Overview of the events of 1981 in British music
List of years in British music
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 will not leave the band Genesis until 1995)
14 February - Billy Idol leaves Generation X to begin a solo career
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 years to come).
25 April - Paul McCartney 's band, Wings , breaks up officially
2 May - Working as a local wedding singer 12 months previously, Scottish vocalist Sheena Easton hits No.1 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.
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 )
7 April - Kelli Young , singer (Liberty X )
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 )
20 June - Derek McDonald, singer (Mero)
22 June - Chris Urbanowicz , guitarist (Editors )
23 June - Antony Costa , singer (Blue )
27 June - Colin and Joe O'Halloran, Irish singers (Reel)
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
10 October - Una Healy , Irish singer (The Saturdays )
13 October - Kele Okereke , singer (Bloc Party )
17 November - Sarah Harding , singer (Girls Aloud ) (d. 2021)
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)
7 April – Kit Lambert , manager and producer, 45
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
23 September – Sam Costa , dance band singer and DJ, 71
15 October – Elsie Randolph , actress, dancer and singer, 77
13 December – Cornelius Cardew , experimental music composer, 45 (hit-and-run car accident)[12]
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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