This is a summary of 1930 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 8 February – Singer Sam Browne makes his first recording with Bert Ambrose's band on Decca.^[1]
• 5 April – 25-year-old Michael Tippett gives a concert at Oxted consisting entirely of his own works—a Concerto in D for flutes, oboe, horns and strings; settings for tenor of poems by Fry; Psalm in C for chorus and orchestra, again with a text by Fry; piano variations on the song "Jockey to the Fair"; and a string quartet.^[2]
• 7 June - The Daily Herald reports that Jack Hylton and his band sold nearly four million records in the previous year.^[3]
• 29 September – Roy Fox gives his first London performance.
• 22 October – The London-based BBC Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert in Queen's Hall, conducted by Adrian Boult.^[4]
• date unknown
  • The Joe Loss Orchestra is established.
  • Gerald Walcan Bright adopts the name "Geraldo" to further his career as a bandleader.^[5]
  • Songwriter Fred Godfrey and Irish tenor Tom Finglass form a short-lived variety act.
  • The Dagenham Girl Pipers are established, under the direction of Rev. Joseph Waddington Graves, the minister of Osborne Hall Congregational church.^[6]

Popular music

• "By the Sleepy Lagoon", by Eric Coates
• "It isnae me", w. Sally Holmes, m. Edward Elgar
• "Someday I'll Find You", by Noël Coward
• "The White Dove" w. Clifford Grey m. Franz Lehár

Classical music: new works

• Kenneth J. Alford – The Standard of St. George
• William Alwyn – Piano Concerto No. 1
• Arnold Bax – Winter Legends
• Arthur Bliss – Morning Heroes (oratorio)
• Edward Elgar – Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5 in C
• Gustav Holst – A Choral Fantasia^[7]
• John Ireland
  • Legend for piano and orchestra
  • Piano Concerto in E flat
• Peter Warlock – Carillon Carilla

Film and Incidental music

• Ernest Irving – Birds of Prey^[8]

Musical theatre

• 25 June – The Love Race opens at the Gaiety Theatre where it runs for 237 performances.
• 30 October – Nippy (music by Billy Mayerl; book and lyrics by Arthur Wimperis and Frank Eyton^[9]), starring Binnie Hale,^[10] opens at the Prince Edward Theatre and runs for 137 performances.

Musical films

• Elstree Calling, starring Teddy Brown
• Harmony Heaven, starring Polly Ward
• Just for a Song, starring Lillian Hall-Davis, Roy Royston and Constance Carpenter.^[11]
• The Nipper, starring Betty Balfour

Births

• 5 January – Saxa, Jamaican-born British saxophonist (died 2017)
• 17 February – Frank Wappat, singer and radio host (died 2014)
• 5 March – Isla Cameron, actress and folk singer (died 1980)
• 10 March – Jimmie Macgregor, folk singer
• 28 March – Elizabeth Bainbridge, operatic soprano
• 17 April – Chris Barber, jazz trombonist (died 2021)
• 4 May – Bill Eyden, jazz drummer (died 2004)
• 8 May – Heather Harper, operatic soprano (died 2019)
• 22 May – Kenny Ball, jazz trumpeter and bandleader (died 2013)
• 28 May – Julian Slade, composer (died 2006)
• 30 May – Gordon Langford, composer and arranger (died 2017)^[12]
• 1 June – Edward Woodward, actor and singer (died 2009)
• 10 July – Josephine Veasey, mezzo-soprano
• 20 July – Sally Ann Howes, actress and singer
• 27 July – Andy White, Scottish drummer (died 2015)
• 1 August – Lionel Bart, composer and lyricist (died 1999)
• 13 August – Bernard Manning, comedian and singer (died 2007)
• 12 October – Cyril Tawney, singer-songwriter (died 2005)
• 1 November – John Scott, conductor and composer
• 2 November – Peter Hope (also known as William Gardner), composer and arranger^[13]
• 1 December – Matt Monro, singer (died 1985)

Deaths

• 17 February – Louise Kirkby Lunn, operatic contralto, 56
• 22 June – Mary Davies, singer, 75
• 13 November – Thomas Bulch, British-born Australian composer, 67
• 17 December – Peter Warlock, composer, 36

See also

• 1930 in British television
• 1930 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1930

References