EXPLORE BRITAIN'S MUSICAL MAGNIFICENCE

Hammersmith, inspiration for Motörhead, the Clash and Ian Dury (Shutterstock / Rainprel)

Wherever you go in Britain, you're never far from somewhere of major (or minor) musical significance. Whether it's a great festival or live music venue, a unique location that inspired a great song or album, a place featured in a famous lyric or music video, or where a random rock'n'roll story unfolded... the land that gave us both Billericay Dickie and Engelbert Humperdinck is lavishly littered with them.

Join us on a whistle-stop tour of Britain's Top 12 music locations, and hear the perfect tunes for each place courtesy of our Great British road trip playlist, the perfect accompaniment to our Fastidiously Orchestrated Great British Music Map


Britain's Top 12 Music Locations

Abbey Road

The Beatles, the world’s most famous road crossing and that iconic album cover (Abbey Road, 1969) | The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ homage - crossing the road naked except for strategically-positioned socks (for the cover of The Abbey Road EP, 1988) | Long list of famous clients from the 1930s onwards, including Edward Elgar, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Radiohead, Oasis and Kanye West | Location of many film score recordings, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi and all the Harry Potter films.

Brighton

An impressively disproportionate number of live music venues for its size, including Brighton Dome (host of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, which ABBA won with ‘Waterloo’), Sticky Mike's Frog Bar, the Green Door Store, the Hope and Ruin, East Street Tap and Patterns | The Great Escape festival | Mods vs. Rockers fisticuffs, May 1964 | ‘Pinball Wizard’ and Quadrophenia - The Who | Fatboy Slim and Big Beat / Beach Boutique (notably in 2002, when 250,000 people descended on Brighton beach) | British Sea Power, Bat For Lashes, Royal Blood, The Kooks, Dave Clarke, The Levellers, Rizzle Kicks and many more | Brighton in song: ‘Brighton Rock’ - Queen, ‘5:15’ - The Who, ‘You're Not from Brighton’ - Fatboy Slim, ‘Cool Breeze of Brighton’ - Tangerine Dream, ‘Last Bongo in Brighton (remix)’ - DJ Format, ‘Not the One’ - Al Stewart, ‘Brighton Bomb’ - Angelic Upstarts, ‘La Baigneuse de Brighton’ - Jane Birkin, ‘Red Skies Over Paradise (A Brighton Dream)’ - Fischer-Z, ‘Waiting for Changes’ - Feeder.

Edinburgh

Self-styled “world's leading festival city” and birthplace of Rollermania | Leith, north of the city centre, is celebrated in the Proclaimers’ singalong classic ‘Sunshine On Leith’, and could also be the start or end point of the most famous long-distance walk in music, the epic promise of ‘I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ | Other songs celebrating the Scottish capital… ‘Ramblin’ Man’ - Lemon Jelly, ‘Edinburgh Castle’ - Mike Scott, ‘Modern Dance’ - Lou Reed, ‘Shake Those Windows’ - Athlete, ‘Edinburgh Man’ - The Fall, and although it’s not about Edinburgh, Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’ deserves a mention as the iconic theme tune from Trainspotting | From Edinburgh… Mike Scott (The Waterboys), Idlewild, Young Fathers, Shirley Manson (Garbage) and 1970s teen tartan-clad behemoths, The Bay City Rollers (responsible for aforementioned mania) | Home to Fast Product records in the late ‘70s | Top live music venues like Usher Hall, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Stramash and Sandy Bell’s.

Glasgow

Legendary venues like Barrowlands, Sub Club, Optimo, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (where Alan McGee discovered Oasis) and The Apollo Theatre (now closed, but where AC/DC’s live album If You Want Blood You've Got It was recorded in 1978) | Glasgow in song: ‘I Belong to Glasgow’ - Will Fyffe, ‘Feather On the Clyde’ - Passenger, ‘Sealed with a Glasgow Kiss’ - Carter USM, ‘I Wish I Was In Glasgow’ - Billy Connolly, ‘Glasgow’ - Catfish and The Bottlemen, ‘Super Trouper’ - ABBA | From Glasgow… Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Lulu, Mogwai, Travis, Camera Obscura, Texas, Primal Scream, Simple Minds, Del Amitri, Glasvegas, Chvrches, Orange Juice, Deacon Blue and AC/DC’s guitar-playing brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young | Did you know… Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport was the scene of Elvis Presley’s only visit to Britain? The King of Rock’n’Roll touched down briefly in 1960 on the way home from military service abroad.

Glastonbury

Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, Somerset - home to the largest greenfield music festival in the world, started in 1970 and now attended by around 175,000 people each year | Glastonbury in song: ‘Glastonbury Song’ - Waterboys, ‘No Ferry To Glastonbury’ - Adge Cutler / The Wurzels | From Glastonbury… Reef.

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Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight Festival, first incarnation (1968 - 1970) | 1970’s famous line-up included Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Joni Mitchell, playing to an estimated 600,000 people | After 1970, the festival was banned by an act of parliament that prohibited gatherings of over 5,000 people on a single night | Present-day Isle of Wight Festival began in 2002 | Isle of Wight in song: ‘When I'm Sixty Four’ - The Beatles, ‘Big Fat Rat’ - Chas and Dave.

Liverpool

Home to the Fab Four, of course, and many more... Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Coral, A Flock of Seagulls, Echo & The Bunnymen, Atomic Kitten, Cilla Black, The Mersey Wreckers, The Wombats, The Farm, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Zutons, and, from Birkenhead across the Mersey, Half Man Half Biscuit | Liverpool in song: ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ by Gerry and the Pacemakers, ‘Penny Lane’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and others by the Beatles, ‘Going Down to Liverpool’ - Katrina and The Waves, ‘Long Haired Lover From Liverpool’ - Little Jimmy Osmond, ‘I Wish I Was Back In Liverpool’ - The Dubliners, ‘In Liverpool’ - Suzanne Vega, ‘Mersey Paradise’ - Stone Roses, ‘Liverpool Lullaby’ - Cilla Black, ‘Let's Dance To Joy Division’ - The Wombats, ‘Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)’ - The Beautiful South | Great venues like EBGBS, 24 Kitchen Street, Constellations, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, North Shore Troubadour, the 27 Club and legendary clubs like Eric’s and the Cavern Club

Manchester

Musical pedigree of the highest calibre - a combination of iconic, era-defining bands, legendary venues and a multitude of songs celebrating this illustrious city | From Manchester… Joy Division, New Order, Ian Brown, The Stone Roses, 10cc, Lisa Stansfield, Morrissey, The Smiths, Take That, The Chemical Brothers, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Oasis, The Bee Gees, The Fall, Elbow, The Courteeners, Buzzcocks, The Charlatans, A Guy Called Gerald, Herman's Hermits, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers | That famous 1976 Sex Pistols gig at Lesser Free Trade Hall, inspiring the formation of Joy Division, The Fall and The Smiths, amongst others | The Haçienda | Live music venues like Fallow Cafe, Fitzroy Social Club, Gorilla, Jimmy's, Manchester Academy 3 (Hop & Grape), Night People, Rebellion, Soup Kitchen, The Live Room, The Night and Day Café, The Old Abbey Taphouse and the Ruby Lounge | Manchester in song: ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ - The Smiths, ‘Manchester’ - The Beautiful South, ‘Manchester Rambler’ - Ewan MacColl, ‘Round Are Way’ - Oasis, ‘Station Approach’ - Elbow, ‘Cheetham Hill’ and ‘City Hobgoblins’ - The Fall, ‘I'm in Love With the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk’ - The Freshies, ‘Fallowfield Hillbilly’ - The Courteeners, ‘Mancunian Way’ - Take That, ‘Beasley Street’ - John Cooper Clarke, ‘Whippin' Piccadilly’ - Gomez.

Mull of Kintyre

Oh cheese rolling in from the sea! | The Mull (meaning ‘headland') of Kintyre, a lovely peninsula on Scotland’s south-west coast, makes the Top 50 for one reason, and one reason only... Paul McCartney’s band Wings topped the charts with this cod-folk number in 1977, the first single to sell over two million copies in Britain | Actually, two reasons: there is also the Mull of Kintyre Festival (or MOK Fest), offering a mix of concerts, ceilidhs, and a celebration of local musical talent in Campbelltown.

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Soho

Arguably, Central London’s key musical destination, combining legendary venues such as the 100 Club, Marquee Club and Ronnie Scott’s, with multiple references in song | ‘Solo in Soho’ - Phil Lynott, ‘Rainy Night in Soho’ - The Pogues, ‘Pinball Wizard’ - The Who and ‘Soho Square’ - Kirsty MacColl (“One day you'll be waiting there / No empty bench in Soho Square / And we'll dance around like we don't care”) | A plaque on a bench in Soho Square now commemorates the artist and the song | Berwick Street features on the album cover photo for Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

Salford

Salford has a lot going on… it’s been sung about, spawned several iconic bands and has festivals and live music venues galore | From Salford… The Happy Mondays, Black Grape, Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), Ewan MacColl and The Ting Tings | Salford Lads’ Club features on the inside cover of The Smiths’ album The Queen Is Dead | Salford Music Festival | Sounds From The Other City Festival | Great venues like the Lowry and the Kings Arms pub (where the Darkness played out of their skins and secured a record deal) | Salford in song… ‘Dirty Old Town’ - Ewan MacColl, ‘Salford Sunday’ - Richard Thompson, ‘Shadows of Salford’ - Doves and ‘It’s Grim Up North’ - the JAMs | Salford has so much musical pedigree that it even has its very own music map.

Lord Hereford’s Knob

A hill in the mighty Brecon Beacons immortalised in song by Half Man Half Biscuit | ‘Lord Hereford’s Knob’ is also, quite possibly, the only song to feature an Ordnance Survey grid reference (SO224350, if you were wondering) | Nearby, one of Britain’s most spectacularly-sited festivals, Green Man, wows visitors to the valleys near Crickhowell.


Great British Road Trip Playlist

HIT THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Whether you're walking 500 miles or just like driving in your car, here are some 'location-appropriate' tunes to accompany your travels. 

It is possible, mathematically, for two people to agree on a playlist, even one that’s stupidly ambitious. But agreeing on a selection of tunes to represent the musical destinations of an entire land is - let’s face it - about as likely as Rick Astley ever giving you up. So this is just a start. You almost certainly won't agree with all the selections here but we hope at least some of them put a large grin on your face as you hit the road.

Happy motorin'!


Roooooooooad trip!

Hit the road on a British music-themed adventure, sing along to the ultimate playlist and admire the finest scenery in the land as you go. Here you can download a map of Britain’s top 50 music locations, all of them connected by a rather ambitious road trip…


The Map

Britain’s music festivals, venues and places celebrated in song, including the selection on this page, are the subject of the Fastidiously Orchestrated Great British Music Map. Available in 3 formats (fold-out, flat or framed) from £14.99. If you’ve got the map and have any feedback or suggestions for the next edition, we’d love to hear from you - email us at hello@marvellousmaps.com.

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