England Rocks
VisitBritain, the organisation which has the responsibility for maximising the tourism potential of the whole of Britain, has come up with a campaign called England Rocks!
A map and folded leaflet has been produced through Visit England, encouraging rock tourism - visiting places connected with the world's great rock music.
Nothing of this sort can ever be exhaustive, whether you are talking about writers, artists, films, connections with America, or anything else, and we could all think of other information that could be included.
Having said that, there's a lot of interesting stuff.
Liverpool is pre-eminent of course. There are a lot of locations connected with the Beatles, particularly in the Matthew Street area where The Cavern can be found.
In the post-Beatle era, there have been many other performers who have emanated from Liverpool, such as Elvis Costello, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Coral and the Zutons.
You can pinpoint other hotbeds of musical interest. Well, there's London for a start. The Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Elton John ........
In Essex, the Prodigy are from Braintree and Blur from Colchester, as well as Alison Moyet from Basildon and Billy Bragg from Barking.
And Leicester has produced, not only Engelbert Humperdinck, but Kasabian as well.
England Rocks! should be available at all good Tourist Information Centres.
Posted by colin on Tuesday 3rd April, 2007 at 4:21pm