14 January - The Sex Pistols play their final show (until a reunion in 1996).
24 January - Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" makes No.1 for its ninth (and final) week - becoming the biggest-selling single in UK history at that point.
25 January - Electric Light Orchestra kick off their Out of the Blue world tour in Honolulu, Hawaii.
11 March - Kate Bush becomes the first female solo artist to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-written song ("Wuthering Heights").
25 May - The Who play their last show with Keith Moon.
30 July – Thin Lizzy officially announces that Gary Moore has replaced Brian Robertson on guitar.
18 August - The Who release their eighth studio Who Are You. It is The Who's last album with Keith Moon as the drummer; Moon died twenty days after the release of this album.
27 November - Def Leppard's permanent drummer Rick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.
The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever becomes the biggest-selling album of all time (until overtaken in 1983).
Operatic contralto Helen Watts is awarded the CBE.
Multitone Records is founded by Pranil Gohil and specializing in bhangra style music.
Year-end charts
The tables below include sales between 31 December 1977 and 30 December 1978: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 23 December 1978 and played on Radio 1 on 31 December 1978 only include sales figures up until 16 December 1978.
Notes:
Classical music: new works
Malcolm Arnold - Symphony No. 8
Peter Maxwell Davies - Symphony no. 1
Daniel Jones - String Quartet No 4
Malcolm Williamson
Azure
Fiesta
Film and Incidental music
Tony Banks - The Shout, starring Alan Bates, Susannah York and John Hurt.
Roy Budd - The Wild Geese.
Ron Goodwin - Force 10 from Navarone directed by Guy Hamilton, starring Robert Shaw and Edward Fox.
Ed Welch - The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell.
Births
1 January - Tarik O'Regan, composer
3 January - Luke Manning, co-founder of Mostar Records
15 January - Sandi Lee Hughes, singer (allSTARS*)
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)
28 April - Lauren Laverne, singer, radio DJ and TV presenter
22 May - Jordan, model and would-be singer
6 June - Sophie Solomon, violinist
27 June - Lolly, singer
4 JUly - Stephen McNally, English singer-songwriter (BBMak)
15 September - David Sneddon, singer-songwriter
9 October - Nicky Byrne, Irish singer (Westlife)
27 November - Mike Skinner, rapper, musician and record producer
18 December - Lindsay Armaou, Greek-born Irish-based singer (B*Witched)
Deaths
11 January - William John Edwards, Cerdd Dant singer (b. 1898)
15 January - Jack Jackson, trumpeter, bandleader and radio disc jockey (b. 1906)
24 February - Mrs Mills, pianist (b. 1918)
9 March - L. Radley Flynn, singer and actor (b. 1902)
12 March - Tolchard Evans, songwriter, composer, pianist and bandleader (b. 1901)
3 April - Ray Noble, composer and bandleader (b. 1903)
