# 1981 in British Music...



## Guest (Sep 18, 2018)

This is a summary of 1981 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

*Events*-

9 February - Phil Collins releases his first solo album (although he will not leave the band Genesis until 1995)

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. (They would however reunite frequently in years to come).

25 April - Paul McCartney's band, Wings, breaks up

2 May - Working as a local wedding singer 12 months previously, Scottish vocalist Sheena Easton hits No.1 in the US with "Morning Train (9 to 5)"

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 (Parts 1&2)" 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.

17 October - Performance artist Laurie Anderson achieves a surprise #2 hit when her eight-minute experimental song O Superman is championed by Radio 1 DJ John Peel.

_*Some of the more interesting facts about the UK charts during the course of 1981* - 
_
The year opens with "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" by St. Winifred's School Choir at # 1 - a position which they carried over from the last week of December, 1980.

John Lennon holds down the number 1 spot for six straight weeks with four for "Imagine" and two for "Woman".

"Shaddap You Face" by Joe Dolce Music Theatre nails the number one spot for three straight weeks.

Shakin' Stevens has two runs of multi-week number ones - three weeks for "This Ole House" and an astounding four straight weeks for "Green Door".

Bucks Fizz holds down the number one spot for three straight weeks after winning the Eurovision Son Contest.

Adam and the Ants conquer the charts for five straight weeks with "Stand and Deliver" and four straight weeks for "Prince Charming".

Adams and the Ants hold the number one Album spot hostage for an astounding 10 straight weeks with "Kings of the Wild Frontier".

Cliff Richard's "Love Songs" is the number one album for five straight weeks.

Motörhead's "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" is the number one LP for the week of 27 June.

"Shaky" by Shakin' Stevens is the number one LP for the week of 7 November.

The best selling single was "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell.

Numbers 2 and 3 were Adam and the Ants' "Stand and Deliver" and "Prince Charming".

Number 4 was Shakin' Stevens "Green Door".

Number 5 was "Vienna" by Ultravox.

The best selling album was "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by Adam and the Ants.

Number 2 was Queen - "Greatest Hits"

Number 3 was The Human League - "Dare"

Number 4 was Phil Collins - "Face Value"

Number 5 was Shakin' Stevens - "Shaky"

I don't know what our UK friends here think about 1981 but Shakin' Stevens thought it was a hell of a year to be Shakin' Stevens... and so I name him "*Artist of the Year*" and award him with this video showcase -











Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_in_British_music

Special thanks to our friend Merl for being the source of inspiration behind the creation of this thread... seriously... :tiphat:... He's very inspirational... seriously... Rock on, Merl, Rock on!


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2018)

Despite everything else that is written above what I find strangest is this - 

25 April - Paul McCartney's band, Wings, breaks up

Breaks up? - They were salaried employees who were given the sack by Paul McCartney. 

And from 1973 they were known as "Paul McCartney and Wings" which doesn't exactly sound very egalitarian to me in fact I'm surprised that they didn't become "Paul and Linda McCartney and Wings"... If they had lasted long enough I reckon they might even have become "Paul, Linda, and Stella McCartney and Wings"...


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