6 January: Sir Thomas Allen is revealed as the winner of the 2013 Queen's Medal for Music.
9 January: The list of nominees for the 2014 Brit Awards is published. Nominees for Best British Group are Arctic Monkeys, Bastille, Disclosure, One Direction and Rudimental.
26 January: The 56th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Daft Punk won 5 awards, including Album of the Year for Random Access Memories and Record of the Year for "Get Lucky".
28 January: Mötley Crüe sign a "Cessation of Tour" agreement which will see them retire after a final world tour ending in 2015.
2 February: Soprano Renée Fleming makes history as the first opera singer to perform the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Bruno Mars performs during the halftime show, with an appearance from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
19 February: Brit Awards ceremony takes place at the O2 Arena, London.
25 February: As I Lay Dying lead singer Tim Lambesis pleads guilty to felony solicitation of murder after attempting to hire a hitman to kill his estranged ex-wife.
Whole February: Katy Perry tops the US Billboard Hot 100 with her song "Dark Horse", which overtakes Madonna in the most weeks at No. 1, and ties with Janet Jackson.
22 March: Kate Bush announces a tour - her first live tour dates since the only tour of her career in 1979.
23 March: Dave Brockie/Oderus Urungus, lead singer of Gwar, died from an accidental overdose. After his public memorial in August, his character's infamous costume received a Viking funeral at Haddad's Lake in Gwar's hometown of Richmond, Virginia. The band reformed, resumed touring, and began ending their sets with a revised cover of Jim Carroll's punk classic, "People Who Died."
27 March: Christine McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac for first time in 16 years.
1 April: A 90th birthday concert for Sir Neville Marriner is held by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields at the Royal Festival Hall, with soloists Joshua Bell and Murray Perahia.
10 April: The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took place. Nirvana, Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt were inducted at the ceremony.
21 April: Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending" returns to the top spot in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
22 April: Actor and pop rock musician Drake Bell releases his first album in eight years (third overall), Ready Steady Go!, under indie label Surfdog Records. The album received considerable attention, from media outlets such as KTLA, Good Day L.A., and Entertainment Tonight, for its revival of rockabilly. The album was produced by Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer. It was praised by critics for Bell's performance and direction for the album. It had poor sales however, peaking at number 182 on the Billboard 200, and only selling 2,000 copies in its first week of release.
28 April: Julian Lloyd Webber announces his retirement from playing cello and performance owing to a herniated disc in his neck which has reduced the power of his bowing arm.
30 April: Michael Nyman's 70th birthday is celebrated with a concert at London's Southbank Centre.
10 May: A judge rules that a music industry investment scheme. in which Gary Barlow and other members of Take That invested heavily was set up for the purpose of avoiding tax. HMRC indicate that they will be pursuing Barlow and others for repayment of the taxes they had sought to avoid paying. Those involved included the band's manager Jonathan Wild.
13 May: Michael Jackson's second posthumous album of previously unreleased tracks, Xscape, was released. Jackson and Justin Timberlake's duet "Love Never Felt So Good" was announced as the official lead single.
17 May: Saosin performed at the Skate and Surf festival with their original lead vocalist, Anthony Green (who is also Circa Survive's frontman). This was the first time Green had performed with Saosin since departing in 2004 to form Circa Survive.
20 May: Josh Kaufman is crowned winner of the 6th season of The Voice, with Jake Worthington and Christina Grimmie finishing runner-up and third place respectively.
21 May: Caleb Johnson is crowned winner of the 13th season of American Idol while Jena Irene is named the runner-up.
30 June: After being their drummer for 21 years, Our Lady Peace announces that Jeremy Taggart has parted ways with the band.
6 July: Audio streaming becomes incorporated into the UK Singles Chart
10 July: Garth Brooks announces that later this year he will be releasing his first studio album in 13 years and a world tour.
13 August: After being with the band for 17 years, guitarist Chris Walla leaves Death Cab for Cutie.
24 August: The 31st Annual MTV Video Music Awards take place in Inglewood, California. Beyoncé wins 4 awards that night and also received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, presented to her by her husbandJay Z and her daughter Blue Ivy following her 16-minute performance to close the show.
24 September: Jason Orange announces his decision to leave Take That.
27 September: Katherine Jenkins marries Andrew Levitas at Hampton Court Palace.
30 September: Finch releases Back to Oblivion, their first studio album in nine years, following a series of disbandings and reunions.
20 October: Gwen Stefani releases her comeback single as a solo artist, "Baby Don't Lie".
27 October: Taylor Swift releases her fifth studio album, 1989, which debuts at number one with 1.287 million copies sold in its first week. This is the highest debut sales week for an artist since Eminem's 2002 album The Eminem Show and the second highest debut for a female ever, behind Britney Spears' album Oops!... I Did It Again (2000).
23 November: The 2014 American Music Awards took place in Los Angeles, California. Winners included Iggy Azalea, One Direction, Katy Perry, among others.
12 December: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Cats, returns to the West End after an absence of 12 years.
15 December: TLC releases their first single in nine years called "Gift Wrapped Kiss".
16 December: Craig Wayne Boyd is crowned winner of the 7th season of The Voice, with Matt McAndrew, Chris Jamison and Damien finishing runner-up, third place and fourth place respectively.
Please address any comments concerning this page to The Music Maestro
Mark Chard BSc
Page created: 1st January 2015
Last edited: 23rd May 2017
