This is a summary of 2010 in music in the United Kingdom.

• 1 January – Musicians honoured in the Queen's New Year Honours list include mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly (CBE), conductor James Loughran (CBE), composer Craig Armstrong (OBE), rock musicians Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt (OBE), composer Rachel Portman (OBE) and guitarist Jet Harris (MBE).
• 9 January – Jamie Cullum marries model Sophie Dahl.^[1]
• 15 February – Composer Stanley Vann celebrates his 100th birthday. In recognition of his past service as Master of the Music, Peterborough Cathedral issues a commemorative CD, Harken to the Whispering Angels, with a compilation of recordings by both the current choir and earlier recordings made during his tenure as organist.^[2]
• 29 March – Protesters interrupt a concert by the Jerusalem Quartet at London's Wigmore Hall.^[3]
• 3 April – New Llandaff Cathedral organ first played.
• 8 June – The Gregynog Music Festival opens; performers include Emma Kirkby, Catrin Finch and The Academy of Ancient Music.^[4]
• 11–13 June – The Download Festival 2010 takes place at Donington Park. AC/DC played on an exclusive stage next to the Maurice Jones main stage, which was headlined by Them Crooked Vultures, Rage Against the Machine and Aerosmith. The Ronnie James Dio stage was headlined by Bullet for My Valentine, Thirty Seconds to Mars and Stone Sour, the Pepsi Max stage by Job for a Cowboy, Michael Monroe and Suicidal Tendencies, the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage by Devil Sold His Soul, Breed 77 and Panic Cell, and the Jägermeister Acoustic stage by Skin, Reckless Love and Ginger Wildheart.
• 12 June – Musicians honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours list include composer and conductor George Benjamin (CBE), composer Karl Jenkins (CBE), jazz musician Bill Ashton (OBE), singer-songwriter Graham Nash (OBE), and rock musician John Cale.
• 23–28 June – The Glastonbury Festival 2010 is headlined by Stevie Wonder. Other acts performing include Muse, Gorillaz, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, Keane and Scissor Sisters.
• 15 July – Robbie Williams announces that he will rejoin Take That.
• 16 July – The Proms 2010 season opens with a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8.^[5]
• 25 July
  • A special daytime Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall includes Murray Gold's original music from the television series Doctor Who, and his arrangement of Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme.
  • A memorial concert in honour of the recently deceased Sir Charles Mackerras takes place at the Royal Albert Hall, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vassily Sinaisky.^[6]
• 26 July – Simon Holt's "a table of noises" (2007), a concerto for percussion receives its London première at The Proms, having originally been performed in Birmingham.^[7]
• 13 August – The Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir give their first concert, at Tewkesbury Abbey, performing Handel's "Zadok the Priest", "Water Music (Suite No 2 in D)" and "My Heart is Inditing", and Bach's "Magnificat", accompanied by the Corelli Chamber Orchestra.^[8]
• 17 August – Huw Watkins' Violin Concerto is premièred at The Proms by Alina Ibragimova, for whom it was written.^[9][10]
• 11 September – The Last Night of the Proms opens with the première of Jonathan Dove's "A Song of Joys".^[11] Jiří Bělohlávek conducts the concert for the first time, and Renée Fleming is the soloist for "Rule, Britannia".
• 12 December – Matt Cardle wins the seventh series of The X Factor UK. Rebecca Ferguson is named runner-up, while One Direction and Cher Lloyd finish in third and fourth place respectively.

• Suede (live only)^[12]
• The Yummy Fur (touring only)
• The Libertines (Reading and Leeds Festival)
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer (High Voltage Festival)
• Take That (original line-up)
• Pulp
• Cast

• See Musical groups disestablished in 2010

• Lemmy
• Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, starring Andy Serkis

• 2 January – John Rhys Evans, operatic baritone, 79^[21]
• 11 January – Mick Green, English guitarist (Johnny Kidd & The Pirates), 65
• 28 January – Alistair Hulett, folk singer, 58 (liver failure)^[22]
• 6 February – Sir John Dankworth, jazz composer and musician, 82^[23]
• 9 February – Malcolm Vaughan, singer and actor, 80
• 13 February – John Reed, actor, singer, and dancer, 94
• 23 February – Wyn Morris, conductor, 81
• 5 March – Philip Langridge, operatic tenor, 70^[24]
• 27 March – Stanley Vann, composer, organist, choral conductor, and choir trainer, 100^[25]
• 1 April – Morag Beaton, opera singer, 83
• 8 April – Malcolm McLaren, impresario and former Sex Pistols manager, 64 (peritoneal mesothelioma)^[26]
• 9 April – Kenneth McKellar, tenor, 82
• 10 May – Jack Birkett, dancer, singer, mime artist and actor, 75
• 7 June – Stuart Cable, drummer, 40 (choked on vomit)^[27]
• 8 June – Crispian St. Peters, singer-songwriter, 71^[28]
• 21 June
  • Chris Sievey, comedian and musician, 54 (cancer)
  • Tam White, musician and actor, 67 (heart attack)
• 23 June – Pete Quaife, English bass player (The Kinks), 66 (kidney failure)^[29]
• 29 June – Alf Carretta, lead singer of The Zimmers, 93
• 1 July – John Paynter, composer and music educator, 78
• 5 July – David Fanshawe, composer, 68 (stroke)
• 21 July – Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor, 69^[30]
• 17 August – Bill Millin, British Army soldier and piper during WWII (born 1922)
• 21 September – Geoffrey Burgon, film and TV score composer, 69
• 10 October – Alison Stephens, English mandolin player, 40 (cervical cancer)
• 30 October – Morris Pert, Scottish composer, drummer /percussionist and pianist, 62
• 25 November – Peter Christopherson, musician, 55
• 16 December – Richard Adeney, British flautist, 90^[31]

• 2010 in British radio
• 2010 in British television
• 2010 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 2010