The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (EMI) is marching back to No. 1 in the U.K., a half century after it first conquered the sales chart.

The remastered 50th anniversary edition of the hyper-influential album has shifted 24,000 combined sales at the halfway stage of the new chart week and grabs pole position on the Official Albums Chart Update.

Sgt Pepper's takes a “considerable lead” over Ed Sheeran's Divide (Asylum) at the midweek point, according to the Official Charts Company, and will earn the chart crown if it maintains its winning position late Friday when the weekly chart is published.

The Beatles’ celebrated eighth album logged 27 weeks at No. 1 in 1967 and 1968 and racked up 15 consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. It’s also topped its fair share of Greatest Albums of All Time lists and is recognized as the best-selling studio album in U.K. history, with more than 5 million sales. The only albums to shift more copies are greatest hits compilations from Queen and ABBA.

To mark its 50-year milestone, Sgt. Pepper's was released in several configurations May 26, highlighted by a six-disc set with four CDs, a DVD and Blu-ray with the remix, outtakes, mono album mix, video content, posters and a book.

Check out the chart update here.