1978 in British music

• 14 January – The Sex Pistols play their final show (until a reunion in 1996) at Winterland, San Francisco.
• 24 January – Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" is number one for a ninth and final week, becoming the biggest-selling single in UK history at that point.
• 25 January – Electric Light Orchestra kick off their Out of the Blue world tour in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• 11 March – Kate Bush becomes the first British female solo artist to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-written song, "Wuthering Heights".
• 30 April – The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, the Ruts, Misty in Roots and Generation X all play live in Victoria Park, Hackney, at the Anti-Nazi League/Rock Against Racism festival, following a march from Trafalgar Square.
• 25 May – The Who play their last show with Keith Moon before his death.
• 15 July – The Picnic at Blackbushe Aerodrome, Camberley, Surrey, a concert featuring Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Joan Armatrading, attracts some 200,000 people.{{cite web|title=The Picnic at Blackbushe Aerodrome 1978|website=www.ukrockfestivals.com|url=https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/blackbushe.html|accessdate=2022-10-08}}
• 30 July – Thin Lizzy officially announce that Gary Moore has replaced Brian Robertson on guitar.
• 18 August – The Who release their eighth studio album Who Are You. It is the Who's last album with Keith Moon as the drummer; Moon dies twenty days after the release of the album.
• September – Second anti-racism event staged in Brockwell Park, South London, featuring Elvis Costello, Stiff Little Fingers and Aswad, with 150,000 people in attendance.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}
• 27 November – Def Leppard's permanent drummer Rick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.
• unknown dates
• The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever becomes the biggest-selling album of all time (until overtaken in 1983).
• The first BBC Young Musician of the Year competition for classical players is won by trombonist Michael Hext.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03tsrqm|title=Michael Hext - Young Musician 1978 winner|website=BBC|access-date=2 February 2025}}
• Operatic contralto Helen Watts is appointed a CBE.
• Multitone Records is founded by Pranil Gohil, specialising in bhangra music.

The tables below include sales between 31 December 1977 and 30 December 1978: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 23 December 1978 and played on Radio 1 on 31 December 1978 only include sales figures up until 16 December 1978.

{{cite book |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Scaping |title=BPI Year Book 1979 |chapter=Top 200 Singles in 1978 |publisher=The British Phonographic Industry Ltd |location=London, England |pages=186–89 |edition=4th |date=1979 |isbn=0-906154-02-2}}

Scaping (1979). "Top 200 LPs in 1978". pp. 182–85.

Notes:

{{Notelist|30em}}

• Malcolm Arnold – Symphony No. 8
• Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony no. 1
• Daniel Jones – String Quartet No 4
• Malcolm Williamson
• Azure
• Fiesta

• Tony Banks – The Shout, starring Alan Bates, Susannah York and John Hurt.
• Roy Budd – The Wild Geese.
• Ron Goodwin – Force 10 from Navarone directed by Guy Hamilton, starring Robert Shaw and Edward Fox.
• Ed Welch – The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell.

• 1 January – Tarik O'Regan, composer
• 13 January – Shelley Nash, singer (Girls@Play)
• 15 January – Sandi Lee Hughes, singer (allSTARS*)
• 19 January – Wayne Williams, singer (Another Level)
• 13 February – Hamish Glencross, Scottish guitarist
• 14 February – Ryan Griffiths (The Vines)
• 22 February – Jenny Frost, singer (Atomic Kitten)
• 6 April – Myleene Klass, singer (Hear'Say), radio and TV presenter
• 7 April – Duncan James, singer (Blue)
• 9 April – Rachel Stevens, singer (S Club 7)
• 16 April – Terry Daly, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 23 April – Tom Lowe, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 25 April – Luke Bedford, composer
• 28 April – Lauren Laverne, singer, radio DJ and TV presenter
• 4 May – Matthew Rose, bass
• 22 May – Jordan, model and would-be singer
• 29 May
• Adam Rickitt, singer and actor
• Daniel Pearce, singer (One True Voice){{cn|date=February 2025}}
• 6 June – Sophie Solomon, violinist
• 16 June – Elisa Cariera, American-born singer (Solid HarmoniE)
• 4 July – Stephen McNally, English singer-songwriter (BBMak)
• 1 August – Jonathan Wilkes, singer and entertainer
• 21 August – John Paul "J-Rock" Horsley, American-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 3 September – Johnny Shentall, singer (Boom!)
• 15 September – David Sneddon, singer-songwriter
• 27 September – Jamie Benson, singer (Hepburn)
• 7 October – Alesha Dixon, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 9 October
• Nicky Byrne, Irish singer (Westlife)
• Beverley Fullen, drummer (Hepburn)
• 26 October – Rachael Carr, singer (Boom!)
• 27 October – Sabrina Washington, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 29 October – Sam Chapman, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 1 November – Bobak Kianovsh, singer (Another Level)
• 7 November – Mark Read, singer (A1)
• 23 November – Randy Brown, Jamaican-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 27 November – Mike Skinner, rapper, musician and record producer
• 12 December – Paul Walker, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 18 December – Lindsay Armaou, Greek-born Irish-based singer (B*Witched)
• date unknown – Oliver Weeks, composer, arranger and guitarist

• 11 January – William John Edwards, Cerdd Dant singer (b. 1898){{cite journal|url=https://www.ybedol.com/wp-content/uploads/Y-Bedol-Chwefror-2020.pdf|journal=Y Bedol|title=Er cof|language=cy|page=3}}
• 15 January – Jack Jackson, trumpeter, bandleader and radio disc jockey (b. 1906){{cite web|url=http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/dancebands/Musicians/MusicianPages/Jack%20Jackson.htm|title=Dance Band Encyclopaedia: Jack Jackson|access-date=1 February 2025}}
• 24 February – Mrs Mills, pianist (b. 1918; heart attack){{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mrs-mills-mn0001525474#biography|title=Mrs. Mills|author=Sharon Mawer |publisher=Allmusic |accessdate=16 April 2012}}
• 9 March – L. Radley Flynn, singer and actor (b. 1902)
• 12 March – Tolchard Evans, songwriter, composer, pianist and bandleader (b. 1901){{cite web |title=Tolchard Evans |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/index/66/101066776/ |url-access=subscription |accessdate=27 September 2014 |publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}
• 3 April – Ray Noble, composer and bandleader (b. 1903)
• 21 April – Sandy Denny, singer (Fairport Convention) (b. 1947) (cerebral haemorrhage){{cite book|author=Mick Houghton|title=I've Always Kept a Unicorn – The Biography of Sandy Denny|publisher=Faber & Faber|year=2015|page=405}} {{ISBN|0571278914}}
• 14 August – Victor Silvester, dance band leader (b. 1900){{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=2267}}
• 7 September
• Keith Moon, drummer of The Who (b. 1946) (Clomethiazole overdose){{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=Tony |author-link=Tony Fletcher |title=Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-1-84449-807-9 |year=1998 |page=524 }}
• Charles Williams, composer (b. 1893){{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=2011|isbn=9780857125958|page=1933}}
• 15 September – Robert Bruce Montgomery, writer and composer (b. 1921){{cite encyclopedia|last= Whittle |first= David |title= Montgomery, (Robert) Bruce/Edmund Crispin (1921–1978) | encyclopedia = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2004 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/31461 |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31461 |access-date=2005-11-02|url-access= subscription }}
• 13 December – Jack Doyle, Irish-born boxer and singer (b. 1913; cirrhosis of liver){{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/doyle-jack-a2751|title=Doyle, Jack|author=Paul Rouse|website=Dictionary of Irish Biography|access-date=1 February 2025}}

• 1978 in British radio
• 1978 in British television
• 1978 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1978

{{reflist}}

{{Music of the United Kingdom}}

Category:British music by year