The Musicality of Different Cities

It has always fascinated me this idea of "musical cities". Mention Liverpool or Manchester in a musical context to most people in the UK and they will quickly be able to recall some of the great bands to hail from either city. Often with a comment "yeah, their really musical cities" that have "great music scenes"! Mention Exeter, Derby or Leicester on the other hand and they might be struggling to come up with a similar connection between the location and famous bands...though Showaddywaddy for a certain generation or Kasabian for a more recent generation might ring bells when connecting bands with Leicester.

Great bands have emanated from or nearby my hometown of Exeter. For example, Chris Martin, one of the worlds leading pop stars and the frontman of Coldplay grew up in Exeter. While English-rock band Muse grew up a little further down the Devon coastline. Yet I find people, including my students, don't know this - it often comes as a surprise. Perhaps a key part of it is whether the band/artist really promote or come to represent the city that they hail from. The strong South-Yorkshire accents of Alex Turner and his bandmates from the Arctic Monkeys helps to connect them to Sheffield, where they grew up. Indeed, the band are vocal about Sheffield as a location - with drummer Matt Helders even using the 0114 landline dialling code in Sheffield as a logo for his base drum!

I know that Chris Martin continues to return to Devon, not only to visit his family, but also to speak and present memorabilia to Exeter Cathedral School. Yet on the international stage, I can never remember him talking about or promoting Devon as a place! So perhaps the affiliation between a band and their city is determined as to whether they incorporate that cities identity into the identity of the band itself. Oasis's affiliation with Manchester is part of the DNA of the band, remove it and it is a different band entirely. Yet I wouldn't say that Muse's affiliation with Teignmouth in Devon is part of the bands DNA to such an extent that removing it will alter the band that much!

This has been on my mind over the last few years as a professional drummer and drum teacher I chose to move from Exeter up to Bristol. Part of this was on account of Bristol being "a more musical city" or rather there simply is more drumming work going in Bristol than in Exeter. Not only are there more gig opportunities due to a larger population but it has enabled me to launch Drum Lessons Bristol - a local drum school to provide drum tuition to students of all ages and abilities. I know that in a smaller city like Exeter I would have struggled to create such a successful drum school so rapidly over the last few years. I just don't think the drum student numbers would be there. However, as musicians like myself get sucked towards "musical cities" (many of my friends have relocated to London) does this continue to contribute to the problem. A circle of limited opportunities in a city, leading to professional musicians relocating to a "musical city", leading to a void of professional musicians in the first city.

While I don't know what the solution is, as I appreciate it is very much driven by supply and demand, I do believe greater funding towards musical opportunities in smaller cities like Exeter would help to reduce this "brain-drain". While I certainly don't regret moving to Bristol, as the drumming opportunities hear are far greater than back in Exeter, I do reflect upon the wide implications of this across the UK. Perhaps one day if I do go onto be a successful drummer I can say "the band is from Bristol, but I am from Exeter"!