1959 in British music

This is a summary of 1959 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events

• January – Ealing Jazz Club opens in London.
• 21 April – Ballerina Margot Fonteyn is jailed for 24 hours in Panama on suspicion of involvement in planning a coup against the government of president Ernesto de la Guardia. ^[1]
• 1 June – The first edition of Juke Box Jury , presented by David Jacobs, is broadcast on BBC television. The first panel consists of Pete Murray, Alma Cogan, Gary Miller and Susan Stranks.
• 10 June – On the opening day of a 'Pageant of Magna Carta', Benjamin Britten's Fanfare for St Edmundsbury is given its first performance in the precincts of St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. ^[2]
• 30 October – Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club opens in the Soho district of London.
• Bert Weedon becomes the first British guitarist in the UK Singles Chart with his solo "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". ^[3]

Charts

The Official UK Singles Chart

• See List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1950s

Classical music: new works

• William Alwyn – Symphony No. 4 ^[4]
• Malcolm Arnold – Sweeney Todd (ballet) ^[5]
• Arthur Bliss – Birthday Song for a Royal Child (composed to celebrate the birth of Prince Andrew ^[6]
• Benjamin Britten – Missa Brevis
• Iain Hamilton – Sinfonia, for two orchestras ^[7]
• Francis Jackson – Diversion for Mixtures
• Elizabeth Maconchy – "A Hymn to God the Father", for tenor and piano
• Thea Musgrave – Scottish Dance Suite, for orchestra
• Grace Williams – All Seasons Shall Be Sweet

Film and incidental music

• William Alwyn – Killers of Kilimanjaro , starring Anthony Newley
• Richard Rodney Bennett – The Man Who Could Cheat Death directed by Terence Fisher, starring Anton Diffring.
• James Bernard – The Hound of the Baskervilles directed by Terence Fisher, starring Peter Cushing.
• Stanley Black – Violent Moment , starring Lyndon Brook
• Laurie Johnson
  • No Trees in the Street , starring Sylvia Syms
  • Tiger Bay , starring John Mills and Hayley Mills

Musical theatre

• Wolf Mankowitz, David Heneker and Monty Norman – Make Me an Offer ^[8]
• Sandy Wilson – Pieces of Eight

Musical films

• Expresso Bongo , starring Laurence Harvey and Cliff Richard
• Follow a Star , starring Norman Wisdom and June Laverick
• The Lady Is a Square , starring Anna Neagle and Frankie Vaughan
• Tommy the Toreador , starring Tommy Steele

Births

• 14 January – Chas Smash (Madness)
• 15 January – Pete Trewavas, bass player and songwriter ^[9]
• 28 January – Dave Sharp (The Alarm)
• 3 February – Lol Tolhurst, drummer (The Cure, Presence, Easy Cure, and Levinhurst)
• 25 February – Mike Peters, singer/songwriter (The Alarm)
• 17 March – Mike Lindup, singer/keyboard player (Level 42)
• 10 April – Brian Setzer, singer/guitarist (The Stray Cats)
• 21 April – Robert Smith, singer (The Cure)
• 27 April – Sheena Easton, singer
• 5 May – Ian McCulloch, singer (Echo & the Bunnymen)
• 22 May – Morrissey, singer (The Smiths, solo)
• 28 May – Steve Strange, singer (died 2015)
• 29 May – Mel Gaynor, drummer (Simple Minds)
• 5 June – Robert Lloyd, English singer
• 19 June – Dennis Fuller, Jamaican-born singer (London Boys) (d. 1996)
• 24 June – Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
• 28 June – Clint Boon, singer and keyboard player (Inspiral Carpets and The Clint Boon Experience)
• 30 June – Brendan Perry, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Dead Can Dance and The Scavengers)
• 1 July – Edem Ephraim, singer (London Boys) (d. 1996)
• 9 July – Jim Kerr, singer (Simple Minds)
• 16 July – James MacMillan, composer
• 18 July – Jonathan Dove, composer
• 5 August – Pete Burns, singer (Dead or Alive) (d. 2016) ^[10]
• 6 August – Donna Lewis, singer
• 29 August – Eddi Reader, singer
• 24 September – Drummie Zeb, singer (Aswad) (d. 2022)
• 4 October – Chris Lowe, keyboard player (Pet Shop Boys)
• 10 October
  • Kirsty MacColl, singer/songwriter (d. 2000)
  • Steve Martland, composer, curator Factory Classical (d. 2013)
• 7 November – Richard Barrett, composer
• 27 November – Charlie Burchill, guitarist (Simple Minds)
• 1 December – Billy Childish, artist and musician
• 30 December – Tracey Ullman, actress and singer
• date unknown
  • Paul Coletti, Scottish viola soloist and chamber musician
  • John Palmer, composer, pianist and musicologist.
  • Andi Spicer, electroacoustic composer (d.2020)

Deaths

• 11 March – Haydn Wood, violinist and composer (born 1882)
• 25 March – Billy Mayerl, pianist and composer (born 1902)
• 9 June – Sonnie Hale, actor and singer (born 1902)
• 6 September – Kay Kendall, musical comedy actress (born 1926) (leukaemia)
• 11 September – Ann Drummond-Grant, operatic contralto (born 1905)
• 21 September – Agnes Nicholls, operatic soprano (born 1877)
• 28 September – Gerard Hoffnung, German-born artist, musician and humorist (born 1925) (cerebral haemorrhage)
• 19 October – Stanley Bate, pianist and composer (born 1911) (suicide)
• 26 November – Albert Ketèlbey, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1875)
• 29 December – Robin Milford, composer (born 1903)
• 30 December – G. W. Briggs, hymn-writer (born 1875)

See also

• 1959 in British television
• 1959 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1959

References

1. ""1959: Dame Margot Fonteyn released from jail", BBC On This Day". BBC News. 1959-04-22. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
2. Reed, Philip; Cooke, Mervyn (2010). Letters From A Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 5 1958–1965. Boydell Press. ISBN   978-1-84383-591-2., p. 85
3. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records. p. 595. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
4. Adrian Wright (2008). The Innumerable Dance: The Life and Work of William Alwyn. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN   978-1-84383-412-0.
5. Bland A. The Royal Ballet – the first 50 years. Threshold Books, London, 1981.
6. "Arthur Bliss – Birthday Song for a Royal Child (1959)". Music Sales Classical. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
7. Philip Rupprecht; Philip Ernst Rupprecht (9 July 2015). British Musical Modernism: The Manchester Group and their Contemporaries. Cambridge University Press. p. 86. ISBN   978-0-521-84448-2.
8. The Guide to Musical Theatre. Accessed 20 June 2014
9. "Marillion Official Website" . Retrieved 14 May 2012.
10. Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (24 October 2016). "Pete Burns, frontman of Dead or Alive, dies aged 57". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Ltd. Retrieved 24 October 2016.