Britain’s Musical Heritage in 50 Places and Objects

Britain has a rich musical heritage with many great names having been born here, such as Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It has also attracted musicians from across the world, such as George Frederick Handel and Freddie Mercury, and, fleetingly, the likes of Glenn Miller and Bob Marley.

Paul Kendall celebrates locations that have been touched by musicians, from Brighton where Abba won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, to Wigan, the birthplace of George Formby, and from Rochdale, where Dame Gracie Fields began her musical career, to Dorking, where Ralph Vaughan Williams regularly premiered his work at the Leith Music Festival. Also featured are sites where artists composed well-known pieces or studios where they recorded their work, including Craeg Lea, Malvern, where Sir Edward Elgar composed ‘Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1’ which featured in ''Land of Hope and Glory'', and Trident Studios, where David Bowie recorded ''Space Oddity''. In dark times music has played an important role in raising the nation’s morale, another theme explored with, for example, the White Cliffs of Dover, the inspiration for Dame Vera Lynn’s ‘(There’ll be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover’.

This book not only transports you to locations associated with music and musicians but is a celebration of those who through their music have brought joy and pleasure to so many people across the centuries.