From Abbey Road to Arctic Monkeys: Mapping England’s Pop Music Heritage

Judging from this Google image search and this Flickr cluster, not too many music fans visiting England haven’t walked in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo across Abbey Road. But England, of course, has a rich music heritage beyond the Beatles, and the country’s tourism agency wants to show it off. VisitBritain just released a map—and a sweet Web site—with more than 200 destinations associated with famous musicians. “For decades the done thing has been to bury Britain’s rock heritage rather than praise it,” writes Jeevan Vasagar in the Guardian. “Two of the country’s most famous music venues—the Cavern Club in Liverpool and Manchester’s Hacienda—ended their lives under a wrecking ball. But the era of official neglect is over.”

The map includes at least one place I have seen—the location where Eddie Cochran of “Summertime Blues” fame died in an auto crash—and many places I’d like to visit. For instance, I’d love to see a show at Hammersmith Palais. But, as Vasagar writes, “inclusion on the rock map is no guarantee of a venue’s future.” The west London nightclub made famous worldwide by the Clash faces demolition.

“It’s a tragedy that it’s going,” Conor McNicholas, editor of NME, told the Guardian. “Not just because its tremendously important venue that’s been immortalised in song lyrics by the Clash, but it’s an important size of venue for the London scene.”

The Palais, where U2 and the Sex Pistols have played, Vasagar writes, is due to be replaced by offices and a restaurant. I hope I can get there before that happens.

Thanks for the tip, Eli.

©2024 World Hum, All Rights Reserved