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This is a summary of 1978 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 14 January – The Sex Pistols play their final show (until a reunion in 1996) at Winterland, San Francisco.
• 24 January – Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" is number one for a ninth and final week, becoming the biggest-selling single in UK history at that point.
• 25 January – Electric Light Orchestra kick off their Out of the Blue world tour in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• 11 March – Kate Bush became the first female solo artist to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-written song, "Wuthering Heights".
• 30 April – The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, the Ruts, Misty in Roots and Generation X all play live in Victoria Park, Hackney at the Anti-Nazi League/Rock Against Racism festival, following a march from Trafalgar Square.
• 25 May – The Who play their last show with Keith Moon.
• 15 July – The Picnic at Blackbushe Aerodrome, Camberley, Surrey, a concert featuring Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Joan Armatrading, attracts some 200,000 people.
• 30 July – Thin Lizzy officially announce that Gary Moore has replaced Brian Robertson on guitar.
• 18 August – The Who release their eighth studio album Who Are You. It is the Who's last album with Keith Moon as the drummer; Moon dies twenty days after the release of the album.
• September – Second anti-racism event staged in Brockwell Park, South London, featuring Elvis Costello, Stiff Little Fingers and Aswad, with 150,000 people in attendance.
• 27 November – Def Leppard's permanent drummer Rick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.
• December – UB40 formed.
• The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever becomes the biggest-selling album of all time (until overtaken in 1983).
• The first BBC Young Musician of the Year competition for classical players is won by trombonist Michael Hext.
• Operatic contralto Helen Watts is appointed a CBE.
• Multitone Records is founded by Pranil Gohil, specialising in bhangra music.

Charts

Number one singles

Number one albums

Year-end charts

The tables below include sales between 31 December 1977 and 30 December 1978: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 23 December 1978 and played on Radio 1 on 31 December 1978 only include sales figures up until 16 December 1978.

Best-selling singles

Best-selling albums

Notes:

1. Reached number 1 in 1979
2. Reached number 4 in 1977
3. Reached number 5 in 1979
4. Reached number 1 in 1979
5. Reached number 9 in 1981
6. Reached number 1 in 1976
7. Reached number 1 in 1979
8. Reached number 3 in 1977
9. Reached number 1 in 1976

Classical music: new works

• Malcolm Arnold – Symphony No. 8
• Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony no. 1
• Daniel Jones – String Quartet No 4
• Malcolm Williamson
  • Azure
  • Fiesta

Film and Incidental music

• Tony Banks – The Shout, starring Alan Bates, Susannah York and John Hurt.
• Roy Budd – The Wild Geese.
• Ron Goodwin – Force 10 from Navarone directed by Guy Hamilton, starring Robert Shaw and Edward Fox.
• Ed Welch – The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell.

Births

• 1 January – Tarik O'Regan, composer
• 13 January – Shelley Nash, singer (Girls@Play)
• 15 January – Sandi Lee Hughes, singer (allSTARS*)
• 19 January – Wayne Williams, singer (Another Level)
• 13 February – Hamish Glencross, Scottish guitarist
• 14 February – Ryan Griffiths (The Vines)
• 22 February – Jenny Frost, singer (Atomic Kitten)
• 6 April – Myleene Klass, singer (Hear'Say), radio and TV presenter
• 7 April – Duncan James, singer (Blue)
• 9 April – Rachel Stevens, singer (S Club 7)
• 16 April – Terry Daly, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 23 April – Tom Lowe, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 25 April – Luke Bedford, composer
• 28 April – Lauren Laverne, singer, radio DJ and TV presenter
• 4 May – Matthew Rose, bass
• 22 May – Jordan, model and would-be singer
• 29 May – Adam Rickitt, singer
• 6 June – Sophie Solomon, violinist
• 16 June – Elisa Cariera, American-born singer (Solid HarmoniE)
• 4 July – Stephen McNally, English singer-songwriter (BBMak)
• 1 August – Jonathan Wilkes, singer and entertainer
• 21st August – John Paul "J-Rock" Horsley, American-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 3 September – Johnny Shentall, singer (Boom!)
• 15 September – David Sneddon, singer-songwriter
• 27 September – Jamie Benson, singer (Hepburn)
• 7 October – Alesha Dixon, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 9 October
  • Nicky Byrne, Irish singer (Westlife)
  • Beverley Fullen, drummer (Hepburn)
• 26 October – Rachael Carr, singer (Boom!)
• 27 October – Sabrina Washington, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 29 October – Sam Chapman, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 1 November – Bobak Kianovsh, singer (Another Level)
• 7 November – Mark Read, singer (A1)
• 23rd November – Randy Brown, Jamaican-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 27 November – Mike Skinner, rapper, musician and record producer
• 12 December – Paul Walker, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 18 December – Lindsay Armaou, Greek-born Irish-based singer (B*Witched)
• date unknown – Oliver Weeks, composer, arranger and guitarist

Deaths

• 11 January – William John Edwards, Cerdd Dant singer (b. 1898)
• 15 January – Jack Jackson, trumpeter, bandleader and radio disc jockey (b. 1906)
• 24 February – Mrs Mills, pianist (b. 1918)
• 9 March – L. Radley Flynn, singer and actor (b. 1902)
• 12 March – Tolchard Evans, songwriter, composer, pianist and bandleader (b. 1901)
• 3 April – Ray Noble, composer and bandleader (b. 1903)
• 21 April – Sandy Denny, singer (Fairport Convention) (b. 1947) (cerebral haemorrhage)
• 14 August – Victor Silvester, dance band leader (b. 1900)
• 7 September
  • Keith Moon, drummer for The Who (b. 1946) (Clomethiazole overdose)
  • Charles Williams, composer (b. 1893)
• 15 September – Robert Bruce Montgomery, composer (b. 1921)
• 13 November – W. S. Gwynn Williams, musician and composer (b. 1896)

See also

• 1978 in British radio
• 1978 in British television
• 1978 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1978

References

1. "The Picnic at Blackbushe Aerodrome 1978". www.ukrockfestivals.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
2. Scaping, Peter, ed. (1979). "Top 200 Singles in 1978". BPI Year Book 1979 (4th ed.). London, England: The British Phonographic Industry Ltd. pp. 186–89. ISBN 0-906154-02-2.
3. Scaping (1979). "Top 200 LPs in 1978". pp. 182–85.

• 1978 in British music
• British music by year