MUSIC MATTERS - Radio One's Big Weekend and the Top 10 things people associate with Coventry - The Coventry Observer

MUSIC MATTERS - Radio One's Big Weekend and the Top 10 things people associate with Coventry

Coventry Editorial 30th May, 2022   0

COVENTRY Music Museum curator Pete Chambers BEM writes for the Observer.

The Big Weekend

Well what an absolute honour for our city to host the BBC Radio One Big weekend and speaking of honours, I was delighted to be invited as a guest to the event on Saturday.

Well done everyone who got this colossal national event to our city, this was big and as much as I adore Godiva, this was no Godiva. It was huge!

It seemed like everyone in the city under 30 was there. I only witnessed a few acts, but Ed Sheeran got the whole event starting in style (local connection trivia, he was once guitar tech to Leamington chart toppers Nizlopi many years ago).

I personally was knocked out by Drill/Rap artist Central Cee for his amazingly animated live show that set the stage on fire (almost literally).




Meanwhile back in the guest area I was thrilled to catch up with the very likable Jay Blades of TV’s ‘The Repair Shop’.

As the massive crowd all soaked up the early summer sun, I had a previous engagement, and had to leave early, but the sight and sounds of this star-studded event will live for a long time in my memory.


The Coventry Music Museum’s City Of Culture Legacy Result

For Coventry’s cultural year, a questionnaire was conducted in the Coventry Music Museum asking visitors (from Coventry and around the globe) what three things they felt identified Coventry.

I’m indebted to Kev Monks who painstakingly collated all the many results to give us a top ten, and for us, a legacy to the City of Culture as seen in the eyes of our visitors.

In at number ten was that song often associated with Coventry but actually had more to do with national global decay, the classic Ghost Town song by The Specials of course.

Speaking of decay, number nine was The Coventry Blitz, eight was Selecter including band members. Number seven saw the music form Ska and cars and the automotive industry came in at number six.

At five was Coventry City including the FA Cup win. Four was of course Lady Godiva, Coventry Cathedral made it to number three.

The top two places were no surprise, with Specials including band members at number two and number one was (drum roll) 2-Tone.

Bubbling under including votes for yours truly and Music Museum patron Pete Waterman OBE.

The Music Museum itself gained many votes, as did the Transport Museum and there were votes for the City of Culture and for MP Zarah Sultana.

Some off the wall votes included ‘Speed Quizzing with Steve’ and ‘a happy place’.

Massive thanks to all who voted – we get a lot of Ska fans in the music museum so voting was always going to have a 2-tone look about it. However, it’s nice to see what other people think about our great city.

 

The top Ten, what visitors thought of our city.

1 2-Tone

2 Specials including band members

3 Cathedral

4 Lady Godiva

5 Coventry City including FA Cup

6 Cars including the automotive industry

7 Ska

8 Selecter including band members

9 Blitz

10 Ghost Town

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