1978 in British music

This is a summary of 1978 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

 * 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 became the first 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.
 * 15 July – The Picnic at Blackbushe Aerodrome, Camberley, Surrey, a concert featuring Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Joan Armatrading, attracts some 200,000 people.
 * 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.
 * 27 November – Def Leppard's permanent drummer Rick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.
 * December – UB40 formed.
 * 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.
 * Operatic contralto Helen Watts is appointed a CBE.
 * Multitone Records is founded by Pranil Gohil, specialising in bhangra music.

Year-end charts
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.

Best-selling albums
Notes:

Classical music: new works

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

Film and Incidental music

 * 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.

Births

 * 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
 * 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
 * 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)
 * 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

Deaths

 * 11 January – William John Edwards, Cerdd Dant singer (b. 1898)
 * 15 January – Jack Jackson, trumpeter, bandleader and radio disc jockey (b. 1906)
 * 24 February – Mrs Mills, pianist (b. 1918)
 * 9 March – L. Radley Flynn, singer and actor (b. 1902)
 * 12 March – Tolchard Evans, songwriter, composer, pianist and bandleader (b. 1901)
 * 3 April – Ray Noble, composer and bandleader (b. 1903)
 * 21 April – Sandy Denny, singer (Fairport Convention) (b. 1947) (cerebral haemorrhage)
 * 14 August – Victor Silvester, dance band leader (b. 1900)
 * 7 September
 * Keith Moon, drummer for The Who (b. 1946) (Clomethiazole overdose)
 * Charles Williams, composer (b. 1893)
 * 15 September – Robert Bruce Montgomery, composer (b. 1921)
 * 13 November – W. S. Gwynn Williams, musician and composer (b. 1896)