1985 in British music

The biggest British musical event of 1985 was the Live Aid concert in London's Wembley Stadium on 13 July. Held to follow up the previous year's charity record "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the biggest-selling single ever at the time, popular acts such as The Who, U2 and Queen performed in front of an estimated audience of 1.9 billion viewers. It raised £150 million to help famine in Ethiopia, and a similar event would happen 20 years later in 2005, with Live 8.

After the huge success of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", several more charity songs reached number 1 this year. USA for Africa, inspired by Band Aid, released "We Are the World", a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, while David Bowie and Mick Jagger released a cover of "Dancing in the Street", the music video being premiered at Live Aid and all proceeds going to the charity. In May, a fire at a football stadium in Bradford killed 56 people, and supergroup The Crowd released a charity cover of popular football anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" in tribute.

British rock band Dire Straits released their album Brothers in Arms in May, one of the first ever albums to be released on compact disc and the format's first million-seller.^[1] It went on to become the UK's best-selling album of the entire decade and remains one of the top ten best-selling albums of all time in the UK. Four singles were released from the album, including the UK number 4 hit and US number 1 "Money for Nothing", which referenced American music channel MTV and had a groundbreaking video featuring early computer-generated imagery. When a European version of MTV launched in 1987, it was the first video ever played on the channel.

Jennifer Rush entered the top 75 in June with the power ballad "The Power of Love", which remained in the chart for months without entering the top 40. When it finally did in September, it quickly hit number 1, where it remained for five weeks and was the biggest selling single of the year. It sold over a million copies, however it would be the last single of the decade to do so, and there would not be another million-seller until 1991.

Many songs this year competed for the Christmas number one single, and the entire top 3 from 1984 re-entered the chart this year; Paul McCartney's "We All Stand Together" at number 32, Wham!'s "Last Christmas" at number 6, and Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at number 3. There were also attempts from Bruce Springsteen with a cover of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", and ventriloquist Keith Harris released a cover of "White Christmas" with his green puppet Orville the Duck.

However, the Christmas number one went to Shakin' Stevens with the song "Merry Christmas Everyone". It had been intended to be released in 1984, but was kept back a year due to the Band Aid charity single. Still a widely known Christmas song in the 21st century, it re-entered the chart in Christmas 2007 on downloads alone, at number 22.

John Rutter, hitherto best known for his popular modern carols, acknowledged his classical roots with his Requiem, which was premièred in October in Sacramento, California. Less than eight months earlier, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem had its première in New York. Paul Miles-Kingston, the boy soprano who won a silver disc for his recording of the "Pie Jesu" from that work, became Head Chorister of Winchester Cathedral in the same year. The prolific Peter Maxwell Davies (who had moved to Orkney in 1971) produced one of his most popular works, An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, notable for featuring the bagpipes as a lead instrument, as well as the Symphony No 3, which like its predecessors shows the influence of Sibelius. Veteran Welsh composer Daniel Jones, produced his 12th symphony, at the age of 73, whilst 80-year-old Michael Tippett began work on his last opera, New Year.

• 19 February – The first performance of Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No 3 takes place at Manchester's Free Trade Hall, by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Downes conducting.
• 24 February – The first performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem takes place in St Thomas Church, Manhattan, conducted by Lorin Maazel, with soloists Plácido Domingo, Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston.
• 10 March – An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise by Peter Maxwell Davies is premiered in Boston by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
• 14 March – Movements 1, 2, 4 and 7 of John Rutter's Requiem receive their first performance in Sacramento, California, conducted by the composer.
• 15 March – Jesus & Mary Chain perform a gig at North London Polytechnic which lasts less than 20 minutes after they appear late on stage. A riot ensues, resulting in audience members storming the stage and smashing up the band's equipment, causing £8000 worth of damage.
• 15 March – Song Offerings for soprano and eight players by Jonathan Harvey is performed for the first time at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
• 2 May – The last surviving member of the family of Savoy opera directors, Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte, dies of cancer at the age of 77.
• 13 July – The benefit concert Live Aid is held at London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium. 72,000 people attend at Wembley and the event raises over £150 million in aid of famine relief.
• 7 September – The first performance of Robin Holloway's Viola Concerto takes place at the Proms, with soloist Rivka Golani and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Vernon Handley.
• 26 September – The Symphony No 12 by Daniel Jones is premiered at St David's Hall, Cardiff by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Erich Begal.
• 13 October – The first complete performance of John Rutter's Requiem takes place in Dallas, Texas, conducted by the composer.

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^[3]

• Peter Maxwell Davies – An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise
• Andrew Lloyd Webber – Requiem
• Elizabeth Maconchy – String Quartet No. 13, Quartetto corto
• John Rutter – Requiem

• Michael Nyman – A Zed and Two Noughts directed by Peter Greenaway.

• Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, with Phil Daniels

• 6 January – Ben Haenow, singer
• 11 January – Newton Faulkner, singer
• 2 March – Luke Pritchard, singer (The Kooks)
• 4 February – Bashy, recording artist and actor
• 3 April – Leona Lewis, singer
• 2 May – Lily Allen, singer, songwriter
• 4 May – Jme, grime MC
• 21 May
  • Kano, rapper, songwriter
  • Mutya Buena, singer and former member of (Sugababes)
• 7 June – Charlie Simpson, singer and musician (Busted, Fightstar)
• 8 June – Jamie Shaw, singer (One True Voice)
• 15 June – Nadine Coyle, singer (Girls Aloud)
• 27 June – Glenn Ball, singer (Pop!)
• 5 July – Nick O'Malley, musician (Arctic Monkeys)
• 8 July – Jamie Cook, musician (Arctic Monkeys)
• 17 July – Tom Fletcher, singer (McFly)
• 23 July – Matthew Murphy, musician (The Wombats)
• 10 September – Matt Johnson, singer (One True Voice)
• 28 September – Hannah Lewis, singer (Pop!)
• 5 October – Nicola Roberts, singer (Girls Aloud)
• 9 October – Frankmusik, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, remixer
• 10 October – Marina Diamandis, singer-songwriter (Marina and the Diamonds)
• 1 November – Dizzee Rascal, rapper
• 19 December – Lady Sovereign, singer, musician
• 23 December – Harry Judd, drummer (McFly)
• 25 December – Leon Pisani, singer (V)

• 11 January – Kenny Clare, jazz drummer, 55
• 6 February – Neil McCarthy, actor and pianist, 62 (motor neurone disease)^[8]
• 7 February – Matt Monro, singer, 54
• 27 February
  • J. Pat O'Malley, singer and film actor, 86
  • Ray Ellington, singer, 68
• 28 February – David Byron, singer (Uriah Heep), 38 (alcohol-related)
• 15 March – Alan A. Freeman, record producer, 64^[9][10]
• 19 April – Ivan Menzies, operatic baritone, 88
• 2 May – Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte, manager of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 77
• 9 May – Reginald Dixon, theatre organist, 80
• 2 July – Hector Nicol, actor and singer, 64
• 30 July – Peter Knight, conductor, arranger and composer, 68
• 11 September – William Alwyn, composer, 79
• 25 October – Gary Holton, singer-songwriter, musician and actor, 33 (alcohol and drug overdose)
• 18 December – Jolyon Jackson, musician and composer, 37 (Hodgkins' disease)
• 12 December – Ian Stewart, musician, founding member and road manager for (The Rolling Stones), 47 (heart attack)^[11]
• 30 December – Bob Pearson, singer and pianist with his brother Alf (half of Bob and Alf Pearson), 78

The 1985 Brit Awards winners were:

• Best British comedy recording: Neil (also known as Nigel Planer) – "Hole In My Shoe"
• Best British producer: Trevor Horn
• Best classical recording: Antonio Vivaldi's – "The Four Seasons"
• Best international artist: Prince and the Revolution
• Best soundtrack: "Purple Rain"
• British album: Sade – "Diamond Life"
• British female solo artist: Alison Moyet
• British group: Wham!
• British male solo artist: Paul Young
• British single: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – "Relax"
• British Video: Duran Duran – "The Wild Boys"
• Outstanding contribution: The Police
• Special Award: Bob Geldof and Midge Ure