Deaths
- 18 February - Muriel Brunskill, operatic contralto, 80
- 19 February - Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, 33 (alcohol poisoning)
- 4 May - Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, pianist, 60
- 18 May - Ian Curtis, musician and singer (Joy Division), 23 (suicide)
- 5 July - A. J. Potter, composer (born 1918)
- 6 July - Frank Cordell, composer, arranger and conductor, 62
- 25 September - John Bonham, drummer (Led Zeppelin), 32 (asphyxiation)
- 30 September - Horace Finch, pianist and organist, 74
- 27 October - Steve Peregrin Took, bongo player for Tyrannosaurus Rex, frontman for Shagrat and Steve Took's Horns, solo artist, 31 (asphyxiation)
- 8 December - John Lennon, singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Beatles), 40 (murdered)
Read more about this topic: 1980 In British Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)