1981 in British music

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 " 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.
• 13 July – The first performance of George Lloyd‘s Symphony No 4, written in 1945-6 after the composer’s harrowing wartime experiences in the Arctic convoys, at the Cheltenham Festival.
• 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.
• 23 September – The first performance of Christian Darnton‘s Twenty Minute Symphony, composed in 1978 with the subtitle Diabolus in musica, performed by the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra under Edward Downes.

Year-end charts

Best-selling singles

Best-selling albums

Classical music: new works

• David Bedford
• *Elegy and Caprice for oboe and piano
• *Ocean Star, a Dreaming Song, for youth orchestra
• *Prelude for a Maritime Nation
• *Sonata for piano, in one movement
• *String Quartet
• *Symphony for 12 musicians
• *Vocoder Sextet
• *Wind Sextet
• Richard Rodney Bennett
• *Impromptu on the Name of Haydn for piano
• *Isadore, ballet
• *Music for String Quartet
• *Noctuary, ballet for piano
• *Six Tunes for the Instruction of Singing-birds, flute solo
• *Sonatina for clarinet solo
• *Vocalise, for soprano and piano
• Lennox Berkeley – Bagatelles for two pianos
• Michael Berkeley
• *Flames for orchestra
• *String Quartet No. 1
• *String Quartet No. 2
• *Wessex Graves for voice and harp
• Harrison Birtwistle – Pulse Sampler for oboe and claves
• Edward Cowie – Kelly Choruses for voices and harp
• Gordon Crosse
• *Dreascanon 1 for choir, piano and percussion
• *Elegy and Scherzo Alla Marcia for string orchestra
• *Fear No More, for oboe, oboe d'amore and cor anglais
• *Peace for Brass
• *Wildboy, ballet score
• Peter Maxwell Davies
• *The Bairnes of Brugh for chamber ensemble
• *Brass Quintet
• *Hill Runes for guitar
• *Little Quartet No. 2 for string quartet
• *Lullabye for Lucy for mixed chorus
• *The Medium, monodrama for mezzo soprano
• *Piano Sonata
• *The Rainbow, music theatre for children
• *Seven Songs Home for children's voices
• Brian Ferneyhough
• *Lemma – Icon – Epigram for piano
• *Superscripto for solo piccolo
• Michael Finnissy
• *An-dimironnai for solo cello
• *Duru-duru for soprano, flute, percussion and piano
• *Jisei for ensemble
• *Kelir for six voices
• *Keroiylu for oboe, bassoon and piano
• *Piano Concert No 7
• *Reels for piano
• *Rushes for piano
• *Stomp for accordion
• *Terekkeme for solo cembalo
• *Tree Setting for piano
• *White Rain for piano or clavichord
• *Yalli for solo cello
• Alexander Goehr
• *Behold the Sun for soprano, vibraphone and chamber ensemble
• *Deux Etudes for orchestra
• Iain Hamilton
• *The Morning Watch for mixed chorus and ten wind instruments
• *La Ricordanza for tenor and orchestra
• *Symphony No. 3.Spring
• *Symphony No. 4
• Robin Holloway
• *Brand, dramatic ballet for soli, chorus, organ and orchestra
• *Clarissa Symphony for soprano, tenor and orchestra
• *The Lover's Well for bass-baritone and piano
• *Sonata for Violin Solo
• Wilfred Josephs
• *Blessings for chorus and organ
• *Eight Aphorisms for trombone octet
• *Overture The Brontes
• *Quartet Prelude in honour of Joseph Haydn
• *Spring Songs for chorus
• *String Quartet No. 4
• *Testimony for toccata and organ
• Kenneth Leighton
• *Household Pets for piano
• *These Are Thy Wonders for high voice and organ
• George Lloyd – Symphony No 10, November Journeys
• John McCabe
• *Afternoons and Afterwards for piano
• *Desert 1: Lizard for woodwind and percussion
• *Desert II: Horizon for ten brass instruments
• *Music's Empire for soli, chorus and orchestra
• Elizabeth Maconchy
• *Little Symphony
• *Piccola Musica for violin, viola and cello
• *Trittico for two oboes, bassoon and harpsichord
• William Mathias – Rex Gloriae for unaccompanied voices
• Nicholas Maw – Flute Quartet
• Dominic Muldowney
• *In Dark Times for soli and ensemble
• *Sports et Divertissements for reciter and ensemble
• Thea Musgrave
• *An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, radio opera
• *Preipeteia for orchestra
• Stephen Oliver
• *Mass for unaccompanied chorus
• *Wind Octet
• Paul Patterson – The Canterbury Psalms for chorus and orchestra
• Priaulx Rainier – Concertante for two winds and orchestra
• John Tavener
• *Funeral Ikos for chorus
• *The Great Canon of the Ode to Saint Andrew of Crete for chorus
• *Mandelion for organ
• *Prayer for the World for sixteen solo voices
• *Trisagion for brass quintet
• Adrian Williams – String Quartet No. 2
• Malcolm Williamson
• *Fountainbleau Fanfare, for brass, percussion and organ
• *Josip Broz Tito for baritone and orchestra
• *''Mass of the People of God''

Opera

• Iain Hamilton – Anna Karenina
• Jonathan Harvey – Passion and Resurrection, a church opera, fp. Winchester Cathedral.

Musical theatre

• 11 May – Cats, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, opens in London's West End.
• 16 December – Alan Ayckbourn's Making Tracks, with music by Paul Todd, opens at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Musical films

• Concert for Kampuchea
• Dance Craze
• ''Urgh! A Music War''

Births

• 11 January
• *Jamelia, singer
• *Tom Meighan, lead singer of Kasabian
• 22 January – Sarah Davies, bassist
• 19 January – Thaila Zucchi, singer and actress
• 28 January – Jamie Tinkler, singer
• 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
• 26 March – Jay Sean, singer
• 1 April – Hannah Spearritt, actress and singer
• 2 April – Linzi Martin, singer
• 10 April – Liz McClarnon, singer
• 21 April – Mike Christie, baritone
• 26 April – Ms Dynamite, singer
• 4 May – Ryan Elliott, singer
• 5 May – Craig David, singer
• 20 May – Sean Conlon, musician
• 22 May – Su-Elise Nash, singer
• 23 May
• *Gwenno Saunders, singer
• *Tayo "Flawless" Aisida, Nigerian-born singer
• 5 June – Anika Bostelaar, Dutch-born singer
• 20 June – Derek McDonald, singer
• 22 June – Chris Urbanowicz, guitarist
• 23 June – Antony Costa, singer
• 27 June – Colin and Joe O'Halloran, Irish singers
• 6 July – Vicky Palmer, singer
• 12 July – Rebecca Hunter, singer
• 19 July – Didz Hammond, singer and bass player
• 24 July – Lisa Lister, guitarist
• 8 August – Bradley McIntosh, singer
• 11 August – Sandi Thom, singer-songwriter
• 21 August – Jenilca Giusti, Puerto Rican-born singer
• 20 September – Keith Semple, singer
• 29 September – Suzanne Shaw, singer and actress
• 6 October – Sarah Keating, Irish singer
• 10 October – Una Healy, Irish singer
• 13 October – Kele Okereke, singer
• 31 October – Liam McKenna, Northern Irish singer
• 17 November – Sarah Harding, singer
• 20 November – Kimberley Walsh, singer
• 22 November – Ben Adams, singer
• 26 November – Natasha Bedingfield, singer
• 19 December – Sam Bloom, singer

Deaths

• 19 February
• *Olive Gilbert, actress and singer, 82
• *Frank Merrick, pianist, 95
• 21 February – Ron Grainer, Australian-born electronic music pioneer and composer involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, 58
• 10 March – Bill Hopkins, pianist, composer and critic, 37
• 24 March – George Charles Gray, cathedral organist, 83
• 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
• 12 May – Frank Weir, orchestra leader and jazz musician, 70
• 17 May – Alan Gowen, keyboardist, 33
• 29 May – Sir John Dykes Bower, cathedral organist, 75
• 18 July – Janet Craxton, oboist, 52
• 29 July – Sydney Kyte, bandleader and violinist, 85
• 5 August – Reginald Kell, clarinettist, 75
• 29 August – Guy Stevens, band manager, record producer and DJ, 38
• 23 September – Sam Costa, dance band singer and DJ, 71
• 29 September – Tommy Moore, former drummer of the Beatles, 50
• 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
• 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