1958 in British music

Events

• 5 February – Michael Tippett's Symphony No. 2 is first performed in London.
• 2 April – Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 9 is premiered in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent.
• 10 April – Singer Cleo Laine and bandleader John Dankworth marry.
• July – Pete Seeger begins performing his new song "The Bells of Rhymney", based on a lyric by Welsh poet Idris Davies.
• 2–9 December – Decca makes the first complete recording of Peter Grimes, conducted by the composer Benjamin Britten.
• Other events – The UK decides not to compete in the third annual Eurovision Song Contest, after coming 7th in the previous year's contest. It is the second of the only two occasions in the contest's history that the UK fails to enter.

  Charts

• See UK No.1 Hits of 1958

  Classical music: new works

• William Alwyn – Fanfare for a Joyful Occasion, for orchestra
• Malcolm Arnold – Sinfonietta No. 2, for orchestra, Op. 65
• Lennox Berkeley
• *Concerto, for piano and double string orchestra, Op. 46
• *Poems of W.H. Auden, for soprano or tenor and piano, Op. 53
• Ronald Binge – "The Watermill"
• Arthur Bliss – The Lady of Shallott
• Cornelius Cardew – Piano Sonata No. 3
• Daniel Jones – The Country Beyond the Stars
• Peter Maxwell Davies – Prolation, for orchestra
• Thea Musgrave – String Quartet
• Edmund Rubbra – Violin Concerto
• Ian Parrott – Concerto for English horn and orchestra
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 9
• Grace Williams – Six Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins for contralto and string sextet

  Opera

• Benjamin Britten – Noye's Fludde
• Humphrey Searle – The Diary of a Madman

  Film and Incidental music

• Richard Addinsell – A Tale of Two Cities, starring Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin.
• John Addison – I Was Monty's Double.
• William Alwyn – A Night to Remember directed by Roy Ward Baker.
• Malcolm Arnold – Dunkirk, starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee.
• James Bernard – Dracula directed by Terence Fisher, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
• Buxton Orr – Corridors of Blood, starring Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee.
• Leonard Salzedo – The Revenge of Frankenstein directed by Terence Fisher, starring Peter Cushing.

  Musical theatre

• Expresso Bongo, book by Wolf Mankowitz and Julian More, with music by David Heneker and Monty Norman
• Valmouth, by Sandy Wilson, based on the novel by Ronald Firbank

  Musical films

• The Duke Wore Jeans, starring Tommy Steele
• The Golden Disc, starring Lee Patterson and Terry Dene

  Births

• 8 January – Steve Garvey, bass guitarist
• 24 January – Jools Holland, pianist, bandleader and television presenter
• 23 February – David Sylvian vocalist
• 1 March – Nik Kershaw, singer-songwriter
• 5 March – Andy Gibb, English-born singer
• 8 March – Gary Numan, British singer
• 9 March – Martin Fry, vocalist of ABC
• 18 March – Neil Brand, British writer, pianist and composer
• 11 April – Stuart Adamson
• 12 April – Will Sergeant, guitarist
• 15 April – Benjamin Zephaniah, writer and musician
• 25 April – Fish, Scottish singer
• 17 May – Alan Rankine, musician and producer
• 18 May – Toyah Willcox, actress and singer
• 25 May – Paul Weller, singer-songwriter
• 29 June – Mark Radcliffe, singer and radio host
• 5 July – Paul Daniel, conductor
• 20 July – Mick MacNeil, Scottish keyboard player and songwriter
• 30 July – Kate Bush, singer and songwriter
• 4 August – Ian Broudie, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 7 August – Bruce Dickinson, musician
• 13 August – Feargal Sharkey, singer
• 6 September – Buster Bloodvessel, vocalist
• 10 September – Siobhan Fahey, singer
• 21 September – Simon Mayo, radio presenter
• 14 October – Thomas Dolby, musician
• 20 October – Mark King, guitarist and singer
• 27 October – Simon Le Bon, singer
• 10 December – Helen DeMacque, singer
• 19 December – Limahl, singer

  Deaths

• 11 January – Alec Rowley, English organist and composer
• 2 April – Tudor Davies, operatic tenor
• 14 April – Katharine Goodson, pianist
• 3 May – Roland Cunningham, Australian-born British singer and actor
• 5 August – Joseph Holbrooke, composer
• 26 August – Ralph Vaughan Williams, British composer
• 2 September – Betty Humby Beecham, pianist
• 24 October – Martin Shaw, composer
• 27 October – John Wooldridge, film composer
• 2 November – Adam Carse, composer
• 3 November – Harry Revel, musical theatre composer
• 6 November – Francis George Scott, composer
• 28 December – Reginald Foresythe, jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader
• date unknown – John Strachan, ballad singer