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Overview of the events of 1981 in British music
List of years in British music
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This is a summary of 1981 in music in the United Kingdom , including the official charts from that year.
9 February – Phil Collins releases his first solo album, although he would not leave the band Genesis until 1995.14 February – Billy Idol leaves Generation X to begin a solo career.26 February – The Symphony No. 2 by Peter Maxwell Davies commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its centenary, receives its world premiere at Symphony Hall, Boston , with Seiji Ozawa conducting.4 April – Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision Song Contest with "Making Your Mind Up ".7 April – Former Who manager Kit Lambert dies after falling down a flight of stairs in his mother's home in London.17 April – Eric Clapton is released from St. Paul's Hospital in Minnesota following a month-long treatment for bleeding ulcers.18 April – Yes announce that they are breaking up. They would, however, reunite frequently in the future.25 April – Paul McCartney 's band, Wings , officially breaks up.2 May – Working as a local wedding singer 12 months previously, Scottish vocalist Sheena Easton hits number one in the US with "Morning Train (9 to 5) "11 May – The musical Cats West End .August – The success of Stars on 45 leads to a short-lived medley craze . The most successful imitator of the Stars on 45 format is, rather unexpectedly, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , whose "Hooked on Classics (Parts 1 & 2)" reaches number two in the charts.
17 June – Pink Floyd perform their last full concert with Roger Waters , as part of The Wall Tour, at Earls Court in London. Waters would not perform with the band again until a one-off performance for Live 8 in 2005.14 September – Emma Kirkby and Gothic Voices record the album A Feather on the Breath of God St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb , London.The tables below include sales between 1 January and 31 December 1981: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week
Best-selling singles [ edit ] At the end of 1981, the official year-end charts provided by the UK's chart provider, the British Market Research Bureau, stated that the best-selling single of the year was "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell.[ 1] [ 2] [ 3]
Best-selling albums [ edit ] [ 4] [ 5]
Notes:
^ Reached number 2 in 1980
^ Reached number 3 in 1980
^ Reached number 1 in 1980
Classical music: new works [ edit ] 11 January
22 January – Sarah Davies, bassist (Hepburn )19 January – Thaila Zucchi , singer (allSTARS* ) and actress24 February – Gwilym Simcock , pianist and composer11 March – Russell Lissack , guitarist with Bloc Party 13 March – Ivo Neame , jazz pianist and saxophonist20 March – Declan Bennett, singer (Point Break )26 March – Jay Sean , singer1 April – Hannah Spearritt , actress and singer (S Club 7 )2 April – Linzi Martin, singer (Girl Thing )10 April – Liz McClarnon , singer (Atomic Kitten )21 April – Mike Christie , baritone (G4)26 April – Ms Dynamite , singer4 May – Ryan Elliott, singer (Ultimate Kaos )5 May – Craig David , singer20 May – Sean Conlon , musician (5ive )22 May – Su-Elise Nash , singer (Mis-Teeq )23 May – Gwenno Saunders , singer5 June – Anika Bostelaar, Dutch-born singer (Girl Thing )22 June – Chris Urbanowicz , guitarist (Editors )23 June – Antony Costa , singer (Blue )27 June – Colin and Joe O'Halloran, Irish singers (Reel)6 July – Vicky Palmer, singer (Boom! )12 July – Rebecca Hunter , singer (allSTARS* )19 July – Didz Hammond , singer and bass player (Dirty Pretty Things and The Cooper Temple Clause )24 July – Lisa Lister, guitarist (Hepburn )8 August – Bradley McIntosh , singer (S Club 7 )11 August – Sandi Thom , singer-songwriter21 August – Jenilca Giusti , Puerto Rican-born singer (Solid HarmoniE )29 September – Suzanne Shaw , singer (Hear'Say ) and actress6 October – Sarah Keating, Irish singer (Six )10 October – Una Healy , Irish singer (The Saturdays )13 October – Kele Okereke , singer (Bloc Party )31 October – Liam McKenna, Northern Irish singer (Six)17 November – Sarah Harding , singer (Girls Aloud )20 November – Kimberley Walsh , singer (Girls Aloud )22 November – Ben Adams , singer (A1 )26 November – Natasha Bedingfield , singer[ 7] 19 December – Sam Bloom , singer (allSTARS* )19 February
21 February – Ron Grainer , Australian-born electronic music pioneer and composer involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop , 58 (spinal cancer)[ 10] 10 March – Bill Hopkins , pianist, composer and critic, 37 (heart attack)24 March – George Charles Gray , cathedral organist, 837 April – Kit Lambert , manager and producer, 45 (fall)8 April – Eric Rogers , composer, 5914 April – Christian Darnton , composer, 7521 April – Ivor Newton , pianist and accompanist, 8828 April – Steve Currie , bassist of T.Rex , 33 (car crash)[ 11] 12 May – Frank Weir , orchestra leader and jazz musician, 7017 May – Alan Gowen , keyboardist (Gilgamesh ), 33 (leukaemia)29 May – Sir John Dykes Bower , cathedral organist, 7518 July – Janet Craxton , oboist, 525 August – Reginald Kell , clarinettist, 7529 August – Guy Stevens , band manager, record producer and DJ, 38 (overdose)23 September – Sam Costa , dance band singer and DJ, 7129 September – Tommy Moore , former drummer of the Beatles , 50 (brain haemorrhage)30 September – Boyd Neel , orchestral conductor, 7615 October – Elsie Randolph , actress, dancer and singer, 779 November – Willis Grant , cathedral organist, 7413 December – Cornelius Cardew , experimental music composer, 45 (hit-and-run car accident)[ 12] 17 December – Sybil Gordon , operatic mezzo-soprano, 79date unknown – Albert Ernest Sims , composer, conductor and music director of The Central Band of H.M. Royal Air Force, 85[ 13]
^ Scaping, Peter, ed. (1982). "The Top 200 Singles: January–December 1981". BPI Year Book 1982 (5th ed.). London, England: The British Phonographic Industry Ltd. pp. 46–49. ISBN 0-906154-03-0 ^ Jones, Alan; Lazell, Barry; Rees, Dafydd (1982). "The Top 200 Singles (UK)". Chart File 1982 . London, England: Virgin Books. pp. 74–77. ISBN 0-907080-49-9 ^ Copsey, Rob (5 March 2021). "The Official Top 50 best-selling songs of 1981" . Official Charts Company . Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2021 . ^ Scaping (1982). "The Top 200 LPs: January–December 1981". pp. 50–53.
^ Jones; Lazell; Rees (1982). "The Top 200 Albums (UK)". pp. 78–81.
^ Dean, Winton (1981). "Music in London: Anna Karenina" . The Musical Times
^ Tracie Ratiner (May 2010). Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music ISBN 978-0-7876-9617-7 ^ "Miss Olive Gilbert", The Times , 20 February 1981, p. 16, col. G
^ Gerald Norris (1981). A Musical Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland ISBN 978-0-7153-7845-8 ^ Lone Eagle Publishing Co (2000). Film Composers Directory ^ Nick Talevski (1999). The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries ISBN 978-0-7119-7548-4 ^ Tilbury, John. Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished Harlow: Copula, an imprint of Matchless Recordings and Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9525492-3-9
^ Bierley, Paul E; Rehrig, William H (1991). The heritage encyclopedia of band music : composers and their music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press. ISBN 0-918048-08-7 .
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