1982 in British music

This is a summary of 1982 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events

 * 20 January – Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown at him during a performance, mistaking it for a toy.
 * 3 March – The Barbican Arts Centre in London is opened by the Queen.
 * 21 March – The Musical House that Max Built, a documentary about Peter Maxwell Davies, is broadcast by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg.
 * 26 April – Rod Stewart is mugged in Los Angeles, California. Stewart loses his $50,000 Porsche to the mugger, but was not hurt.
 * 10 May – Topper Headon is sacked from the Clash for his ongoing addiction to heroin, just a few days prior to the release of the band's Combat Rock album. He is replaced by original Clash drummer Terry Chimes.
 * 15 May – "A Little Peace" becomes the 500th UK number-one single.
 * 26 May – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Aberdeen, Scotland.
 * 22 August – The first performance of Image, Reflection, Shadow, by Peter Maxwell Davies takes place at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.
 * 28 August – Eric Burdon is arrested for cocaine possession after a show at the Rockpalast in Cologne.
 * 22 September – The Who begin their only formally announced "farewell" tour in Washington, D.C.
 * 30 October – Paul Weller shocks fans, and his bandmates, by announcing that the Jam are to disband, just prior to a short UK tour. "Beat Surrender" would be the band's final single, and became their fourth and final UK number one.
 * 5 November – First broadcast of The Tube on Channel 4.
 * 11 December – The Jam give their final performance together, at Brighton Conference Centre, just before their split.

Number-one singles
"The Model"/"Computer Love" was the first single by a German artist to top the chart since its establishment 29 years earlier. By the end of 1982, there had been two further number ones by German artists, "Seven Tears" and "A Little Peace".

Year-end charts
The tables below include sales between 1 January and 31 December 1982: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 26 December 1982 and played on Radio 1 on 2 January 1983 only include sales figures up until 11 December 1982.

Best-selling albums
Notes:

New works

 * Peter Maxwell Davies – Image, Reflection, Shadow
 * Alun Hoddinott – Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Tunes for orchestra
 * Michael Tippett – The Mask of Time (oratorio)

Opera

 * Gavin Bryars – Medea

Film and Incidental music

 * Michael Nyman – The Draughtsman's Contract directed by Peter Greenaway.

Musical theatre

 * Anthony Burgess – Blooms of Dublin
 * Geoffrey Burgon – Orpheus

BRIT Awards
The 1982 BRIT Awards winners were:


 * Best British producer: Martin Rushent
 * Best classical recording: Gustav Mahler's – "Symphony No. 10"
 * Best selling album: Adam and the Ants – "Kings of the Wild Frontier"
 * British breakthrough act: The Human League
 * British female solo artist: Randy Crawford
 * British group: The Police
 * British male solo artist: Cliff Richard
 * Outstanding contribution: John Lennon

Births

 * 11 January – Ashley Taylor Dawson, singer (allSTARS*)
 * 16 January – Preston, singer
 * 10 March – Jonathan Ansell, tenor (G4)
 * 6 March - Sinead Shepard, Irish singer (Six)
 * 11 March - Kyle Anderson, Northern Irish singer (Six)
 * 23 March - Emma O'Driscoll, Irish singer (Six) and TV presenter
 * 7 April - Kelli Young, singer (Liberty X)
 * 26 April – Jon Lee, singer (S Club 7)
 * 30 April - Cleo Higgins, singer (Cleopatra)
 * 7 June – Amy Nuttall, actress and opera singer
 * 18 June - Haydon Eshun, singer (Ultimate Kaos)
 * 20 June – Example, singer-songwriter, musician and rapper
 * 30 June
 * Andy Knowles, musician (Franz Ferdinand)
 * Ashley Walters, rapper and actor
 * 17 July – Natasha Hamilton, singer (Atomic Kitten)
 * 22 September – Billie Piper, singer and actress
 * 4 October – YolanDa Brown, jazz saxophonist
 * 14 December – Anthony Way, chorister
 * date unknown – Charlotte Bray, composer

Deaths

 * 6 January – Katherine Bacon, concert pianist, 85
 * 12 January
 * Hervey Alan, operatic bass and voice teacher, 71
 * Dorothy Howell, pianist and composer, 83
 * 18 January – Alec Robertson, music critic, 89
 * 30 January – Stanley Holloway, actor, singer and monologist, 91
 * 4 February – Alex Harvey, rock singer and entertainer, 46 (heart attack)
 * 20 March – Roy Fox, American-born dance bandleader, 80
 * 1 May – William Primrose, violist, 77
 * 6 May – Rosamond Harding, music scholar, 84
 * 12 May – Humphrey Searle, composer, 66
 * 24 May – Richard Hall, composer, 78
 * 16 June – James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist of The Pretenders, 25 (heart failure caused by cocaine intolerance)
 * 25 June – Alex Welsh, jazz musician, 52
 * 29 June – Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, bagpipe musician and composer, 65
 * 4 July – Maurice Blower, composer, 88
 * 29 September – A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector, 74
 * 6 October – Philip Green, film and TV composer and conductor, 71
 * 8 October – Erik Routley, hymn writer and composer, 64
 * 16 October – Rory McEwen, artist and musician, 50
 * 29 October – William Lloyd Webber, organist and composer, 68
 * 1 November
 * Dorothy Gow, composer, 89
 * Leighton Lucas, composer, 79
 * 13 November – Chesney Allen, entertainer, 88
 * 16 November – Arthur Askey, entertainer, 82
 * 5 December – Caryl Brahms, musician and writer, 80
 * 19 December – Lawrance Collingwood, conductor, composer and record producer, 95
 * date unknown – Bob Roberts, folk singer, 74/75