Of Leon he will play:

Vancouver Pacific Coliseum (October 11)
Seattle Key Arena (13)
Portland Memorial Coliseum (14)
San Francisco Bill Graham Civic (16, 17)
Sacramento ARCO Arena (18)
Los Angeles The Forum (20)
San Diego Cox Arena (22)
Denver Fillmore (24, no Kings Of Leon)
Lincoln Pershing Auditorium (25)
Chicago Sears Centre (27)
Chicago Sears Centre (28)

With Foo Fighters (who will be playing acoustically):

St. Paul Xcel Energy Center (29)
Madison Kohl Center (31)
Detroit Palace Of Auburn Hills (November 2)
London The John Labatt Centre (3)
Ottawa Scotiabank Place (5)
Toronto Air Canada Centre (7)
Montreal Bell Centre (8)

With The Raconteurs:

Portland Cumberland County Civic Center (9)
Boston Agganis Arena (11, 12)
Uniondale Nassau Coliseum (13)
Amherst Univ. Of MA Mullins Center (15)
East Rutherford Continental Airlines Arena (16)
Fairfax Patriot Center (17)
Philadelphia Wachovia Spectrum (18)