Madness are an English ska and pop band from Camden Town, north west London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s two-tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their original line-up. Madness's most successful period was from 1980 to 1986, when the band's songs spent a total of 214 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, holding the record along with English reggae group UB40 for most weeks spent by a group in the UK singles chart during the 1980s.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1977. This year was the peak of vinyl sales in the United States, with sales declining year on year since then.
Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues and Freedom in Fragments. Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.
The Polyphonic Spree is an American choral rock band from Dallas, Texas that was formed in 2000 by singer/songwriter Tim DeLaughter. The band's pop and rock songs are augmented by a large vocal choir, and instruments such as flute, trumpet, french horn, trombone, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, guitars, bass, drums, electronic keyboards, and EWI.
Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, originally consisting of Steven Brown and Blaine L. Reininger, used electronic violins, guitars, screaming vocals and synthesizers to develop a unique "cabaret no-wave" sound. Bassist Peter Principle joined the band and in 1979 they released the single "No Tears", which remains a post-punk cult classic. That year they also signed to Ralph Records and released their debut album, Half-Mute, in 1980. Eventually, Reininger left the group, and Tuxedomoon relocated to Europe, signing to Crammed Discs and releasing Holy Wars in 1985. The band separated in the early 1990s, only to reunite later that decade. They all have remained together since releasing the album Cabin in the Sky in 2004.
Timothy "Tim" George Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards. He first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968. After the demise of Henry Cow, he participated in numerous bands and projects, eventually concentrating on composing contemporary music and performing as an improviser.
Éliane Radigue is a French electronic music composer. She began working in the 1950s and her first compositions were presented in the late 1960s. Until 2000 her work was almost exclusively created with the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer and tape. Since 2001 she has composed mainly for acoustic instruments.
"Lady Lynda" is a song written by vocalist/guitarist Al Jardine and touring keyboardist Ron Altbach for American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on the band's 1979 album L.A. . Its melody is based on "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by J. S. Bach.
John Hardy is an English-born composer who has been commissioned by the Arts Council/National Lottery, the BBC, Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, among others. His work includes opera, choral and orchestral pieces, site-specific theatre events and film.
This is a summary of 1980 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
Onutė Narbutaitė is a Lithuanian composer.
Aleksandra Milošević Hagadone, better known as Slađana Milošević, was a Serbian and Yugoslav singer, songwriter, record producer, and author.
Isidora Žebeljan was a Serbian composer and conductor. She was a professor of composition at the Belgrade Music Academy and a Fellow of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Úna Palliser is an Irish born, London-based violinist, violist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who as well as being classically trained, is recognised for her proficiency in many musical genres, including rock, jazz, Balkan and Irish folk. She has collaborated as guest soloist with London Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and many high profile artists including Shakira, A. R. Rahman, Leona Lewis, Terrafolk and Otis Taylor and as the Irish folk singer on several film and television soundtracks, including Mo Ghile Mear on the Specsavers 'Collie Wobble' advertisement. Herself (film), Obi-Wan Kenobi, My Mother and Other Strangers and Kat and Alfie: Redwater. Palliser became a member of the Balanescu Quartet in 2023
Deborah Pearson is a British, Hungarian and Canadian live artist, playwright, director, performer and curator based in London, U.K. and born in Toronto, Canada. She holds a practice-based PhD in narrative in contemporary performance from Royal Holloway, University of London, where she was a Reid Scholar. Her dissertation was supervised by playwright Dan Rebellato.
Andy Field is an artist, writer, curator and academic based in London.
Cheers to the Fall is the debut studio album by American singer Andra Day. It was released on August 28, 2015, by Warner Bros. Records and Buskin Records. She worked with Jenn Decilveo, Adrian Gurvitz, Rob Kleiner, Raphael Saadiq, and Chris Seefried in the production of this album.
The Lark Quartet was a New York-based, all female string quartet that operated from 1985 to 2019. It is acknowledged for its distinguished contribution to the string quartet repertoire, commissioning new works from some of America's most celebrated composers. Most notably, Aaron Jay Kernis' two string quartets: Quartet no. 1 Musica celestis and Quartet no. 2 Musica instrumentalis, which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The Lark Quartet served as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2004 to 2008 and has recorded numerous albums on multiple labels including Decca/Argo, Arabesque, Bridge, ERI, Endeavor and Koch.
Matthew Whiteside is a composer based in Scotland. His work includes opera, chamber music, sound installations and soundtracks.
