2005 in British music

Summary

On 14 January pop band Busted announced that they were to split. The band had released two albums and topped the singles chart four times. Other British artists who did well in the charts included The Chemical Brothers, James Blunt, McFly, Sugababes, Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn's Gorillaz, Oasis and Robbie Williams. Stereophonics earned their first number-one single with "Dakota". Kate Bush returned to the music world after a 12-year absence with the single "King of the Mountain", which became her biggest UK hit in 20 years by reaching No. 4, and was followed on 7 November by the double album Aerial, which reached No. 3 and was certified platinum.

The Comic Relief single of the year, the double A-side of "All About You" and "You've Got a Friend" by McFly, reached the top of the chart on 13 March. It was knocked off by a second Comic Relief single – a reissue of Tony Christie's "Is This the Way to Amarillo" with the associated video that featured comedian Peter Kay alongside various guest stars.

Headliners at the major festivals included: The Foo Fighters and Green Day at T in the Park; Faithless, Morrissey and R.E.M. at the Isle of Wight Festival; Feeder, Black Sabbath and System of a Down at the Download Festival; Scissor Sisters and Oasis at V Festival; Basement Jaxx and Faithless at Creamfields; New Order, Basement Jaxx, Keane and Kasabian at the Wireless Festival; Foo Fighters, Pixies and Iron Maiden at the Carling Weekend, while Glastonbury seen White Stripes, Coldplay and Basement Jaxx headline.

The world of jazz and avant garde music lost one of its pioneers at the end of this year, with the death of free improvising guitarist Derek Bailey on Christmas Day.

In addition to his appearance at the Pink Floyd reunion, Roger Waters released his first opera, Ça Ira.[1] , as a CD, with Bryn Terfel among the performers. Another "crossover" composer, Christian Forshaw, brought out Mortal Flesh, notable for featuring saxophone as the lead instrument in a classical work. Other British composers with new works included successful film composer Stephen Warbeck, who scored a new ballet, Peter Pan, and Northern Irish composer Ian Wilson, whose concerto, Sullen Earth, had its first performance. For the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, Alun Hoddinott produced a Celebration Fanfare]],[2] and another Welsh composer, Karl Jenkins, released his Requiem, which quickly topped the classical charts. Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, continued his series of Naxos Quartets with Nos. 6 and 7.

Extracts from James Whitbourn's new oratorio, Annelies (based on The Diary of Anne Frank) were first performed at the National UK Holocaust Memorial Day in Westminster Hall, London on 27 January; the full première of the work took place in April.[3]

Events
  • 22 January – The Tsunami Relief concert is held at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales – the largest live music event in the UK since the Live Aid concert of 1985. Performers included Madonna, Eric Clapton, Jools Holland, Manic Street Preachers, Lulu, Aled Jones, Charlotte Church, Katherine Jenkins, Feeder, Snow Patrol, Liberty X.
  • 2 February - Pete Doherty, former lead singer with the Libertines and frontman with Babyshambles is arrested after an altercation with documentary filmmaker Max Carlish, who was making a rockumentary about the singer. He is released on bail 5 days later by his record company, and the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
  • 7 February – The BRIT Awards ceremony is held in London.
  • 17 April – Digital downloads are included in the chart for the first time, but only for sales of a record with an equivalent physical release.[4]
  • 2 May – Blues-rock group Cream reunites for four shows in London's Royal Albert Hall.
  • 12 June – Pink Floyd announce that they will reunite with former bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985, on 2 July for the Live 8 London concert. This would be the first time the band played together as a quartet since The Wall tour in 1981, and the first public performance by Pink Floyd since 1994.
  • 16 June – Motörhead celebrate their 30th anniversary with a concert in the Hammersmith Apollo, which is later released on DVD.
  • 2 September – A statue of Edward Elgar by Jemma Pearson is unveiled near Hereford Cathedral.
  • 21 December – Elton John marries David Furnish in London. This marriage comes in the wake of new British laws affording gay unions the same legal protection enjoyed within straight marriages.
  • 22 December – Amelle Berrabah joins the Sugababes, replacing founding member Mutya Buena who left on 21 December.

Classical music

Musical films

Musical theatre

Film scores

Deaths

Music awards

BRIT Awards

The 2005 BRIT Awards winners were:

A Special BRITs 25 Award for the best single from the past 25 years was awarded to Robbie Williams "Angels".

Classical BRITs

Mercury Music Prize

The 2005 Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now

Popjustice £20 Music Prize

The 2005 Popjustice £20 Music Prize was awarded to Girls Aloud for their song "Wake Me Up" from the album What Will The Neighbours Say?

The Record of the Year

The Record of the Year was awarded to "You Raise Me Up" by Westlife.

gollark: Not *as much*.
gollark: C++ = C with random junk on top.
gollark: and many, many other things which make you **actually productive**.
gollark: * namespacing/modules
gollark: Besides, most C-like ones add stuff like:* memory management* actual libraries

See also

References
  1. "Ça Ira premieres in Rome". rogerwaters.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  2. "Alun Hoddinott: Popular Neo-Romantic composer and teacher who contributed greatly to Welsh cultural life". The Times. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  3. "NEW ORATORIO BASED ON THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK". Archived from the original on 18 July 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
  4. Talbot, Martin (19 March 2005). "New chart sparks race against time". Music Week: 6.
  5. Nicola Benedetti (IMG Artist) Archived 8 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Mat Fraser on why he felt compelled to write Thalidomide!! A Musical | | Guardian Unlimited Arts
  7. "Brian Cookman". The Daily Telegraph. London. 5 April 2005. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
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