1977 in British Music - Events

Events

• 1 January – The Clash headline the gala opening of the London music club, The Roxy.
• 22 January – Maria Kliegel makes her London début at the Wigmore Hall, with a programme of Bach, Kodály, and Franck.
• 26 January - Fleetwood Mac's original lead guitarist, Peter Green, is committed to a mental hospital in England after firing a pistol at a delivery boy bringing him a royalties check.
• 27 January – After releasing only one single for the band, EMI Records terminates its contract with the Sex Pistols.
• 4 February - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is released; it goes on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• 15 February – Sid Vicious replaces Glen Matlock as the bassist of the Sex Pistols.
• 10 March – A&M Records signs the Sex Pistols in a ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace. The contract is terminated on March 16 as a result of the band vandalizing property and verbally abusing employees during a visit to the record company's office.
• 2 May – Elton John performs the first of six consecutive nights at London's Rainbow Theatre, his first concert in eight months. John keeps a low profile in 1977, not releasing any new music for the first year since his recording career began eight years previously.
• 7 May – Having been postponed from 2 April because of a BBC technicians' strike, the 22nd Eurovision Song Contest finally goes ahead in London's Wembley Conference Centre.
• 11 May1 – The Stranglers and support band London start a 10-week national tour.
• 12 May - Virgin Records announces that they have signed the Sex Pistols.
• 7 June – The Sex Pistols attempt to interrupt Silver Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II by performing "God Save the Queen" from a boat on the River Thames. Police force the boat to dock and several arrests are made following a scuffle.
• 12 June - Guitarist Michael Schenker vanishes after a UFO concert at The Roundhouse in London. He is replaced for several months by Paul Chapman until he appears again to rejoin the group in October.
• 15 June – The Snape Maltings Training Orchestra makes its London debut at St John's, Smith Square.
• 25 June – The Young Musicians' Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by James Blair, gives the belated première of William Walton's 1962 composition Prelude for Orchestra.
• 6 July - During a Pink Floyd concert before a crowd of 80,000 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Bassist Roger Waters having become increasingly irritated by a fan until he exerts his frustration by spitting on him. The incident becomes the catalyst for the group's next album, The Wall.
• 22 July – The first night of The Proms is broadcast by BBC Radio 3 for the first time in quadraphonic sound.
• 26 July – Led Zeppelin cancels the last seven dates of their American tour after lead singer Robert Plant learns that his six-year-old son Karac has died of a respiratory virus. The show two days before in Oakland proves to be the band's last ever in the United States.
• 1 September – World première at the Royal Albert Hall in London of the expanded version of Luciano Berio's Coro.
• 16 September – T.Rex frontman Marc Bolan is killed in an automobile accident.
• 27 October - The Sex Pistols release their controversial album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, which would be their only studio album.