A major event of the year was the West End premiere of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver!, an immediate success which made stars of Ron Moody and Georgia Brown.
15 March – Jussi Björling suffers a heart attack before a performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He goes on to perform, but dies six months later in Sweden.
April – Jack Good's new TV show, Wham!, is broadcast for the first time.
12 April – Sir Thomas Beecham returns to the UK from his last overseas conducting tour; he dies the following year.
17 April – Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Cochran's girlfriend Sharon Sheeley are injured in a car accident near Chippenham, Wiltshire. Cochran dies in a hospital in Bath, Somerset, from severe brain injuries.
20–28 May – The Beatles, as the Silver Beetles (uncredited), play their first ever tour, as a backing group for Johnny Gentle on a tour of Scotland.[1] The lineup comprises John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Tommy Moore.
July – The Shadows' instrumentalApache is released.
30 July – "Battle of Beaulieu": At a jazz festival at Beaulieu, Hampshire, fans of trad jazz come to blows with progressives.[3][4]
1 August – The Beatles make their first appearance under this name in Hamburg, Germany. The band at this time comprises John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums.[5]
August – Colin Davis makes his conducting début at the Proms in a programme of Britten, Schumann, Mozart and Berlioz.[6]
21 September – Mstislav Rostropovich gives the UK premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Benjamin Britten attends, and from their meeting they become firm friends, resulting in Britten composing several major works for the cellist.[7]
December
Adam Faith becomes the first pop star to be interviewed on the BBC's Face to Face.[8]
George Formby makes his final television appearance, on BBC's The Friday Show.
Ian Lake launches the Music of our Time Festival in London for hitherto unknown composers.[9]
^McKay, George (2005). "New Orleans jazz, protest (Aldermaston) and carnival (Beaulieu)". Circular Breathing: the Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN0-8223-3560-3.
^"The day when traditional jazz caused a riot". The Observer. London. 29 July 2012. p. 6 (The New Review).
^Hill, Tim (2007). Then There Was Music: The Beatles. London: Daily Mail. p. 13. ISBN978-0-9545267-7-1.
^Reed, Philip (2010). Cooke, Mervyn (ed.). Letters From A Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 5 1958–1965. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. p. 247. ISBN978-1-84383-591-2.
^Obituary: "Adam Faith", The Guardian (London), 10 March 2003.