On 14 January pop rock band
Busted announced that they were to split. The band had released two albums and topped the singles chart four times. Other British artists who did well in the charts included
The Chemical Brothers,
James Blunt,
McFly,
Sugababes,
Arctic Monkeys,
Damon Albarn's Gorillaz,
Oasis and
Robbie Williams.
Stereophonics earned their first number-one single with "Dakota" followed closely by their fourth consecutive number-one album
Language. Sex. Violence. Other?.
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 double album
Aerial, which reached No. 3 and was certified platinum. 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 that featured comedian
Peter Kay alongside various guest stars. 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. 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. In addition to his appearance at the
Pink Floyd reunion,
Roger Waters released his first opera,
Ça Ira. , as a CD, with
Bryn Terfel among the performers. Another "crossover" composer,
Christian Forshaw, brought out
Mortal Flesh, notable for featuring
saxophone as the lead instrument in a classical work. Other British composers with new works included successful film composer
Stephen Warbeck, who scored a new ballet,
Peter Pan, and Northern Irish composer
Ian Wilson, whose concerto,
Sullen Earth, had its first performance. For the
wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles,
Alun Hoddinott produced a
Celebration Fanfare, and another Welsh composer,
Karl Jenkins, released his
Requiem, which quickly topped the classical charts. Master of the Queen's Music, Sir
Peter Maxwell Davies, continued his series of
Naxos Quartets with Nos. 6 and 7. Extracts from
James Whitbourn's new oratorio,
Annelies (based on
The Diary of Anne Frank) were first performed at the National UK Holocaust Memorial Day in Westminster Hall, London on 27 January; the full première of the work took place in April. ==Events==