Lifestyle

LIVERPOOL NAMED ‘ENGLAND’S MOST MUSICAL CITY’

London might have the most venues, Manchester a history of iconoclastic ensembles such as the Smiths, Joy Division and Oasis, and Sheffield a host of current buzz bands, but it’s Liverpool that has bragging rights after being named England’s ‘most musical city’ in a poll conducted by the country’s Arts Council.

The accolade is ripe timing, coming in a year in which the city is held under the spotlight of being European Capital of Culture and also opened a 10,000-seater Arena that, for the first time, enabled it to compete with neighbouring Manchester for the biggest names in music.

Coming hot on the heels of the Liverpool Soundcity festival, the honour is further evidence of the strength of the area’s resurgent grass roots scene and should go some way to silencing critics that accuse the city of excessive nostalgia for the Beatles and the heyday of Mersey Beat in general.

The online poll – which received thousands of votes – was conducted as part of the Art Council England’s ‘Take It Away’ initiative, which provides interest-free loans for buying instruments in an attempt to boost the country’s budding musicians. Liverpool pipped the Arctic Monkeys’ home-town Sheffield to the post at the last minute, taking 49% of the ballot, while Manchester came in third. Surprisingly, fourth place went not to the capital – London languished in eighth – but to Leicester after a somewhat unexpected influx of votes from fans of crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, who was raised in the city.

Gordon Ross, Music Coordinator of the Liverpool Culture Company, hailed the city’s music scene and called the award “great news for the city”. He said, “the city today has a phenomenal pool of talent and it’s exciting that now, more than ever, it has the venues, the studios, the promoters and the festivals to nurture new ideas and faces to carry on the city’s best musical traditions”, adding that the accolade “should serve to encourage those seeking to build on that legacy”.

Indeed, one band who will undoubtedly find encouragement in the poll’s outcome will be the Affection, a local four-piece indie outfit who will be playing two sets at this September’s esteemed End of the Road festival – traditionally seen as the full-stop on the summer festival season – as a result. As part of the Most Musical City campaign, unsigned bands were invited to enter a competition for a slot at the weekend event, with the winner being the best entry – as selected by a panel of music industry experts – hailing from the overall victorious city.

It’s fair to say the Capital of Culture programme doesn’t exactly prioritise music lovers – Creamfields’s 10th Anniversary notwithstanding, some of the city’s main events this summer are the predictable week-long Beatles festival and the Dad-pleasing Summer Pops (Mick Hucknall, Meat Loaf or Def Leppard, anyone?) But while that programme hardly sets pulses racing (at least not pulses under the age of 50), the results of the Arts Council’s poll are a welcome reminder that the any scene stands or falls on its artists, rather than its home city’s bureaucracy. And in that respect, at least, Liverpool’s future looks bright.

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