Which UK City Wins at Music

[[62]]

Just for fun, like.

Visited Manchester a few times this year after a long gap and became very aware of bands and songs that came to mind whilst travelling around the area. For me that would be The Fall, A Witness, Big Flame, King of the Slums and the like, but add in 808 State, Smiths, New Order/Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Chemical Brothers, Barry Adamson, New FADs plus all the stuff like Oasis, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, 10 CC, Herman's Hermits, M People, Simply Red etc. etc. and I came to the conclusion that Manchester wins for sheer depth and breadth of music produced over the years.

I should add that I have no connection to the place and live 300 miles away.

Always feel Glasgow runs a close second, although that may be because it's given birth to a lot of the sort of shouty, angular stuff I happen to like, and that for its size London hasn't done much really, even more so when you discount the many 'London' bands whose members moved there from somewhere else to form a band.

How wrong am I?

 

[Pickman's model]

What about Newcastle and the mighty Lindisfarne?



Not to mention the animals

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

'For it's size' - the smallest hamlet ever to produce a band, wherever that is.

Otherwise it's London.

 

[killer b]

Manchester has a decent back catalogue, but hasn't managed to produce any significant bands in decades. If you spend any time there the Tony Wilson / Stone Roses / Oasis cultural dominance is pretty stifling.

 

[ska invita]

per head of population Id say Bristol

 

[hitmouse]

Manchester has a decent back catalogue, but hasn't managed to produce any significant bands in decades. If you spend any time there the Tony Wilson / Stone Roses / Oasis cultural dominance is pretty stifling.

Birmingham and Liverpool haven't done much in recent decades either. Leeds and Sheffield are up there, imo.

 

[hitmouse]

What about Newcastle and the mighty Lindisfarne?

Not to mention the animals

And Venom and Metty Mish:

 

[killer b]

Birmingham for heavy metal
Sheffield for electronic music
Crantock in Cornwall (population 801) is where both the Aphex Twin and Global Communication started out, so on a per head basis that's got to be doing well

 

[Supine]

For house music Nottingham takes some beating. Artists and scene are class.

 

[Badgers]

Kidderminster

 

[Pickman's model]

Birmingham for heavy metal
Sheffield for electronic music
Crantock in Cornwall (population 801) is where both the Aphex Twin and Global Communication started out, so on a per head basis that's got to be doing well

Crantock of course not a city.

 

[Pickman's model]

Kidderminster

Kidderminster's long campaign for city status likely to only be successful if its MP is eliminated

 

[pogofish]

Glasgow has always had a large and active music and more widely creative scene that has continued unabated whether it was currently in fashion or not.

 

[[62]]

Birmingham for heavy metal

Yeah, that is very noticeable. I don't generally like metal of the traditional variety, so that doesn't help in my perception of the city's musical heritage. Think the only Brum bands I have in my record collection are The Beat and Broadcast, plus bits of the whole Vindaloo/Nightingales/Noseflutes/Fuzzbox scene.

 

[[62]]

per head of population Id say Bristol

Oxford does well on that score. Population 152,000 (it says here) and has produced Radiohead, Foals, Supergrass and Ride, amongst others.

 

[ska invita]

Oxford does well on that score. Population 152,000 (it says here) and has produced Radiohead, Foals, Supergrass and Ride, amongst others.

Yeah but in Bristol 12% of the population have an ep outat any one moment

 

[ska invita]

Oxford does well on that score. Population 152,000 (it says here) and has produced Radiohead, Foals, Supergrass and Ride, amongst others.

Yeah but in Bristol 12% of the population have an ep outat any one moment

 

[ska invita]

Oxford does well on that score. Population 152,000 (it says here) and has produced Radiohead, Foals, Supergrass and Ride, amongst others.

Yeah but in Bristol 12% of the population have an ep outat any one moment

 

[ska invita]

I think I've made my point.

 

[klang]

I wonder what percentage of the population of Bristol has an ep outat any one moment..??

 

[mx wcfc]

per head of population Id say Bristol

Bristol has a great scene at the moment, in the DIY punk world.

 

[Kaka Tim]

For for number and influence of artists and musical movements and all the rest - London.
But is massively the biggest and most important city and the capitol so its kind of a no brainer -
Outside London - Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds have all had their times and scenes.
In terms of punching above their weight - Bristol and Coventry.

 

[ska invita]

I wonder what percentage of the population of Bristol has an ep outat any one moment..??

Come on hive mind, we can do this one

 

[hitmouse]

Yeah, that is very noticeable. I don't generally like metal of the traditional variety, so that doesn't help in my perception of the city's musical heritage. Think the only Brum bands I have in my record collection are The Beat and Broadcast, plus bits of the whole Vindaloo/Nightingales/Noseflutes/Fuzzbox scene.

The Napalm Death wiki page mentions that them playing with Fuzzbox, which is a bit of trivia I love cos it seems like such an impressively varied lineup.

Bristol has a great scene at the moment, in the DIY punk world.

I once saw Hard Skin while visiting Bristol, and they came out with one of my favourite bits of "stage banter" or whatever you want to call it: "This one is dedicated to the greatest Bristol band of all time... that's right, fucking no one. Your entire music scene is shit, move to London."

 

[Saul Goodman]

Manchester wins

Is the right answer.

 

[A380]

Yeah but in Bristol 12% of the population have an ep outat any one moment

And the other 88% are listening too it in their artisan quinoa pop up.

 

[A380]

Pains me to say it but Beatles = best and biggest influence = Liverpool.

 

[Sue]

Auchtermuchty (population 2000ish). The Proclaimers AND Jimmy Shand.

 

[[62]]

The Napalm Death wiki page mentions that them playing with Fuzzbox, which is a bit of trivia I love cos it seems like such an impressively varied lineup.

Ah, good prompt, because I was massively into Scum/From Enslavement... era Napalm Death in my youth, so that's another Brum band in my record box.

Am I right in thinking Napalm Death are three times removed from the people who started the band, i.e. original line-up all gone by 'Scum', 'Scum' line-up all gone ten years later?

 

[Sue]

Pains me to say it but Beatles = best and biggest influence = Liverpool.

I went to Liverpool for the first time a couple of years ago and was astounded at the amount of Beatles stuff everywhere. I mean they were good and all but split up 50 YEARS AGO.