1981 in British music

Events

• 9 February - Phil Collins releases his first solo album
• 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..
• 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 "
• 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.
• 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

Best-selling singles

Best-selling albums

Classical music: new works

• Peter Maxwell Davies - Piano Sonata
• George Lloyd - Symphony No 10, November Journeys
• Adrian Williams - String Quartet No. 2

  Opera

• Iain Hamilton - Anna Karenina

  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
• 19 January - Thaila Zucchi, English singer 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
• 26 March - Jay Sean, singer
• 1 April - Hannah Spearritt, actress and singer
• 7 April - Kelli Young, singer
• 10 April - Liz McClarnon, singer
• 21 April - Mike Christie, baritone
• 26 April - Ms Dynamite, singer
• 5 May - Craig David, singer
• 20 May - Sean Conlon, musician
• 23 May - Gwenno Saunders, singer
• 22 June - Chris Urbanowicz, guitarist
• 23 June - Antony Costa, singer
• 12 July - Rebecca Hunter, singer
• 19 July - Didz Hammond, English singer and bass player
• 8 August - Bradley McIntosh, singer
• 11 August - Sandi Thom, singer-songwriter
• 29 September - Suzanne Shaw, British singer and actress
• 10 October - Una Healy, Irish singer
• 13 October -Kele Okereke, English singer
• 17 November - Sarah Harding, British singer
• 20 November - Kimberley Walsh, British singer
• 26 November - Natasha Bedingfield, singer
• 19 December - Sam Bloom, singer

  Deaths

• 19 February – Olive Gilbert, actress and singer, 82
• 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
• 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
• 12 May - Frank Weir, orchestra leader and jazz musician, 70
• 15 October – Elsie Randolph, actress, dancer and singer, 77
• 13 December - Cornelius Cardew, experimental music composer, 45
• date unknown
• *Frank Merrick, pianist, 95
• *Albert Ernest Sims, composer, conductor and music director of The Central Band of H.M. Royal Air Force, 85