1978

In 1978 Saturday Night Fever was the soundtrack to everything, sitting at number one on the Billboard charts from January until July. Kate Bush became the first woman to top the UK singles chart with a song she had written herself, and Grease filled cinemas in June. Elsewhere, Aldo Moro was kidnapped in Italy and the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off Brittany.

Rock was busy shouting over the disco. California Jam II drew more than 300,000 people to see Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Heart and others, and in February Van Halen arrived with a debut that introduced Eddie's startling guitar sound and David Lee Roth's swagger. AC/DC did the most with the year: Powerage came out in May, followed in October by the live If You Want Blood You've Got It. Black Sabbath released Never Say Die! in September, and Queen closed the year with Jazz in November. In the background, Def Leppard put out their first E.P., with the 15-year-old Rick Allen now on drums, and Paul Di'Anno stepped in as Iron Maiden's singer. Punk's loudest chapter ended in January, when the Sex Pistols played their last show in San Francisco.

The lineup shuffles were relentless. Ozzy Osbourne changed his mind and came back to Black Sabbath, Gary Moore began his third and final spell in Thin Lizzy, and Michael Schenker left UFO to rejoin Scorpions, whose Uli Jon Roth had departed. There was real loss too: Chicago's Terry Kath died from an accidental gunshot in January, and Keith Moon of The Who died in September, a few months after his last show with the band.