This is a summary of 1982 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
Events
20 January – Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown at him during a performance, mistaking it for a toy.
3 March – The Barbican Arts Centre in London is opened by the Queen.
21 March – The Musical House that Max Built, a documentary about Peter Maxwell Davies, is broadcast by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg.
26 April – Rod Stewart is mugged in Los Angeles, California. Stewart loses his $50,000 Porsche to the mugger, but was not hurt.
10 May – Topper Headon is sacked from the Clash for his ongoing addiction to heroin, just a few days prior to the release of the band's Combat Rock album. He is replaced by original Clash drummer Terry Chimes.
15 May – "A Little Peace" becomes the 500th UK number-one single.
26 May – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Aberdeen, Scotland.
22 August – The first performance of Image, Reflection, Shadow, by Peter Maxwell Davies takes place at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.
28 August – Eric Burdon is arrested for cocaine possession after a show at the Rockpalast in Cologne.
22 September – The Who begin their only formally announced "farewell" tour in Washington, D.C.
30 October – Paul Weller shocks fans, and his bandmates, by announcing that the Jam are to disband, just prior to a short UK tour. "Beat Surrender" would be the band's final single, and became their fourth and final UK number one.
5 November – First broadcast of The Tube on Channel 4.
11 December – The Jam give their final performance together, at Brighton Conference Centre, just before their split.
Charts
Number-one singles
"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".
Number-one albums
Year-end charts
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.
Best-selling singles
Best-selling albums
Notes:
Classical music
New works
Peter Maxwell Davies – Image, Reflection, Shadow
Alun Hoddinott – Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Tunes for orchestra
Michael Tippett – The Mask of Time (oratorio)
Opera
Gavin Bryars – Medea
Film and Incidental music
Michael Nyman – The Draughtsman's Contract directed by Peter Greenaway.
Musical theatre
Anthony Burgess – Blooms of Dublin
Geoffrey Burgon – Orpheus
Music awards
BRIT Awards
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
Births
11 January – Ashley Taylor Dawson, singer (allSTARS*)
16 January – Preston, singer
10 March – Jonathan Ansell, tenor (G4)
6 March - Sinead Shepard, Irish singer (Six)
11 March - Kyle Anderson, Northern Irish singer (Six)
23 March - Emma O'Driscoll, Irish singer (Six) and TV presenter
7 April - Kelli Young, singer (Liberty X)
26 April – Jon Lee, singer (S Club 7)
30 April - Cleo Higgins, singer (Cleopatra)
7 June – Amy Nuttall, actress and opera singer
18 June - Haydon Eshun, singer (Ultimate Kaos)
20 June – Example, singer-songwriter, musician and rapper
30 June
Andy Knowles, musician (Franz Ferdinand)
Ashley Walters, rapper and actor
17 July – Natasha Hamilton, singer (Atomic Kitten)
22 September – Billie Piper, singer and actress
4 October – YolanDa Brown, jazz saxophonist
14 December – Anthony Way, chorister
date unknown – Charlotte Bray, composer
Deaths
6 January – Katherine Bacon, concert pianist, 85
12 January
Hervey Alan, operatic bass and voice teacher, 71
Dorothy Howell, pianist and composer, 83
18 January – Alec Robertson, music critic, 89
30 January – Stanley Holloway, actor, singer and monologist, 91
4 February – Alex Harvey, rock singer and entertainer, 46 (heart attack)
20 March – Roy Fox, American-born dance bandleader, 80
1 May – William Primrose, violist, 77
6 May – Rosamond Harding, music scholar, 84
12 May – Humphrey Searle, composer, 66
24 May – Richard Hall, composer, 78
16 June – James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist of The Pretenders, 25 (heart failure caused by cocaine intolerance)
25 June – Alex Welsh, jazz musician, 52
29 June – Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, bagpipe musician and composer, 65
4 July – Maurice Blower, composer, 88
29 September – A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector, 74
6 October – Philip Green, film and TV composer and conductor, 71
8 October – Erik Routley, hymn writer and composer, 64
16 October – Rory McEwen, artist and musician, 50
29 October – William Lloyd Webber, organist and composer, 68
1 November
Dorothy Gow, composer, 89
Leighton Lucas, composer, 79
13 November – Chesney Allen, entertainer, 88
16 November – Arthur Askey, entertainer, 82
5 December – Caryl Brahms, musician and writer, 80
19 December – Lawrance Collingwood, conductor, composer and record producer, 95