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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.
Events
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 begins its 8,949-performance run on London's
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 in
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb , London.
Charts
Number-one singles
Number-one albums
Year-end charts
The tables below include sales between 1 January and 31 December 1981: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of
Music Week dated 26 December 1981 and played on Radio 1 on 3 January 1982 only include sales figures up until 12 December 1981.
Best-selling singles
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] However, in March 2021, the Official Charts Company announced that new research had shown that "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League, previously thought to be the year's 21st-biggest seller, was in fact the biggest-selling single of 1981 with over one million sales, and the year-end charts were adjusted accordingly.
[3]
Best-selling albums
[4]
[5]
Notes:
^ Reached number 2 in 1980
^ Reached number 3 in 1980
^ Reached number 1 in 1980
Classical music: new works
Opera
Musical theatre
Musical films
Births
11 January
22 January – Sarah Davies, bassist (
Hepburn )
19 January –
Thaila Zucchi , singer (
allSTARS* ) and actress
24 February –
Gwilym Simcock , pianist and composer
11 March –
Russell Lissack , guitarist with
Bloc Party
13 March –
Ivo Neame , jazz pianist and saxophonist
20 March – Declan Bennett, singer (
Point Break )
26 March –
Jay Sean , singer
1 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 , singer
4 May – Ryan Elliott, singer (
Ultimate Kaos )
5 May –
Craig David , singer
20 May –
Sean Conlon , musician (
5ive )
22 May –
Su-Elise Nash , singer (
Mis-Teeq )
23 May –
Gwenno Saunders , singer
5 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-songwriter
21 August –
Jenilca Giusti , Puerto Rican-born singer (
Solid HarmoniE )
29 September –
Suzanne Shaw , singer (
Hear'Say ) and actress
6 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* )
Deaths
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, 83
7 April –
Kit Lambert , manager and producer, 45 (fall)
8 April –
Eric Rogers , composer, 59
14 April –
Christian Darnton , composer, 75
21 April –
Ivor Newton , pianist and accompanist, 88
28 April –
Steve Currie , bassist of
T.Rex , 33 (car crash)
[11]
12 May –
Frank Weir , orchestra leader and jazz musician, 70
17 May –
Alan Gowen , keyboardist (
Gilgamesh ), 33 (leukaemia)
29 May – Sir
John Dykes Bower , cathedral organist, 75
18 July –
Janet Craxton , oboist, 52
5 August –
Reginald Kell , clarinettist, 75
29 August –
Guy Stevens , band manager, record producer and DJ, 38 (overdose)
23 September –
Sam Costa , dance band singer and DJ, 71
29 September –
Tommy Moore , former drummer of
the Beatles , 50 (brain haemorrhage)
30 September –
Boyd Neel , orchestral conductor, 76
15 October –
Elsie Randolph , actress, dancer and singer, 77
9 November –
Willis Grant , cathedral organist, 74
13 December –
Cornelius Cardew , experimental music composer, 45 (hit-and-run car accident)
[12]
17 December –
Sybil Gordon , operatic mezzo-soprano, 79
date unknown –
Albert Ernest Sims , composer, conductor and music director of The Central Band of H.M. Royal Air Force, 85
[13]
See also
References
^ 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 Vol. 122, No. 1661 (July 1981), p. 487. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
^ Tracie Ratiner (May 2010).
Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music . Cengage Gale. p. 16.
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 . David & Charles. p. 94.
ISBN
978-0-7153-7845-8 .
^ Lone Eagle Publishing Co (2000).
Film Composers Directory . Lone Eagle. p. 199.
^ Nick Talevski (1999).
The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries . Omnibus. p. 90.
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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