2005 in British music

This is a summary of 2005 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts.

ummary

The first number one of the year, displacing Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", was Steve Brookstein with his cover version of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds". Singles sales in January whilst Elvis Presley topped the chart a lot were very low.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of his birth, one of Elvis Presley's eighteen Number One singles were released each week from January until May. The first, "Jailhouse Rock", entered at Number One in early January. The second, "One Night", was the 1000th number one single in the UK charts, and also set the record for being the lowest-selling weekly sale ever to reach the top spot. The run did not extend to a third week with "A Fool Such As I" only making number two, having been beaten by the debut release by Ciara. Elvis returned to the top spot in the fourth week, with "It's Now Or Never".

The Scissor Sisters topped the album chart in the second week of 2005 having had a very successful 2004. Their eponymous album "Scissor Sisters" was released on 9 February 2004 and went on to sell 1,594,000 copies by the end of that year.

On January 14 pop band Busted announced that they were to split. The band had released two albums and topped the singles chart four times.

The Chemical Brothers topped the album and download charts with "Push the Button" and "Galvanize", respectively, with the single reaching the top ten. Interestingly, "Push The Button" was also the title of a Number 1 hit for the Sugababes later that year. The all girl group would also top both the singles and albums charts simultaneously with their 4th studio album Taller In More Ways. Keane returned to the top of the chart in the second week of February due to their success at the BRIT Awards, while on the 6 February, Eminem got his sixth number one with "Like Toy Soldiers", making him the most successful chart rap artist in the UK singles chart.

On 6 March, Stereophonics earned their first number one single with "Dakota", the first single to be taken from their new album, "Language. Sex. Violence. Other?", which topped the album chart two weeks later.

The Comic Relief single of the year, the double A-side of "All About You" and "You've Got a Friend" by McFly, reached the top of the chart on 13 March. It was knocked off by a second Comic Relief single – a reissue of Tony Christie's "Is This the Way to Amarillo" with the associated video seeing comedian Peter Kay mime alongside various guest stars. Tony Christie topped the singles, album and download chart. The song spent seven weeks at the top of the singles charts, the longest stay at number 1 since Cher's "Believe" in 1998. On its original release in 1971, the song had charted no higher than No. 18.

On 29th of May, Damon Albarn's Gorillaz topped the album charts with "Demon Days". The following week, Gorillaz were knocked off the top by Albarn's former Britpop rivals Oasis who in-turn were knocked off the top by Coldplay's eagerly awaited "X&Y", which was met with mixed reviews itself. It was the second fastest album on first week sales only, second only to Oasis' 1997 release, Be Here Now.

Headliners at the major festivals included: The Foo Fighters and Green Day at T in the Park; Faithless, Morrissey and R.E.M. at the Isle of Wight Festival; Feeder, Black Sabbath and System of a Down at the Download Festival; Scissor Sisters and Oasis at V Festival; Basement Jaxx and Faithless at Creamfields; New Order, Basement Jaxx, Keane and Kasabian at the Wireless Festival; Foo Fighters, Pixies and Iron Maiden at the Carling Weekend, while Glastonbury seen White Stripes, Coldplay and Basement Jaxx headline.

On 17 July 2005 James Blunt's single "You're Beautiful" went to number one six weeks after its release, having been in the top 15 for all the previous weeks. His album "Back To Bedlam" had hit the top spot the week previous.

Pussycat Dolls reached number 1 on 11 September, becoming the first American girl band to top the charts since Destiny's Child in 2001.

The Arctic Monkeys entered the UK mainstream when their debut single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", went in at Number One on 23 October, beating the new single by Robbie Williams and knocking the Sugababes off the top.

Robbie Williams' new album "Intensive Care" set a new record when it topped the UK album chart on 30 October, because British acts will have occupied the number one album spot for 25 consecutive weeks. The previous record, set in March 1990, was 24 weeks [http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=160775262&p=y6x775968] .

Kate Bush returned to the music world after a 12-year absence with the single "King of the Mountain", which became her biggest UK hit in 20 years by reaching No. 4, and was followed on 7 November by the acclaimed double album "Aerial", which reached No. 3 and was certified platinum.

In the latter part of the year, the album chart was dominated by the usual range of 'greatest hits' packages, the most successful being Eminem's "", which topped the chart for four weeks in December and sold around nearly a million copies by early 2006. Mariah Carey also had success with her Greatest Hits album. Madonna also launched another successful comeback, spending three weeks at number one with her single "Hung Up". The coveted Christmas number one spot was taken by The X Factor winner Shayne Ward, who comfortably beat surprise contenders Nizlopi and the charity re-release of "Fairytale of New York". His single, "That's My Goal", became one of the quickest selling songs ever, with over 742,180 copies sold in just four days. Eminem continues to dominate in the albums chart with "Curtain Call: The Hits" reaching #1 for 5 weeks and selling around a million in the UK.

The world of jazz and avant garde music lost one of its pioneers at the end of this year, with the death of free improvising guitarist Derek Bailey on Christmas Day.

Chart calculation change

On 17 April, the first combined physical and downloaded singles sales chart was published, in an attempt by the record industry to boost flagging singles sales. It has been suggested that this will make a significant impact on the demographics of the people that buy the music – 96% of people downloading from the Internet are male [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1559436,00.html] .

Charts

ingles

Top 40 Singles of 2005

Music awards

BRIT Awards

The 2005 BRIT Awards winners were:

*British male solo artist: The Streets
*British female solo artist: Joss Stone
*British group: Franz Ferdinand,
*British album: Keane - "Hopes and Fears"
*British single: Will Young - "Your Game"
*British breakthrough act: Keane
*British urban act: Joss Stone
*British rock act: Franz Ferdinand
*British live act: Muse
*Pop act: Mcfly
*International male solo artist: Eminem
*International female solo artist: Gwen Stefani
*International breakthrough act: Scissor Sisters
*International group: Pussycat Dolls
*International album: Scissor Sisters - "Scissor Sisters"
*Outstanding Contribution to Music: Bob Geldof

A Special BRITs 25 Award for the best single from the past 25 years was awarded to Robbie Williams "Angels".

Mercury Music Prize

The 2005 Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Antony and the Johnsons - "I Am a Bird Now

Popjustice £20 Music Prize

The 2005 Popjustice £20 Music Prize was awarded to Girls Aloud for their song "Wake Me Up" from the album "What Will The Neighbours Say?"

The Record of the Year

The Record of the Year was awarded to "You Raise Me Up" by Westlife.

References

*Sherwin, Adam. 8 April 2005. " [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1559436,00.html Move over, girls. The boys are back in town to buy up the charts] ". Accessed 10 April 2005.
* [http://top-charts.ru/charts-sales/2005-uk-singles.php Top 200 singles of 2005]

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/ Radio One chart show homepage]