2015 in British music

See also: Timeline of musical events

This is a summary of the year 2015 in British music.

List of years in British music
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Events

• 5 January – An official statement from Glyndebourne confirms that Danielle De Niese and her husband, Gus Christie, chairman of Glyndebourne Opera, are expecting their first child.
• 15 January – The nominations for the 2015 Brit Awards are announced, with Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and George Ezra dominating many of the categories.
• 22 January – It is announced that BBC Radio 1's annual Big Weekend event this year will be held at Earlham Park, Norwich.
• 8 February – Sam Smith is the big winner at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, winning Best New Artist, and Record and Song of the Year for "Stay with Me from the album In the Lonely Hour, which subsequently won Best Vocal Album.
• 25 February – Ed Sheeran and Paloma Faith win Best British Male and Female Solo Artist at this year's Brit Awards, with x winning Best Album and "Uptown Funk" winning Best Single. Notable moments of the night include Kanye West's controversial performance of "All Day" and Madonna falling off stage during her performance of "Living for Love".
• 27 February – Disgraced former glam rocker Gary Glitter is sentenced to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of sexual offences with minors dating back between 1975–1980
• 1 March – Audio streaming became incorporated into the UK Albums Chart.
• 3 March – The London Symphony Orchestra announces the appointment of Sir Simon Rattle as its next music director, effective September 2017, with an initial contract of 5 years.
• 7 March – The BBC confirms that Electro Velvet's 1920s inspired song "Still in Love with You" has been chosen to represent the UK at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
• 9 March
  • Sam Smith releases a special remake of their song "Lay Me Down", featuring John Legend, as this year's official Comic Relief single.
  • English National Opera announces the appointment of Cressida Pollock as interim Chief Executive Officer.
• 10 March – Sarah Brightman confirms she has been working on a song with Andrew Lloyd Webber that she can perform in space aboard the International Space Station in September. Brightman subsequently withdraws from the planned flight, citing family commitments.
• 11 March
  • The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra announces the appointment of Thomas Dausgaard as its 11th chief conductor, effective with the 2016–2017 season.
  • Simon Halsey is announced as the recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music 2014.
• 18 March – Julian Lloyd Webber is confirmed as the Principal of Birmingham Conservatoire.
• 20 May – Ye Yanchen's new work, Septet, to be premiered at St Illtud's Church, Llantwit Major, by soloists from China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra.
• 23 May – The United Kingdom is represented at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, by Electro Velvet, with the song "Still in Love with You". They finish 24th out of 27 entries, scoring five points.
• 12 June – Musicians recognised in the 2015 Birthday Honours include conductor Sir Neville Marriner (Companion of Honour) composers Karl Jenkins and James MacMillan who receive knighthoods, and singers Michael Ball (OBE) and Van Morrison (knighthood)
• 12–14 June – Download Festival 2015 takes place at Donington Park in Leicestershire. The main stage is headlined by Slipknot, Muse and Kiss, the Zippo encore stage by Black Stone Cherry, Marilyn Manson and Enter Shikari, the Maverick stage by Fightstar, Andrew W.K. and Yellowcard, Jake's Stage by A, Hey! Hello! and Suicidal Tendencies, and the Dog's Bed stage by Tim Vantol and Like a Storm.
• 21 June – Nadine Koutcher wins the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
• September – A-level student Jessy McCabe persuades examination board Edexcel to ensure that female composers are in future included in its Music syllabus.
• 21 September – English National Opera announces the appointments of Harry Brünjes as chairman and confirms Cressida Pollock as CEO for an additional three years.
• 23 September – Welsh National Opera announces the appointment of Tomáš Hanus as music director for the 2016–2017 season, and of Carlo Rizzi as conductor laureate with immediate effect.
• 2 October – "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith, the theme for the new James Bond movie Spectre, becomes the first ever Bond theme to reach number 1 in the UK.
• 23 October – "Hello", the lead single from Adele's third studio album 25, is released to intense global media attention. The album (released 20 November) becomes the fastest selling in UK chart history, ending the year on 2.5 million.
• 18 November – The Three Choirs Festival announces that Alexis Paterson will take over as chief executive in January 2016.
• 13 December – Louisa Johnson wins the twelfth series of The X Factor. Reggie 'n' Bollie are named runner-ups, while Ché Chesterman and Lauren Murray finish in third and fourth place respectively.
• December – As a result of a campaign led by student Jessy McCabe, exam board Edexcel announces that it has changed its A-level music syllabus to include female composers.

Television series

• 10 January
  • Launch of the fourth series of The Voice UK.
  • Return of Stars in Their Eyes after nearly ten years off air.
• 14 February – Peter Sarsfield wins the first revival series of Harry Hill's Stars in Their Eyes, impersonating Frankie Valli.
• 16 January – Sound of Song, presented by Neil Brand
• 26 January – Launch of new music based entertainment show, South Side Story.
• 2 February – Global Radio, the owners of pop music channel Heart TV, are reprimanded by Ofcom after the channel played 72 seconds more than the permitted amount of advertising during one particular hour in October 2014. Global says the incident occurred when a commercial break was pushed to the end of an hour, creating too much advertising time for the following hour.
• 14 February – Stars in Their Eyes is cancelled again after critical reviews of its revamped format.
• 7 March – Reginald D. Hunter's Songs of the South begins on BBC Two.
• 26 May – The BBC announces that its music panel quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks is to end after 18 years and 28 series.
• 28 June – Pappano's Classical Voices begins on BBC Four.
• 29 August – Launch of the twelfth series of The X Factor.
• 19 December – Jay McGuinness of The Wanted and his dance partner Aliona Vilani win the thirteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing.
• 20 December – The Sound of Music Live is broadcast on ITV, starring Kara Tointon and Julian Ovenden.

Publications

• Karl Jenkins – Still with the Music

Artists and groups reformed

• Bay City Rollers
• Black Grape
• The Bluetones
• Busted
• Faithless
• The King Blues
• Lush
• Simply Red
• Supertramp
• We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It

Groups on hiatus

• Blur
• The Saturdays

Groups disbanded

• Does It Offend You, Yeah?
• Heart In Hand
• Flesh for Lulu
• Kingsland Road
• Klaxons
• Motörhead
• Neon Jungle
• Noah and the Whale
• Ph.D
• Rise to Remain
• Stereo Kicks

Classical works

• Eleanor Alberga – Arise, Athena!
• Julian Anderson
  • In lieblicher Bläue (Violin Concerto)
  • Van Gogh Blue
• Richard Ayres – No 48 (In the Night Studio)
• Guy Barker – The Lanterne of Light
• Gerald Barry – The One-Armed Pianist
• Sally Beamish – "Be still" (Introit)
• Luke Bedford
  • Instability
  • Saxophone Quartet
• Fiona Bennett – The New Lady Radnor's Suite
• Judith Bingham
  • Ghostly Grace
  • Zodiack
• Harrison Birtwistle
  • The Cure
  • The Silk House Sequences
• Victoria Borisova-Ollas – ... and time is running past midnight ...
• Mark Bowden and Owen Sheers – A Violence of Gifts
• Gary Carpenter – Dadaville
• Pete Churchill – Echoes: A Song of Poland
• James Clapperton – Northern Sky
• Anna Clyne – The Seamstress
• Edward Cowie – Three Spitfire Motets
• Paul Crabtree – O Icarus
• Laurence Crane: Chamber Symphony No 2 ('The Australian')
• Tansy Davies – Re-greening
• Benjamin Ellin – Miyabi – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
• David Fennessy – Hirta Rounds
• Michael Finnissy – Janne
• Peter Fribbins – Violin Concerto
• Alexander Goehr
  • Variations (Homage to Haydn), for solo piano
  • Seven Impromptus, op 96, for two pianos
• Helen Grime – Concerto for clarinet and trumpet
• Barry Guy – Mr Babbage is Coming to Dinner
• Robin Holloway
  • Soldered Schumann
  • Silvered Schubert
  • Europa and the Bull (tuba concerto)
• Mica Levi – Greezy
• James MacMillan
  • A Little Mass
  • Symphony No 4
• Colin Matthews and Michael Morpurgo – The Pied Piper of Hamelin
• David Matthews – Symphony No 8
• Melinda Maxwell – FRACTURES: Monk Unpacked
• Christopher Mayo – Supermarine
• Anna Meredith – Smatter Hauler
• Thea Musgrave – Power Play
• Mark Simpson
  • Israfel
  • The Immortal (text by Melanie Challenger)
• Howard Skempton – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Errollyn Wallen – Rebuttal Blues No 1
• Bertram Wee – Dithyrambs
• Judith Weir – Good Morning, Midnight
• Michael Wolters – Requiem to Let
• Hugh Wood – Epithalamion
• Raymond Yiu – Symphony

Opera

• 21 May – UK premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's Poliuto at Glyndebourne.
• Charlotte Bray and Amy Rosenthal – Entanglement
• Tansy Davies and Nick Drake – Between Worlds
• Matt Rogers and Sally O'Reilly – The Virtues of Things
• Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer – Everest

Musical theatre

• Bend It Like Beckham the Musical, with music by Howard Goodall, lyrics by Charles Hart, and book by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges
• School of Rock, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book by Julian Fellowes
• The Mirror Never Lies, music by Juan Iglesias, book and lyrics by Joe Giuffre, based on a novel by Barbara Pym

Musical films

• Kill Your Friends, starring Nicholas Hoult and Georgia King.
• London Road, starring Olivia Colman and Anita Dobson

Film scores and incidental music

Film

• Craig Armstrong – Far from the Madding Crowd
• Patrick Doyle – Cinderella
• George Fenton – Absolutely Anything
• Henry Jackman – Kingsman: The Secret Service

Television

• Anne Dudley – Poldark
• Debbie Wiseman – Wolf Hall

British music awards

Brit Awards

See 2015 Brit Awards

British Composer Awards

• Amateur or Young Performers: Kate Whitley – Alive
• Choral: James Dillon – Stabat Mater dolorosa
• Community or Educational Project: Stuart Hancock – Snapshot Songs
• Contemporary Jazz Composition: Trish Clowes – The Fox, The Parakeet & The Chestnut
• Large Chamber: Sinan Savaskan – Many stares (through semi-nocturnal Zeiss-Blink) – Module 30
• Liturgical: Michael Finnissy – John the Baptist
• Orchestral: Harrison Birtwistle – Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless
• Small Chamber: Julian Anderson – String Quartet No. 2
• Solo or Duo: Michael Finnissy – Beat Generation Ballads
• Sonic Art: Yann Seznec – Currents
• Stage Works: Julian Anderson – Thebans
• Wind Band or Brass Band: Rory Boyle – Muckle Flugga

Charts and sales

Notable events and records

On 10 July 2015, the chart week changed from Sunday–Saturday to Friday–Thursday, with the first chart covering Sunday 5 July to Thursday 9 July. This chart move is to align the chart week with the new Global Release Day (Friday) for music.

Pharrell Williams set an all-time record when "Happy" notched 64 consecutive weeks in the top 75 of the singles chart.

Adele's 25 became the fastest-selling UK album of all time, beating the record previously held by Oasis' Be Here Now in 1997.

Jess Glynne scored three UK number-one singles and two from the previous year, tying here with Cheryl Fernandez-Versini as the British women with the most UK number-one singles.

In December, Justin Bieber's songs "Sorry" and "Love Yourself" claimed the top 2 spots on the singles chart during the same week, marking the first time this was accomplished since Madonna in 1985. "Love Yourself" went on to replace "Sorry" in the top position, making Bieber the first artist since Elvis Presley in 2005 to knock themselves off the top spot.

"Love Yourself" became the first song in the history of the UK Singles Chart to reach number one without an official single release.

Number-one singles

The singles chart includes a proportion for streaming.

Key

†	Best performing single of the year

Chart date (week ending)	Song	Artist(s)	Chart sales	References
3 January	"Uptown Funk" †	Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars	186,655
10 January			156,335
17 January			129,871
24 January			125,948
31 January			120,443
7 February			101,962
14 February	"Love Me like You Do"	Ellie Goulding	172,368
21 February			118,225
28 February			118,343
7 March			98,167
14 March	"King"	Years & Years	100,955
21 March	"Lay Me Down"	Sam Smith featuring John Legend	105,070
28 March			68,739
4 April	"Hold My Hand"	Jess Glynne	97,494
11 April			80,177
18 April			57,372
25 April	"See You Again"	Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth	193,018
2 May			141,671
9 May	"Cheerleader"	OMI	112,626
16 May			96,533
23 May			89,201
30 May			76,572
6 June	"Want to Want Me"	Jason Derulo	127,113
13 June			75,066
20 June			65,300
27 June			57,039
4 July	"Not Letting Go"	Tinie Tempah featuring Jess Glynne	110,001
9 July	"Are You with Me"	Lost Frequencies	83,712
16 July	"House Every Weekend"	David Zowie	54,929*
23 July	"Black Magic"	Little Mix	112,684
30 July			65,720
6 August			59,877
13 August	"Drag Me Down"	One Direction	76,015
20 August	"Marvin Gaye"	Charlie Puth featuring Meghan Trainor	94,455
27 August	"Don't Be So Hard on Yourself"	Jess Glynne	61,994
3 September	"Fight Song"	Rachel Platten	58,581
10 September	"What Do You Mean?"	Justin Bieber	83,746
17 September	"Easy Love"	Sigala	82,237
24 September	"What Do You Mean?"	Justin Bieber	66,876
1 October			60,782
8 October	"Writing's on the Wall"	Sam Smith	69,604
15 October	"What Do You Mean?"	Justin Bieber	50,927
22 October			46,533
29 October	"Turn the Music Louder (Rumble)"	KDA featuring Tinie Tempah & Katy B	60,334
5 November	"Hello"	Adele	332,599
12 November			179,406
19 November			127,075
26 November	"Sorry"	Justin Bieber	104,472
3 December			111,655
10 December	"Love Yourself"		115,821
17 December			113,709
24 December			102,084
31 December	"A Bridge over You"	NHS Choir	127,490

Number-one albums

The 'sales' figures since the chart week ending 7 March include a proportion for audio streams.

Key

†	Best performing album of the year

Chart date (week ending)	Album	Artist	Sales / chart sales	References
3 January	x	Ed Sheeran	211,168
10 January	Wanted on Voyage	George Ezra	72,121
17 January	In the Lonely Hour	Sam Smith	34,551
24 January	Wanted on Voyage	George Ezra	24,553
31 January	Uptown Special	Mark Ronson	33,380
7 February	Title	Meghan Trainor	25,246
14 February	Shadows in the Night	Bob Dylan	22,031
21 February	In the Lonely Hour	Sam Smith	34,422
28 February	Smoke + Mirrors	Imagine Dragons	25,675
7 March	In the Lonely Hour	Sam Smith	40,874
14 March	Chasing Yesterday	Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds	89,110
21 March	In the Lonely Hour	Sam Smith	49,482
28 March	To Pimp a Butterfly	Kendrick Lamar	29,695
4 April	Chaos and the Calm	James Bay	64,440
11 April	The Day Is My Enemy	The Prodigy	45,302
18 April	Future Hearts	All Time Low	19,463
25 April	The Ultimate Collection	Paul Simon	15,487
2 May	Stages	Josh Groban	20,092
9 May	The Magic Whip	Blur	43,746
16 May	Wilder Mind	Mumford & Sons	81,351
23 May			29,922
30 May	The Desired Effect	Brandon Flowers	31,077
6 June	85% Proof	Will Young	21,321
13 June	How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful	Florence and the Machine	68,788
20 June	Drones	Muse	72,863
27 June			24,445
4 July	How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful	Florence and the Machine	14,419
9 July	The Definitive Collective	Lionel Richie	19,896
16 July	x	Ed Sheeran	19,754*
23 July	Communion	Years & Years	55,592
30 July			20,627
6 August	Born in the Echoes	The Chemical Brothers	18,056
13 August	Marks to Prove It	The Maccabees	16,082
20 August	Compton	Dr. Dre	45,721
27 August	The Very Best of Cilla Black	Cilla Black	12,965
3 September	I Cry When I Laugh	Jess Glynne	59,117
10 September	Beauty Behind the Madness	The Weeknd	34,819
17 September	The Book of Souls	Iron Maiden	60,249
24 September	Keep the Village Alive	Stereophonics	44,868
1 October	Rattle That Lock	David Gilmour	48,075
8 October	Caracal	Disclosure	26,789
15 October	We the Generation	Rudimental	22,718
22 October	Faithless 2.0	Faithless	12,341
29 October	Jamie Lawson	Jamie Lawson	20,351
5 November	Sounds Good Feels Good	5 Seconds of Summer	42,459
12 November	If I Can Dream	Elvis Presley	79,053
19 November			88,603
26 November	Made in the A.M.	One Direction	93,189
3 December	25 †	Adele	800,307
10 December			439,337
17 December			353,765
24 December			376,716
31 December			449,870

Number-one compilation albums

Key

†	Best-selling compilation of the year

Chart date (week ending)	Album	Sales	References
3 January	Now 89	150,703
10 January		43,093
17 January		21,264
24 January		15,962
31 January	The Weekender	15,230
7 February	Now Power Ballads	17,427
14 February		18,601
21 February	Fifty Shades Of Grey	41,080
28 February		45,684
7 March		36,038
14 March		27,755
21 March		29,294
28 March		15,253
4 April	Move On Up: The Very Best of Northern Soul	14,236
11 April	Now 90	264,159
18 April		105,020
25 April		63,008
2 May		44,426
9 May		38,959
16 May		29,014
23 May		25,964
30 May		24,789
6 June		22,554
13 June	Now Classic Rock	18,131
20 June	TFI Friday	18,668
27 June	Now Classic Rock	33,238
4 July	Now Summer Party	33,340
9 July		34,885
16 July		23,726*
23 July		36,471
30 July		31,070
6 August	Now 91	224,172
13 August		118,073
20 August		66,074
27 August		45,642
3 September		34,933
10 September		30,229
17 September		22,327
24 September		18,383
1 October		16,051
8 October		14,775
15 October	Keep Calm and Unwind	14,966
22 October	Rapper's Delight	16,247
29 October		14,634
5 November	Now Singer	13,438
12 November	BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge 2015	23,194
19 November	The Annual 2016	22,692
26 November		21,132
3 December	Now 92 †	211,548
10 December		159,716
17 December		120,919
24 December		111,116
31 December		146,967

Top singles of the year

This chart was published by the Official Charts Company in January 2016 showing sales and streams for the whole of 2015.

Combined position	Title	Artist(s)	Peak position	Combined sales
1	"Uptown Funk"	Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars	1	1,760,000
2	"Cheerleader"	OMI	1	1,520,000
3	"Take Me to Church"	Hozier	2	1,250,000
4	"Love Me like You Do"	Ellie Goulding	1	1,190,000
5	"See You Again"	Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth	1	1,170,000
6	"Hello"	Adele	1	1,120,000
7	"Lean On"	Major Lazer & DJ Snake featuring MØ	2
8	"Hold Back the River"	James Bay	2
9	"What Do You Mean?"	Justin Bieber	1	988,000
10	"Sorry"		1	934,000
11	"King"	Years & Years	1
12	"Thinking Out Loud"	Ed Sheeran	3	917,000
13	"Sugar"	Maroon 5	7
14	"Hold My Hand"	Jess Glynne	1	876,000
15	"Where Are Ü Now"	Jack Ü & Justin Bieber	3	874,000
16	"Want to Want Me"	Jason Derulo	1
17	"Are You with Me"	Lost Frequencies	1
18	"FourFiveSeconds"	Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney	3
19	"Shut Up + Dance"	Walk the Moon	4
20	"How Deep Is Your Love"	Calvin Harris & Disciples	2
21	"Can't Feel My Face"	The Weeknd	3	778,000
22	"Firestone"	Kygo featuring Conrad Sewell	8
23	"Trap Queen"	Fetty Wap	8
24	"Love Yourself"	Justin Bieber	1	719,000
25	"The Hills"	The Weeknd	3	600,000
26	"Earned It"		4
27	"Black Magic"	Little Mix	1	600,000
28	"Wish You Were Mine"	Philip George	2	600,000
29	"Photograph"	Ed Sheeran	15
30	"The Nights"	Avicii	6
31	"Runaway (U & I)"	Galantis	4
32	"Elastic Heart"	Sia	10
33	"Bloodstream"	Ed Sheeran & Rudimental	2
34	"Marvin Gaye"	Charlie Puth featuring Meghan Trainor	1
35	"Up"	Olly Murs featuring Demi Lovato	4
36	"Not Letting Go"	Tinie Tempah featuring Jess Glynne	1
37	"Shine"	Years & Years	2
38	"Ayo"	Chris Brown & Tyga	6
39	"Don't Be So Hard on Yourself"	Jess Glynne	1
40	"Hotline Bling"	Drake	3
41	"Let It Go"	James Bay	10
42	"Chandelier"	Sia	6
43	"Jealous"	Nick Jonas	2
44	"I Really Like You"	Carly Rae Jepsen	3
45	"GDFR"	Flo Rida featuring Sage the Gemini & Lookas	3
46	"Bills"	LunchMoney Lewis	2
47	"Never Forget You"	MNEK & Zara Larsson	5
48	"Drag Me Down"	One Direction	1
49	"House Every Weekend"	David Zowie	1
50	"Heroes (We Could Be)"	Alesso featuring Tove Lo	6

Top albums of the year

This chart published by the Official Charts Company on 5 January 2016 shows combined sales for artist albums from sales and streams for the whole of 2015.

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position	Sales
1	25	Adele	1	2,496,000
2	x	Ed Sheeran	1	971,000
3	In the Lonely Hour	Sam Smith	1	893,000
4	If I Can Dream	Elvis Presley	1	881,000
5	Purpose	Justin Bieber	2	645,000
6	1989	Taylor Swift	2
7	I Cry When I Laugh	Jess Glynne	1	583,000
8	Chaos and the Calm	James Bay	1	518,000
9	A Head Full of Dreams	Coldplay	2	507,000
10	Wanted on Voyage	George Ezra	1
11	Get Weird	Little Mix	2	389,000
12	Hozier	Hozier	3
13	Never Been Better	Olly Murs	3
14	Made in the A.M.	One Direction	1
15	Wilder Mind	Mumford & Sons	1	308,000
16	Another Country	Rod Stewart	2	300,000
17	Title	Meghan Trainor	1
18	Alone in the Universe	Jeff Lynne's ELO	4
19	How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful	Florence and the Machine	1
20	Communion	Years & Years	1	260,000
21	Chasing Yesterday	Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds	1
22	Royal Blood	Royal Blood	3
23	A Perfect Contradiction	Paloma Faith	5
24	1000 Forms of Fear	Sia	5
25	The Very Best of Cilla Black	Cilla Black	1
26	Beauty Behind the Madness	The Weeknd	1
27	The Ultimate Collection	Paul Simon	1	181,000
28	American Beauty/American Psycho	Fall Out Boy	2
29	Dark Sky Island	Enya	4
30	Drones	Muse	1
31	Chapter One	Ella Henderson	7
32	A Year of Songs	Alexander Armstrong	6
33	III	Take That	11
34	Delirium	Ellie Goulding	3
35	Rattle That Lock	David Gilmour	1
36	The Balcony	Catfish and the Bottlemen	18
37	Liquid Spirit	Gregory Porter	9
38	+	Ed Sheeran	9
39	Keep the Village Alive	Stereophonics	1
40	Christmas	Michael Bublé	12
41	Cinema	Andrea Bocelli	3
42	1	The Beatles	5
43	The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac	Fleetwood Mac	7
44	Motion	Calvin Harris	8
45	21	Adele	11
46	The Definitive Collection	Lionel Richie	1
47	V	Maroon 5	13
48	Smoke + Mirrors	Imagine Dragons	1
49	If You're Reading This It's Too Late	Drake	3
50	Four	One Direction	7

Notes:

Deaths

• 1 January – Matthew Cogley, musician and songwriter (Failsafe), 30
• 6 January – Lance Percival, actor and singer, 81
• 22 January – Joan Hinde, trumpet player, 81
• 27 January – Margot Moir, Scottish-born Australian singer (The Moir Sisters), 55
• 29 January – Danny McCulloch, 69, bassist (Eric Burdon & The Animals)
• 12 February – Steve Strange, singer (Visage), 55 (heart attack)
• 13 February – John McCabe, British composer and pianist, 75
• 16 February – Gavin Clark, British songwriter and singer with the bands Sunhouse, Clayhill and U.N.K.L.E, 46
• 22 February – Chris Rainbow, rock singer and musician (The Alan Parsons Project), 68
• 16 March – Andy Fraser, composer and bassist (Free), 62
• 21 March – Jackie Trent, singer-songwriter and actress, 74
• 23 March
  • Roy Douglas, composer, 107
  • Lil Chris, singer-songwriter, musician, 24
• 26 March – John Renbourn, guitarist and songwriter (Pentangle), 70
• 28 March
  • Josie Jones, singer (The Mighty Wah!) (death announced on this date)
  • Ronald Stevenson, composer and pianist, 87
• 1 April – Dave Ball, musician (Procol Harum), 65
• 3 April – Andrew Porter, organist, music critic, and opera director, 86
• 10 April – Ronald Hambleton, English-born Canadian broadcaster and music critic (Toronto Star), 97
• 13 April – Ronnie Carroll, Northern Irish singer, 80
• 17 April – Brian Couzens, music industry executive (Chandos Records), 86
• 6 May – Errol Brown, Jamaican-born British singer (Hot Chocolate), 71
• 15 May – Ross Dawson, English drummer (Late of the Pier)
• 16 May – Flora MacNeil, Scottish Gaelic singer, 86
• 21 May – Twinkle, British singer-songwriter, 66 (cancer)
• 28 May – Johnny Keating, Scottish musician, songwriter and arranger, 87
• 4 June – Allan Fryer, Scottish-born Australian musician (Heaven), 60 (cancer)
• 5 June – Nick Marsh, singer and musician (Flesh for Lulu), 53 (cancer)
• 12 June – Ernest Tomlinson, composer, 90
• 27 June – Chris Squire, bassist (Yes), 67 (acute erythroid leukemia)
• 29 June – Bruce Rowland, drummer (Fairport Convention), 74
• 1 July
  • Val Doonican, Irish-born singer, 88
  • Edward Greenfield, music critic and broadcaster, 86
• 13 July – Eric Wrixon (Them, Thin Lizzy), 68
• 22 July – Eddie Hardin, singer-songwriter and pianist (The Spencer Davis Group and Axis Point), 66
• 1 August – Cilla Black, singer and presenter, 72
• 12 August – John Scott, organist and choirmaster, 59
• 14 August – Jazz Summers, music manager (Scissor Sisters, The Verve, Snow Patrol), 71 (lung cancer)
• 8 October – Jim Diamond, Scottish singer, songwriter, 64
• 11 October – Carey Lander, keyboardist, singer (Camera Obscura), 33
• 13 October – Duncan Druce, English composer and musicologist, 76
• 28 October – Diane Charlemagne, singer (52nd Street, Urban Cookie Collective), 51 (cancer)
• 9 November – Andy White, Scottish musician, drummer, 85
• 11 November – Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, drummer (Motörhead), 61
• 28 November – Wayne Bickerton, songwriter, record producer, and music executive, 74
• 17 December – Mick Lynch, Irish singer, musician (Stump), 56 (cancer)
• 28 December
  • John Bradbury, drummer (The Specials), 62
  • Guru Josh, techno producer, musician, 51 (suicide)
  • Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, singer, songwriter, musician (Motörhead, Hawkwind), 70 (cancer)

See also

• 2015 in British radio
• 2015 in British television
• 2015 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 2015