1980 in British music

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This is a summary of 1980 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events

• unknown date – John Rutter is made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton.
• 1 January – Cliff Richard is appointed an MBE by Elizabeth II.
• 16 January – Paul McCartney is arrested in Tokyo for possession of one-half pound (230 g) of marijuana. The remaining part of McCartney's tour has to be cancelled.
• 25 January – Paul McCartney is released from a Japanese jail and ejected from the country by Japanese authorities.
• 8 February – David Bowie and his wife of nearly 10 years, Angie, file for divorce. Bowie gets custody of their nine-year-old son Zowie.
• 30 April – The film McVicar, starring Roger Daltrey, opens in London.
• 18 May – Ian Curtis, vocalist of pioneering post-punk group Joy Division, hangs himself in his Macclesfield home. His death comes just days before Joy Division are scheduled to begin their first U.S. tour.
• 14 July – Malcolm Owen of punk rock band the Ruts is found dead in the bathroom of his parents' house in Hayes, from a heroin overdose.
• 16 September – Kate Bush becomes the first British female artist to reach number one in the UK album charts.
• 20 September – Ozzy Osbourne's debut album Blizzard of Ozz is released in the UK.
• 25 November – ABBA score the last of their nine number-one singles in the UK singles chart with "Super Trouper".
• December - Duran Duran sign with EMI after finalising their lineup and touring as a support act for Hazel O'Connor.
• 4 December – Led Zeppelin disband following the death of drummer John Bonham in September.
• 8 December – John Lennon is shot dead outside his apartment building in New York City. His latest single, "(Just Like) Starting Over", subsequently becomes a number-one hit.

Pop music

The 1980s got off to an odd start with a very varied list of artists reaching No. 1 in the singles chart. Kenny Rogers, The Jam and Odyssey were among those vying for the top position. The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums stated that the year had a very dated appearance, because of a number of songs reaching No. 1 which had been recorded years previously, such as the "Theme from M*A*S*H*" and Don McLean's cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying". The Ska and Mod revivals reached their peak this year, with strong chart showings by The Jam, The Specials and Madness. 1970s favourites ABBA and Blondie both had their last years as chart heavyweights, clocking up 5 No.1 singles between them. David Bowie scored his second No.1 this year, while the death of John Lennon at the end of the year gave him his first chart topper (and would dominate the early months of 1981). Kate Bush became the first British female artist to have a No.1 album, and The Police finished the year as the top selling act. "Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders became the first number 1 single of the 80s (not counting "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd" which was a holdover from 1979).

Charts

Number-one singles

Chart date (week ending)	Song	Artist(s)
5 January	"Another Brick in the Wall"	Pink Floyd
12 January
19 January	"Brass in Pocket"	The Pretenders
26 January
2 February	The Special AKA Live!	The Specials
9 February
16 February	"Coward of the County"	Kenny Rogers
23 February
1 March	"Atomic"	Blondie
8 March
15 March	"Together We Are Beautiful"	Fern Kinney
22 March	"Going Underground" / "Dreams of Children"	The Jam
29 March
5 April
12 April	"Working My Way Back to You"	The Detroit Spinners
19 April
26 April	"Call Me"	Blondie
3 May	"Geno"	Dexys Midnight Runners
10 May
17 May	"What's Another Year"	Johnny Logan
24 May
31 May	"Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)"	The Mash
7 June
14 June
21 June	"Crying"	Don McLean
28 June
5 July
12 July	"Xanadu"	Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra
19 July
26 July	"Use It Up and Wear It Out"	Odyssey
2 August
9 August	"The Winner Takes It All"	ABBA
16 August
23 August	"Ashes to Ashes"	David Bowie
30 August
6 September	"Start!"	The Jam
13 September	"Feels Like I'm in Love"	Kelly Marie
20 September
27 September	"Don't Stand So Close to Me"	The Police
4 October
11 October
18 October
25 October	"Woman in Love"	Barbra Streisand
1 November
8 November
15 November	"The Tide Is High"	Blondie
22 November
29 November	"Super Trouper"	ABBA
6 December
13 December
20 December	"(Just Like) Starting Over"	John Lennon
27 December	"There's No One Quite Like Grandma"	St. Winifred's School Choir

Number-one albums

Chart date (week ending)	Album	Artist
5 January	Greatest Hits, Vol. 1	Rod Stewart
12 January	Greatest Hits Vol. 2	ABBA
19 January	Pretenders	The Pretenders
26 January
2 February
9 February
16 February	Last Dance	Various artists
23 February
1 March	String of Hits	The Shadows
8 March
15 March
22 March	Tears and Laughter	Johnny Mathis
29 March
5 April	Duke	Genesis
12 April
19 April	Greatest Hits	Rose Royce
26 April
3 May	Sky 2	Sky
10 May
17 May	The Magic of Boney M. – 20 Golden Hits	Boney M.
24 May
31 May	McCartney II	Paul McCartney
7 June
14 June	Peter Gabriel	Peter Gabriel
21 June
28 June	Flesh and Blood	Roxy Music
5 July	Emotional Rescue	The Rolling Stones
12 July
19 July	The Game	Queen
26 July
2 August	Deepest Purple	Deep Purple
9 August	Back in Black	AC/DC
16 August
23 August	Flesh + Blood	Roxy Music
30 August
6 September
13 September	Telekon	Gary Numan
20 September	Never for Ever	Kate Bush
27 September	Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)	David Bowie
4 October
11 October	Zenyatta Mondatta	The Police
18 October
25 October
1 November
8 November	Guilty	Barbra Streisand
15 November
22 November	Super Trouper	ABBA
29 November
6 December
13 December
20 December
27 December

Year-end charts

The tables below include sales between 31 December 1979 and 31 December 1980: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 27 December 1980 and played on Radio 1 on 4 January 1981 only include sales figures up until 6 December 1980.

Best-selling singles

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position
1	"Don't Stand So Close to Me"	The Police	1
2	"Woman in Love"	Barbra Streisand	1
3	"Feels Like I'm in Love"	Kelly Marie	1
4	"Super Trouper"	ABBA	1
5	"D.I.S.C.O."	Ottawan	2
6	"The Tide Is High"	Blondie	1
7	"Geno"	Dexys Midnight Runners	1
8	"Together We Are Beautiful"	Fern Kinney	1
9	"Coward of the County"	Kenny Rogers	1
10	"(Just Like) Starting Over"	John Lennon	1
11	"Working My Way Back to You"	The Detroit Spinners	1
12	"9 to 5"	Sheena Easton	3
13	"Baggy Trousers"	Madness	3
14	"Ashes to Ashes"	David Bowie	1
15	"Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)"	MASH	1
16	"Going Underground"/"Dreams of Children"	The Jam	1
17	"Crying"	Don McLean	1
18	"The Winner Takes It All"	ABBA	1
19	"Dance Yourself Dizzy"	Liquid Gold	2
20	"There's No One Quite Like Grandma"	St Winifred's School Choir	1
21	"Atomic"	Blondie	1
22	"Upside Down"	Diana Ross	2
23	"Use It Up and Wear It Out"	Odyssey	1
24	"Start!"	The Jam	1
25	"Master Blaster (Jammin')"	Stevie Wonder	2
26	"Funkytown"	Lipps Inc.	2
27	"I'm in the Mood for Dancing"	The Nolans	3
28	"If You're Lookin' for a Way Out"	Odyssey	6
29	"One Day I'll Fly Away"	Randy Crawford	2
30	The Special AKA Live! EP	The Specials	1
31	"What You're Proposing"	Status Quo	2
32	"Take That Look Off Your Face"	Marti Webb	3
33	"No Doubt About It"	Hot Chocolate	2
34	"Stop the Cavalry"	Jona Lewie	3
35	"Brass in Pocket"	Pretenders	1
36	"Oops Up Side Your Head"	The Gap Band	6
37	"What's Another Year"	Johnny Logan	1
38	"Xanadu"	Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra	1
39	"Special Brew"	Bad Manners	3
40	"King"/"Food for Thought"	UB40	4
41	"And the Beat Goes On"	The Whispers	2
42	"Turning Japanese"	The Vapors	3
43	"When You Ask About Love"	Matchbox	4
44	"I Could Be So Good for You"	Dennis Waterman with the Dennis Waterman Band	3
45	"My Girl"	Madness	3
46	"Never Knew Love Like This Before"	Stephanie Mills	4
47	"Enola Gay"	Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark	8
48	"Call Me"	Blondie	1
49	"More Than I Can Say"	Leo Sayer	2
50	"Embarrassment"	Madness	4

Best-selling albums

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position (in 1980)
1	Super Trouper	ABBA	1
2	Zenyatta Mondatta	The Police	1
3	Greatest Hits	Rose Royce	1
4	Guilty	Barbra Streisand	1
5	Pretenders	Pretenders	1
6	Reggatta de Blanc	The Police	2
7	Flesh and Blood	Roxy Music	1
8	Manilow Magic: The Best of Barry Manilow	Barry Manilow	4
9	Off the Wall	Michael Jackson	6
10	Duke	Genesis	1
11	Sky 2	Sky	1
12	Double Fantasy	John Lennon and Yoko Ono	2
13	One Step Beyond...	Madness	2
14	12 Gold Bars	Status Quo	3
15	String of Hits	The Shadows	1
16	The Last Dance	Various Artists	1
17	Greatest Hits Vol. 2	ABBA	1
18	Outlandos d'Amour	The Police	9
19	The Magic of Boney M. – 20 Golden Hits	Boney M.	1
20	Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)	David Bowie	1
21	Greatest Hits	Dr. Hook	2
22	Tell Me on a Sunday	Marti Webb	2
23	Absolutely	Madness	2
24	Not the Nine O'Clock News	Not the Nine O'Clock News Cast	5
25	Tears and Laughter	Johnny Mathis	1
26	Signing Off	UB40	2
27	Never for Ever	Kate Bush	1
28	The Wall	Pink Floyd	3
29	The Specials	The Specials	4
30	I Just Can't Stop It	The Beat	3
31	Greatest Hits	Rod Stewart	1
32	Give Me the Night	George Benson	3
33	Get Happy!!	Elvis Costello and the Attractions	2
34	Me Myself I	Joan Armatrading	5
35	Bat Out of Hell	Meat Loaf	20
36	McCartney II	Paul McCartney	1
37	Emotional Rescue	The Rolling Stones	1
38	Back in Black	AC/DC	1
39	Peter Gabriel	Peter Gabriel	1
40	Eat to the Beat	Blondie	7
41	Autoamerican	Blondie	3
42	Parallel Lines	Blondie	15
43	Hotter than July	Stevie Wonder	2
44	Sometimes You Win	Dr. Hook	14
45	Wheels of Steel	Saxon	5
46	The Game	Queen	1
47	Sound Affects	The Jam	2
48	Kings of the Wild Frontier	Adam and the Ants	3
49	Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds	Jeff Wayne	32
50	Breaking Glass	Hazel O'Connor	5

Classical music: new works

• George Benjamin – Ringed by the Flat Horizon
• Lennox Berkeley – Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Op.99
• Harrison Birtwistle – Clarinet Quintet
• Jonathan Harvey – Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
• Alun Hoddinott – The Heaventree of Stars
• Robert Simpson – String Quartet No. 8
• Malcolm Williamson – Ode for Queen Elizabeth

Opera

• Peter Maxwell Davies
  • Cinderella (children's opera)
  • The Lighthouse
• William Mathias – The Servants

Musical theatre

• Suburban Strains, book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn with music by Paul Todd

Births

• 1 January – Richie Faulkner, rock guitarist (Judas Priest)
• 5 January – Lisa Gordon, drummer (Hepburn)
• 9 March – Anna Clyne, composer of electroacoustic music
• 29 March – Andy Scott-Lee, singer (3SL)
• 4 April – Johnny Borrell, singer and musician (Razorlight)
• 12 April – Brian McFadden, Irish singer (Westlife)
• 26 April – James Hurst, singer and guitarist (North and South)
• 29 April – Kian Egan, Irish singer (Westlife)
• 8 May – Michelle McManus, singer and TV presenter
• 28 May – Mark Feehily, Irish singer (Westlife)
• 15 June – Lynsey Shaw, singer (Girls@Play)
• 23 June
  • Jessica Taylor, singer (Liberty X)
  • Andy Orr, Irish singer (Six)
• 29 June – Katherine Jenkins, soprano
• 7 July – Fyfe Dangerfield, singer-songwriter and guitarist (Guillemots and Senseless Prayer)
• 28 July – Noel Sullivan, singer (Hear'Say)
• 16 August – Bob Hardy, bassist (Franz Ferdinand)
• 19 August – Darius Danesh, singer-songwriter and actor
• 5 September
  • Kevin Simm, singer (Liberty X)
  • Zainam Higgins, singer (Cleopatra)
• 6 September
  • Kerry Katona, TV presenter and singer (Atomic Kitten)
  • Jayde Delpratt, singer (Ultimate Kaos)
• 10 September – Matthew Keaney, Irish singer (Reel)
• 3 October – Danny O'Donoghue, Irish singer-songwriter (Mytown, The Script)
• 9 November – Philip Gargan, Irish singer (Reel)
• 15 December – Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist with Kasabian
• date unknown
  • Iain Bell, composer of opera and vocal music
  • Catrin Finch, harpist
  • Cheryl Frances-Hoad, composer
  • Larry Goves, Welsh composer
  • Dobrinka Tabakova, Bulgarian-British composer

Deaths

• 15 January – David Whitfield, singer, 54 (brain haemorrhage)
• 25 January – Queenie Watts, actress and singer, 53 (cancer)
• 29 January – Edward Lewis, record producer and executive (Decca), 79
• 9 February – John Kennedy, cellist, 57
• 18 February – Muriel Brunskill, operatic contralto, 80
• 19 February – Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, 33 (alcohol poisoning)
• 3 April – Isla Cameron, singer, 53 (asphyxiation)
• 5 April – Hector MacAndrew, Scottish composer and fiddler, 77
• 4 May – Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, pianist, 60
• 18 May – Ian Curtis, musician and singer (Joy Division), 23 (suicide)
• 22 May – Reginald Foort, theatre organist, 87
• 5 July – A. J. Potter, composer, 61
• 6 July – Frank Cordell, composer, arranger and conductor, 62
• 24 July – Peter Sellers, comic actor and singer ("Goodness Gracious Me"), 54 (heart attack)
• 5 August – Norman Fulton, composer and conductor, 71 (lung cancer)
• 9 August – Audrey Jeans, singer, 51 (car accident)
• 12 August – Leopold Spinner, Austrian-born composer, 74
• 8 September – Eddie Butcher, singer, songwriter and folk song collector, 80
• 18 September – Walter Midgley, operatic tenor, 68
• 25 September – John Bonham, drummer (Led Zeppelin), 32 (asphyxiation)
• 30 September – Horace Finch, pianist and organist, 74
• 11 October – Cassie Walmer, music hall singer, 92
• 27 October – Steve Peregrin Took, bongo player for Tyrannosaurus Rex, frontman for Shagrat and Steve Took's Horns, solo artist, 31 (asphyxiation)
• 29 October – Ouida MacDermott, singer, 91
• 8 December – John Lennon, singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Beatles), 40 (murdered)
• 16 December – Keith Christie, jazz trombonist, 49
• 29 December – Lennie Felix, jazz pianist, 60 (car accident)

See also

• 1980 in British radio
• 1980 in British television
• 1980 in the United Kingdom