1959 in British music explained

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]
• 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

Notes and References

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