# 1959 in British music

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 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.
* 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".

## 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 (ballet)
* 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 (Madness)
* 15 January – Pete Trewavas, bass player and songwriter
* 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)
* 6 August – Donna Lewis, singer
* 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)