1999 in British music

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This is a summary of 1999 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• January – The film Hilary and Jackie, starring Emily Watson and James Frain as Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim, is released.^[1]
• 3 January – Steps score their first number one in the UK singles chart with "Heartbeat / Tragedy".^[2]
• 7 January
  • After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and his wife Rachel Hunter announce they are separating.
  • Paul McCartney is present at his daughter Heather's latest launch event in Georgia, United States.
• 10 February – Iron Maiden announces that singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith have rejoined the band, while lead singer Blaze Bayley has left. This means the band now has three lead guitarists.^[3]
• 14 February – Elton John appears as himself in a special episode of the animated series The Simpsons
• 16 February – Belle & Sebastian win the British Breakthrough Award at the Brit Awards, leading to allegations that voting was rigged in their favour and that Steps would have won. Fans of Belle & Sebastian argued that the band have a large student following, and felt that the award should be given in recognition of artistic merit, rather than popularity or CD sales.
• 25 February – The Quintet for trumpet and strings by Peter Maxwell Davies is performed for the first time in the Mitchell Hall, University of Aberdeen.
• 21 March – Irish girl group B*Witched score a fourth consecutive number one in the UK singles chart with "Blame It on the Weatherman", thus becoming the first band to have all their first four singles enter at the top and setting a new record that would be broken a year later by Westlife.
• 10 April – A charity tribute, the Concert for Linda McCartney, is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by Eddie Izzard, with proceeds going to animal rights causes. Performers include Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello, Sinéad O'Connor, and Tom Jones.^[4]
• 28 April – The Verve split for the second time. Frontman Richard Ashcroft launches a solo career.
• 27 May – The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors establishes its new fellowship, the first recipient being Martin Gore.^[5][6]
• 7 June – S Club 7 release their debut single "Bring It All Back", which goes to number one in the UK singles chart.
• 27 June – The first performance of Tobias and the Angel, a one act church cantata by Jonathan Dove, takes place at Christ Church, Highbury as part of the Almeida Festival, directed by Kate Brown.
• 28 August – Former Dexys Midnight Runners frontman Kevin Rowland is bottled offstage at the Reading Festival, which saw him perform "The Greatest Love of All" whilst wearing a white dress.
• 29 August – Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan leave Oasis. They are replaced by Colin "Gem" Archer, formerly of Heavy Stereo and Andy Bell, formerly of Ride and Hurricane#1.
• 18 September – The first performance of Cyril Rootham‘s The Lady of Shalott, a setting of Tennyson’s poem for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra, takes place in the School Hall, Eton College, by the Broadheath Singers and the Windsor Sinfonia, conducted by Robert Tucker. Rootham wrote the piece circa 1909–1910, but it was not performed in his lifetime.
• 21 September – David Bowie releases Hours, his twenty-first studio album and the first by a major artist to be made legally available as an electronic download.^[7]
• 12 November – At Bristol Crown Court, former glam rock star Gary Glitter is jailed for four months for downloading child pornography.^[8]
• 2 December – James MacMillan's Symphony No. 2 receives its premiere at Ayr Town Hall by the Scottish Chamber Symphony, with the composer conducting.^[9]
• 30 December – George Harrison and his wife Olivia fight off a knife attack by an intruder in his Friar Park home.^[10]
• December – Alan McGee announces the dissolution of Creation Records after 16 years. The final release for the label would be Primal Scream's album "XTRMNTR", released in January 2000.

Classical works

• Arthur Butterworth – Bubu for English horn, viola and harp, Op. 107
• Alun Hoddinott – Symphony No. 10
• Joe Jackson – Symphony No. 1
• James MacMillan, Symphony No. 2
• Julian Stewart Lindsay – Vox Dei
• Roger Smalley – Crepuscule, for piano quartet
• Raymond Yiu – Tranced^[11]

Opera

• David Blake – Scoring A Century^[12]
• Jonathan Dove – Tobias and the Angel

Musical theatre

• 6 April – Mamma Mia!, with book by Catherine Johnson and songs by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre. It would later transfer to the Prince of Wales Theatre on 9 June 2004, continuing its run until September 2012, when it moved to the Novello Theatre.^[13]

Musical films

• Topsy-Turvy, starring Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert^[14]

Film scores and incidental music

Film

• Michael Nyman – Wonderland^[15]
• Rachel Portman – The Cider House Rules^[16]

Television

• Murray Gold – Queer as Folk^[17]

Music awards

BRIT Awards

The 1999 BRIT Awards winners were:^[18]

• Best soundtrack: Titanic
• British album: Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
• British breakthrough act: Belle & Sebastian
• British dance act: Fatboy Slim
• British female solo artist: Des'ree
• British group: Manic Street Preachers
• British male solo artist: Robbie Williams
• British single: Robbie Williams – "Angels"
• British video: Robbie Williams – "Millennium"
• International breakthrough act: Natalie Imbruglia
• International female: Natalie Imbruglia
• International group: The Corrs
• International male: Beck
• Outstanding contribution: Eurythmics

Mercury Music Prize

The 1999 Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Talvin Singh – Ok.

Record of the Year

The Record of the Year was awarded to "Flying Without Wings" by Westlife.

Births

• 28 January – Hrvy, singer
• April – S1mba, rapper^[19]
• 4 April – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, award-winning cellist
• 9 December – Aitch, rapper^[20]

Deaths

• 14 January – Bryn Jones, British ethnic electronica and experimental musician, 37 (infection)^[21]
• 23 February – Ruth Gipps, composer, oboist, pianist and impresario, 78^[22]
• 2 March – Dusty Springfield, singer, 59 (breast cancer)
• 12 March – Yehudi Menuhin, violinist and musical director, 82
• 21 March – Ernie Wise, entertainer, 73^[23]
• 3 April – Lionel Bart, songwriter, 68 (cancer)
• 6 April – William Pleeth, cellist, 83
• 14 April – Anthony Newley, songwriter, actor and singer, 67
• 26 April – Adrian Borland, songwriter, 41
• 29 April – Perry Ford, singer, 65
• 30 April – Darrell Sweet, drummer, 51
• 18 May – Freddy Randall, jazz trumpeter, 78
• 19 May – James Blades, orchestral percussionist, 97^[24]
• 16 June – Screaming Lord Sutch, pop musician and politician, 58
• 12 July – Bill Owen, actor and songwriter, 85 (pancreatic cancer)^[25]
• 17 July – Kevin Wilkinson, drummer, 41
• 27 July – Amaryllis Fleming, cellist, 73
• 2 August – Eric Hope, pianist, 84
• 25 August – Rob Fisher, keyboard player, 42
• 17 September – Frankie Vaughan, singer, 71 (heart failure)
• 1 October – Lena Zavaroni, singer, 35 (pneumonia)^[26]
• 7 October – Deryck Guyler, actor and washboard player, 85^[27]
• 15 October – Josef Locke, tenor, 82^[28]
• 18 October – Tony Crombie, jazz drummer, pianist, composer and bandleader, 74
• 21 October – Queenie Ashton, singer and actress, 96
• 31 October – Howard Ferguson, composer and musicologist, 91
• 11 November – Thomas Pitfield, composer, artist and writer, 96^[29]
• 14 November – Minna Keal, composer, 90
• 7 December – Kenny Baker, jazz trumpeter, 78^[30]

See also

• 1999 in British music charts
• 1999 in British radio
• 1999 in British television
• 1999 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1999

References

1. Moss, Stephen (21 January 1999). "Du Pré sister defends film". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
2. "Steps are number one with Tragedy!". Generation Steps. 3 January 1999. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
3. Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (third ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 331. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
4. "The Information on: A Concert for Linda McCartney". The Independent. 14 April 1999. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
5. Pride, Dominic: "Cher, Hynde among Ivors' U.S winners Billboard, 12 June 1999. (p. 40). Retrieved 21 October 2010.
6. Video of Martin Gore receiving the Ivor Novello award Archived 25 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine depechemode.com. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
7. Cummings, Sue (22 September 1999). "The Flux in Pop Music Has a Distinctly Download Beat to It". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
8. "Glitter jailed over child porn". BBC News. 12 November 1999. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
9. MacMillan, James (1999). "MacMillan, James: Symphony No. 2". Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
10. Lyall, Sarah (31 December 1999). "George Harrison Stabbed in Chest by an Intruder". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
11. "Tranced". British Music Collection. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
12. Amanda Holden (2001). The New Penguin Opera Guide. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-051475-9.
13. BWW News Desk. "West End's MAMMA MIA! Will Move to the Novello Theatre". BroadwayWorld.com.
14. "TOPSY-TURVY (12)". British Board of Film Classification. 4 August 1999. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
15. BBC Radio 4 Film Programme, 5 December 2008
16. "Flicks in Five: Rachel Portman rules with 'Cider House'". ClassicalMPR. 16 February 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2019. (Academy Award nominated)
17. "Original TV Soundtrack, Queer as Folk: The Whole Love Thing Sorted", review by Heather Phares, AllMusic. Accessed 18 March 2015.
18. "1999 – London Arena". Brit Awards. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
19. "Appointments for Leonard Simbarashe RWODZI (born April 1999)". Companies House. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
20. "10 facts you need to know about 'Rain' rapper Aitch". Capital Xtra. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
21. Strauss, Neil (28 January 1999). "Bryan Jones, 38, Musician Known as Muslimgauze". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
22. Halstead, Jill (2006). Ruth Gipps: Anti-Modernism, Nationalism And Difference in English Music. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-0178-1.
23. Stephen Dixon (22 March 1999). "Ernie Wise obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
24. Graham Melville-Mason (24 May 1999). "Obituary: James Blades". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
25. Dennis Barker (13 July 1999). "Bill Owen". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
26. Kate Watson-Smyth (9 December 1999). "Coroner rules Zavaroni died of 'natural causes'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
27. Carole Woddis (9 October 1999). "Deryck Guyler". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
28. Stephen Dixon (16 October 1999). "Josef Locke". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
29. The Independent – Obituary: Thomas Pitfield, by Martin Anderson
30. "Jazz great Baker dies". BBC News. 9 December 1999. Retrieved 2 April 2013.

External links

• BBC Radio 1's Chart Show with Mark Goodier
• The Official Charts Company