This is a summary of1978 in music in the United Kingdom.

• 14 January – TheSex Pistols play their final show (until a reunion in 1996) at Winterland, San Francisco.
• 24 January –Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" is number one for a ninth and final week, becoming the biggest-selling single in UK history at that point.
• 25 January –Electric Light Orchestra kick off theirOut of the Blue world tour inHonolulu, Hawaii.
• 11 March –Kate Bush becomes the first British female solo artist to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-written song, "Wuthering Heights".
• 30 April –The Clash,Tom Robinson Band,Steel Pulse,X-Ray Spex,the Ruts,Misty in Roots andGeneration X all play live inVictoria Park, Hackney, at theAnti-Nazi League/Rock Against Racism festival, following a march fromTrafalgar Square.
• 25 May –The Who play their last show withKeith Moon before his death.
• 15 July – The Picnic atBlackbushe Aerodrome,Camberley, Surrey, a concert featuringBob Dylan,Eric Clapton andJoan Armatrading, attracts some 200,000 people.^[1]
• 30 July –Thin Lizzy officially announce thatGary Moore has replacedBrian Robertson on guitar.
• 18 August –The Who release their eighth studio albumWho Are You. It is the Who's last album withKeith Moon as the drummer; Moon dies twenty days after the release of the album.
• September – Second anti-racism event staged inBrockwell Park, South London, featuringElvis Costello,Stiff Little Fingers andAswad, with 150,000 people in attendance.^{[citation needed]}
• 27 November –Def Leppard's permanent drummerRick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.
• unknown dates
  • The Bee Gees'Saturday Night Fever becomes the biggest-selling album of all time (until overtaken in 1983).
  • The firstBBC Young Musician of the Year competition for classical players is won by trombonistMichael Hext.^[2]
• Operatic contraltoHelen Watts is appointed aCBE.
  • Multitone Records is founded by Pranil Gohil, specialising inbhangra music.

The tables below include sales between 31 December 1977 and 30 December 1978: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue ofMusic Week dated 23 December 1978 and played on Radio 1 on 31 December 1978 only include sales figures up until 16 December 1978.

^[3]

^[4]

Notes:

• Malcolm Arnold –Symphony No. 8
• Peter Maxwell Davies –Symphony no. 1
• Daniel Jones –String Quartet No 4
• Malcolm Williamson
  • Azure
  • Fiesta

• Tony Banks –The Shout, starringAlan Bates,Susannah York andJohn Hurt.
• Roy Budd –The Wild Geese.
• Ron Goodwin –Force 10 from Navarone directed byGuy Hamilton, starringRobert Shaw andEdward Fox.
• Ed Welch –The Thirty Nine Steps, starringRobert Powell.

• 1 January –Tarik O'Regan, composer
• 13 January – Shelley Nash, singer (Girls@Play)
• 15 January – Sandi Lee Hughes, singer (allSTARS*)
• 19 January – Wayne Williams, singer (Another Level)
• 13 February –Hamish Glencross, Scottish guitarist
• 14 February –Ryan Griffiths (The Vines)
• 22 February –Jenny Frost, singer (Atomic Kitten)
• 6 April –Myleene Klass, singer (Hear'Say), radio and TV presenter
• 7 April –Duncan James, singer (Blue)
• 9 April –Rachel Stevens, singer (S Club 7)
• 16 April – Terry Daly, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 23 April – Tom Lowe, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 25 April –Luke Bedford, composer
• 28 April –Lauren Laverne, singer, radio DJ and TV presenter
• 4 May –Matthew Rose, bass
• 22 May –Jordan, model and would-be singer
• 29 May
  • Adam Rickitt, singer and actor
  • Daniel Pearce, singer (One True Voice)^{[citation needed]}
• 6 June –Sophie Solomon, violinist
• 16 June – Elisa Cariera, American-born singer (Solid HarmoniE)
• 4 July –Stephen McNally, English singer-songwriter (BBMak)
• 1 August –Jonathan Wilkes, singer and entertainer
• 21 August – John Paul "J-Rock" Horsley, American-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 3 September –Johnny Shentall, singer (Boom!)
• 15 September –David Sneddon, singer-songwriter
• 27 September – Jamie Benson, singer (Hepburn)
• 7 October –Alesha Dixon, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 9 October
  • Nicky Byrne, Irish singer (Westlife)
  • Beverley Fullen, drummer (Hepburn)
• 26 October – Rachael Carr, singer (Boom!)
• 27 October –Sabrina Washington, singer (Mis-Teeq)
• 29 October – Sam Chapman, singer and keyboardist (North and South)
• 1 November – Bobak Kianovsh, singer (Another Level)
• 7 November –Mark Read, singer (A1)
• 23 November – Randy Brown, Jamaican-born singer (Big Brovaz)
• 27 November –Mike Skinner, rapper, musician and record producer
• 12 December – Paul Walker, Irish singer (Mytown)
• 18 December –Lindsay Armaou, Greek-born Irish-based singer (B*Witched)
• date unknown –Oliver Weeks, composer, arranger and guitarist

• 11 January –William John Edwards, Cerdd Dant singer (b.1898)^[5]
• 15 January –Jack Jackson, trumpeter, bandleader and radio disc jockey (b.1906)^[6]
• 24 February –Mrs Mills, pianist (b.1918; heart attack)^[7]
• 9 March –L. Radley Flynn, singer and actor (b. 1902)
• 12 March –Tolchard Evans, songwriter, composer, pianist and bandleader (b. 1901)^[8]
• 3 April –Ray Noble, composer and bandleader (b. 1903)
• 21 April –Sandy Denny, singer (Fairport Convention) (b.1947) (cerebral haemorrhage)^[9]
• 14 August –Victor Silvester, dance band leader (b. 1900)^[10]
• 7 September
  • Keith Moon, drummer ofThe Who (b.1946) (Clomethiazole overdose)^[11]
  • Charles Williams, composer (b.1893)^[12]
• 15 September –Robert Bruce Montgomery, writer and composer (b.1921)^[13]
• 13 December –Jack Doyle, Irish-born boxer and singer (b.1913; cirrhosis of liver)^[14]

• 1978 in British radio
• 1978 in British television
• 1978 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1978

• 1978 in British music
• British music by year

• CS1 Welsh-language sources (cy)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2018
• Articles with hCards
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2025