1969 in British music

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Last updated May 30, 2024

This is a summary of 1969 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is accused of arrogance by TV producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of Your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
12 January – Led Zeppelin's eponymous début album is released.
18 January – Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. Best had originally sought $8 million, but ended up being awarded much less.
30 January – The Beatles perform for the last time in public, on the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London. The performance, which is filmed for the Let It Be movie, is stopped early by police after neighbors complain about the noise.
3 February – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as The Beatles' new business manager against the wishes of Paul McCartney.
4 February – Paul McCartney hires the law firm of Eastman & Eastman, Linda Eastman's father's law firm, as general legal counsel for Apple.
18 February – Lulu and Maurice Gibb are married.
2 March – John Lennon performs publicly outside The Beatles for the first time, with Yoko Ono at an improvised concert in Cambridge.^[1]
12 March
- Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman in London.
- George Harrison and his wife Pattie are arrested on charges of hashish possession.
20 March – John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married at a 10-minute ceremony in the British Consulate Office in Gibraltar.
29 March – At the 14th annual Eurovision Song Contest held at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain, the final result is a four-way tie for first place between Spain ("Vivo cantando" – Salomé); United Kingdom ("Boom Bang-a-Bang" – Lulu); Netherlands ("De troubadour" – Lenny Kuhr) and France ("Un jour, un enfant" – Frida Boccara). As there is no tie-break rule, the four entries involved, who each scored 18 points, are declared joint winners.
22 April
- The first complete performance of The Who's rock opera Tommy during a performance in Dolton, Devon, UK
- Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the premiere performance of his monodrama Eight Songs for a Mad King at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.^[2]
- John Lennon officially changes his name from John Winston Lennon to John Winston Ono Lennon.
24 April – The Beatles make a $5.1 million counteroffer to the Northern Songs stockholders in an attempt to keep Associated TV from controlling the band's music.
2 June – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a "Bed-In" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The couple records the song "Give Peace a Chance" live in their suite with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and several others.
11 June – David Bowie releases the single "Space Oddity".
13 June – Mick Taylor joins the Rolling Stones.
29 June – Bass player Noel Redding announces to the media that he has quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience, having effectively done so during the recording of Electric Ladyland.
3 July – Brian Jones is found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones.
5 July – The Rolling Stones proceed with a free concert in Hyde Park, London as a tribute to Brian Jones; it is also the band's first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor. Estimates of the audience range from 250,000 to 400,000.
8 August – Iain Macmillan photographs the cover picture for The Beatles' album Abbey Road at a north London zebra crossing near the Abbey Road Studios.
16 August – David Bowie stages the Growth Summer Festival, a free concert at Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham, south London.^[3]
20 August – Final session for The Beatles' album Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios in London, the last time all four members of the band are present in a studio together.^[4]
13 September – John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival 12-hour music festival, backed by Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. It is Lennon's first public rock performance without one or more of The Beatles since meeting Paul McCartney in 1957. He decides before returning to Britain to leave The Beatles permanently.
26 September – The Beatles' album Abbey Road is released. It includes two songs written by George Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".^[5]
7 November – The Rolling Stones open their U.S. tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.
December – Release of Fairport Convention's pioneering folk rock album Liege & Lief .
date unknown
- David Bedford becomes Composer in Residence at Queen's College, London.^[6]
- James Galway begins a six-year engagement as principal flautist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Charts

See UK No.1 Hits of 1969

Classical music

New works

Benjamin Britten – Suite for harp, op. 83
Gavin Bryars – The Sinking of the Titanic
Francis Jackson – Sonata for Organ No. 1

Opera

Film and incidental music

John Barry – On Her Majesty's Secret Service .
James Bernard – Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed directed by Terence Fisher, starring Peter Cushing and Freddie Jones.
Basil Kirchin – I Start Counting , starring Jenny Agutter
William Walton – The Battle of Britain (score only used in part).

Musical theatre

Musical films

Births

22 January – Olivia d'Abo, English-American singer-songwriter and actress
11 February – Shovell (Andrew Lovell), percussionist (M People)
21 February – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh alternative rock singer-songwriter (Manic Street Preachers)
28 February – Murray Gold, stage and screen composer
1 March – Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh alternative rock drummer (Super Furry Animals)
12 March – Graham Coxon, guitarist (Blur)
25 March – Cathy Dennis, pop singer-songwriter
11 April – Cerys Matthews, singer
22 April – Craig Logan, bassist (Bros)
27 April
- Darcey Bussell, ballerina
- Mica Paris, singer
14 May – Steve Hillier, songwriter (Dubstar)
4 June – Peter Fribbins, composer
26 June – Colin Greenwood, alternative rock bass player and songwriter (Radiohead)
13 July – Barney Greenway, extreme metal singer-songwriter (Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror and Benediction)
17 September – Adam Devlin, guitarist (The Bluetones)
9 October – PJ Harvey (born Polly Jean Harvey), alternative rock singer-songwriter
7 December – James Francis Brown, composer
12 December – Rodney P (born Rodney Panton), MC, "godfather of British hip hop"
17 December – Mick Quinn, bassist (Supergrass)
30 December – Jay Kay (born Jason Cheetham), funk singer-songwriter (Jamiroquai), son of singer Karen Kay
date unknown
- Bryn Harrison, experimental composer
- John Webb, composer, founding member Thallein Ensemble

Deaths

2 March – Anna Bethell, actress and singer, 76
25 March – Billy Cotton, bandleader, 69
26 March – Clara Dow, operatic soprano, 85
27 March – David Lloyd, tenor, 56
1 May – Ella Logan, actress and singer, 56 (cancer)
3 July – Brian Jones, guitarist, founder member of The Rolling Stones, 27 (drowned)
11 August – Miriam Licette, operatic soprano, 83
10 October – Gilbert Vinter, conductor and composer, 60^[7]
18 November – Ted Heath, bandleader, 67

Related Research Articles

John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His work included music, writing, drawings and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history as the primary songwriters in the Beatles.

List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1969.

Apple Records is a British record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger and Billy Preston. In practice, the roster had become dominated by the mid-1970s with releases of the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973, then it was managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the Beatles and their heirs. Aspinall retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.

<i>Live Peace in Toronto 1969</i> 1969 live album by Plastic Ono Band

Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band, released in December 1969 on Apple Records. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono received a phone call from the festival's promoters John Brower and Kenny Walker, and then assembled a band on very short notice for the festival, which was due to start the following day. The band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The group flew from London, and had brief unamplified rehearsals on the plane before appearing on the stage to perform several songs; one of which, "Cold Turkey", was first performed live at the festival. After returning home, Lennon mixed the album in a day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Something (Beatles song)</span> 1969 song by the Beatles

"Something" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their eleventh studio album Abbey Road (1969). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist. Together with his second contribution to Abbey Road, "Here Comes the Sun", it is widely viewed by music historians as having marked Harrison's ascendancy as a composer to the level of the Beatles' principal songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Two weeks after the album's release, the song was issued on a double A-side single, coupled with "Come Together", making it the first Harrison composition to become a Beatles A-side. The pairing was also the first time in the United Kingdom that the Beatles issued a single containing tracks already available on an album. While the single's commercial performance was lessened by this, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and West Germany, and peaked at number 4 in the UK.

<i>Abbey Road</i> 1969 studio album by the Beatles

Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969. It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, "Something" / "Come Together", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic Ono Band</span> Rock band

The Plastic Ono Band were a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Come Together</span> 1969 single by the Beatles

"Come Together" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band's 1969 album Abbey Road and was also released as a double A-side single with "Something". The song reached the top of the charts in the United States and Australia but peaked at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxwell's Silver Hammer</span> 1969 song by the Beatles

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song is about a student named Maxwell Edison who commits murders with a hammer, with the dark lyrics disguised by an upbeat sound. McCartney described the song as symbolic of the downfalls of life, being "my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yer Blues</span> 1968 song by the Beatles

"Yer Blues" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their 1968 double album The Beatles. Though credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was written and composed by John Lennon during the Beatles' retreat in Rishikesh, India. The song is a parody of blues music, specifically English imitators of blues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold Turkey</span> 1969 single by Plastic Ono Band

"Cold Turkey" is a song written by English singer-songwriter John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon and it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's first appearance on an album was Live Peace in Toronto 1969 where the song had been performed live on 13 September 1969 with Lennon reading the lyrics off a clip-board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ballad of John and Yoko</span> 1969 single by the Beatles

"The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in May 1969, with "Old Brown Shoe" as its B-side. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, and chronicles the events surrounding the wedding of Lennon and Yoko Ono. The song was the Beatles' 17th UK number-one single and their last for 54 years until "Now and Then" in 2023. In the United States, it was banned by some radio stations due to the lyrics' reference to Christ and crucifixion. The single peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song, along with its B-side, has subsequently appeared on compilation albums such as Hey Jude, 1967–1970, and Past Masters. It was also included on the compilation 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Want You (She's So Heavy)</span> 1969 song by the Beatles

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song closes side one of their 1969 album Abbey Road and features Billy Preston playing the organ. It was the first song recorded for the Abbey Road album but one of the last songs to be finished; the band gathered in the studio to mix the song on 20 August 1969, marking the final time that all four Beatles were together in the studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oh! Darling</span> 1969 song by The Beatles

"Oh! Darling" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, appearing as the fourth song on the 1969 album Abbey Road. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Its working title was "Oh! Darling ". Although not issued as a single in either the United Kingdom or the United States, a regional subsidiary of Capitol successfully edited it as a single in Central America, having "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" as its B-side. It was also issued as a single in Portugal. Apple Records released "Oh! Darling" in Japan with "Here Comes the Sun" in June 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey</span> 1968 song by the Beatles

"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The lyrics contain sayings the Beatles heard from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom they studied Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. In his subsequent comments on the song, Lennon said it addressed his bandmates' initial reaction to his relationship with Yoko Ono. Recorded early in the sessions for the White Album, the track typifies Lennon and the Beatles' return to a rock sound in 1968 after their psychedelic period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Brown Shoe</span> 1969 single by the Beatles

"Old Brown Shoe" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by George Harrison, the group's lead guitarist, it was released on a non-album single in May 1969, as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko". The song was subsequently included on the band's compilation albums Hey Jude, 1967–1970 and Past Masters, Volume Two. Although "Old Brown Shoe" remains a relatively obscure song in the band's catalogue, several music critics view it as one of Harrison's best compositions from the Beatles era and especially admire his guitar solo on the track.

The Beatles were an English rock band, active from 1960 until 1970. From 1962 onwards, the band's members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Their break-up is attributed to numerous factors, including: the strain of the Beatlemania phenomenon, the 1967 death of manager Brian Epstein, bandmates' resentment of McCartney's perceived domineering, Lennon's heroin use and his relationship with Yoko Ono, Harrison's increasingly prolific songwriting, the floundering of Apple Corps, the Get Back project, and managerial disputes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early 1970</span> 1971 single by Ringo Starr

"Early 1970" is a song by English rock musician Ringo Starr that was released as the B-side of his April 1971 single "It Don't Come Easy". A rare example of Starr's songwriting at the time, it was inspired by the break-up of the Beatles and documents his relationship with his three former bandmates. The lyrics to the verses comment in turn on Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison as individuals, and the likelihood of each of them making music with Starr again. In the final verse, Starr offers a self-deprecating picture of his musical abilities and expresses the hope that all four will play together in the future. Commentators have variously described "Early 1970" as "a rough draft of a peace treaty" and "a disarming open letter" from Starr to Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.

This is a summary of 1967 in music in the United Kingdom.

<i>Lennon Remembers</i> Book by Jann Wenner

Lennon Remembers is a 1971 book by Rolling Stone magazine co-founder and editor Jann Wenner. It consists of a lengthy interview that Wenner carried out with former Beatle John Lennon in December 1970 and which was originally serialised in Rolling Stone in its issues dated 21 January and 4 February 1971. The interview was intended to promote Lennon's primal therapy-inspired album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and reflects the singer's emotions and mindset after undergoing an intense course of the therapy under Arthur Janov. It also serves as a rebuttal to Paul McCartney's public announcement of the Beatles' break-up, in April 1970.

References

↑ Lynskey, Dorian (2020). "Reel to Reel". Cam (91): 28.
↑ "Eight Songs for a Mad King". maxopus.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-28. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
↑ "David Bowie's Beckenham bandstand gets Grade II listed status". BBC News . 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
↑ MacDonald, Ian (1997). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (1st rev. ed.). London: Pimlico (Random House). p. 322. ISBN 978-0-7126-6697-8.
↑ Hertsgaard, Mark (1996). A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-33891-9.
↑ Jolyon Laycock, A Changing Role for the Composer in Society (Peter Lang, 2005), p 48. Accessed 19 June 2014.
↑ Rehrig, William H.; Bierley, Paul E.; Hoe, Robert (1991). The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press. pp. 788–789. ISBN 0-918048-08-7. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.

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[1] Lynskey, Dorian (2020). "Reel to Reel". Cam (91): 28.

[2] "Eight Songs for a Mad King". maxopus.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-28. Retrieved 2014-06-27.

[3] "David Bowie's Beckenham bandstand gets Grade II listed status". BBC News . 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-16.

[4] MacDonald, Ian (1997). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (1st rev. ed.). London: Pimlico (Random House). p. 322. ISBN 978-0-7126-6697-8.

[5] Hertsgaard, Mark (1996). A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-33891-9.

[6] Jolyon Laycock, A Changing Role for the Composer in Society (Peter Lang, 2005), p 48. Accessed 19 June 2014.

[7] Rehrig, William H.; Bierley, Paul E.; Hoe, Robert (1991). The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press. pp. 788–789. ISBN 0-918048-08-7. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.

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