This is a summary of 1982 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
20 January – Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown at him during a performance, mistaking it for a toy.
26 April – Rod Stewart is mugged in Los Angeles, California. Stewart loses his $50,000 Porsche to the mugger, but was not hurt.
5 May - "A Little Peace" becomes the 500th UK No.1 single.
26 May – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Aberdeen, Scotland.
28 August - Eric Burdon gets arrested after a show at the Rockpalast in Cologne
22 September – The Who begin their only formally announced "farewell" tour in Washington, D.C.
5 November – First broadcast of The Tube on Channel 4.
"The Model"/"Computer Love" was the first single by a German artist to top the chart since its establishment 29 years earlier. By the end of 1982, there had been two further number ones by German artists, "Seven Tears" and "A Little Peace".
The tables below include sales between 1 January and 31 December 1982: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 26 December 1982 and played on Radio 1 on 2 January 1983 only include sales figures up until 11 December 1982.
Notes:
Peter Maxwell Davies - Image, Reflection, Shadow
Alun Hoddinott - Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Tunes for orchestra
Michael Tippett - The Mask of Time (oratorio)
Gavin Bryars - Medea
Film and Incidental music
Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract directed by Peter Greenaway.
Anthony Burgess - Blooms of Dublin
Geoffrey Burgon - Orpheus
The 1982 BRIT Awards winners were:
Best British producer: Martin Rushent
Best classical recording: Gustav Mahler's - "Symphony No. 10"
Best selling album: Adam and the Ants - "Kings of the Wild Frontier"
British breakthrough act: The Human League
British female solo artist: Randy Crawford
British group: The Police
British male solo artist: Cliff Richard
Outstanding contribution: John Lennon
11 January - Ashley Taylor Dawson, singer (allSTARS*)
16 January – Preston, singer
10 March - Jonathan Ansell, tenor (G4)
26 April - Jon Lee, singer (S Club 7)
7 June – Amy Nuttall, actress and opera singer
20 June - Example, singer-songwriter, musician and rapper
30 June - Andy Knowles, musician (Franz Ferdinand)
17 July - Natasha Hamilton, singer (Atomic Kitten)
22 September – Billie Piper, singer and actress
14 December - Anthony Way, chorister
4 February - Alex Harvey, rock singer and entertainer (born 1935)
1 May - William Primrose, violist (born 1903)
12 May - Humphrey Searle, composer (born 1915)
24 May - Richard Hall, composer (born 1903)
16 June - James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist of The Pretenders (born 1956; heart failure caused by cocaine intolerance)
25 June - Alex Welsh, jazz musician (born 1929)
29 September - A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector (born 1908)
6 October - Philip Green, film and TV composer and conductor (born 1911)
16 October - Rory McEwen, artist and musician (born 1932)
29 October - William Lloyd Webber, organist and composer (born 1914)
5 December - Caryl Brahms, musician and writer (born 1901)
date unknown
Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, bagpipe musician and composer (born 1917)
Bob Roberts, folk singer (born 1907)
