1959 in British music

Summary

Events

• 21 April – Ballerina Margot Fonteyn is jailed for 24 hours in Panama on suspicion of planning a coup against the government of president Ernesto de la Guardia.
• 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.
• 30 October – Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club opens in the Soho district of London.

  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
• Malcolm Arnold – Sweeney Todd
• Arthur Bliss – Birthday Song for a Royal Child (composed to celebrate the birth of Prince Andrew
• Benjamin Britten – Missa Brevis
• Iain Hamilton – Sinfonia, for two orchestras
• 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
• 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
• 28 January – Dave Sharp
• 3 February – Lol Tolhurst, drummer
• 25 February – Mike Peters, singer/songwriter
• 17 March – Mike Lindup, singer/keyboard player
• 10 April – Brian Setzer, singer/guitarist
• 21 April – Robert Smith, singer
• 27 April – Sheena Easton, singer
• 22 May – Morrissey, singer
• 28 May – Steve Strange, singer
• 5 June – Robert Lloyd, English singer
• 24 June – Andy McCluskey
• 28 June – Clint Boon, singer and keyboard player
• 30 June – Brendan Perry, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 9 July – Jim Kerr, singer
• 29 August – Eddi Reader, singer
• 4 October – Chris Lowe, keyboard player
• 10 October – Kirsty MacColl, singer/songwriter
• 7 November – Richard Barrett, composer
• 27 November – Charlie Burchill
• 1 December – Billy Childish, artist and musician
• 30 December – Tracey Ullman, actress and singer

  Deaths

• 11 March – Haydn Wood, violinist and composer
• 25 March – Billy Mayerl, pianist and composer
• 9 June – Sonnie Hale, actor and singer
• 6 September – Kay Kendall, musical comedy actress
• 11 September – Ann Drummond-Grant, operatic contralto
• 21 September – Agnes Nicholls, operatic soprano
• 28 September – Gerard Hoffnung, German-born artist, musician and humorist
• 19 October – Stanley Bate, pianist and composer
• 26 November – Albert Ketèlbey, pianist, conductor and composer
• 29 December – Robin Milford, composer
• 30 December – G. W. Briggs, hymn-writer