A cursory survey of about, or set in, places within the United Kingdom and islands adjacent. It whizzes all over the shop to start and then settles into a route nominally from north to south. There’s a token smattering of London songs as I plan to do a very special episode on the subject separately.
Should the embed fail to operate satisfactorily try here. Links to further shows in the same ball park loiter hereabouts.
00:00:00 Dreadzone – Little Britain
1995 From Second Light. The vocal version of the tune which was a minor hit for a band formed from ex-members of Big Audio Dynamite.
1. 00:01:36 Chas & Dave – Margate
1983 From Ain’t No Pleasin’ You. The ‘rockney’ sound was born from Chas Hodges wanting to sing in his own accent whilst playing bass for the country rock band Heads Hands & Feet with guitarist Albert Lee.
2. 00:03:35 Linda Jardim – Energy In Northampton
1980 From 60 Miles By Road Or Rail. This is the alien infused b-side version of a track promoting the eponymous town in the Midlands.
3. 00:06:05 Cliff Carpenter Und Sein Orchester – Belfast
1982 From Cliff Carpenter Plays Boney M. Hits. Cliff was originally the instrumental covers persona of composer and conductor Dieter Zimmermann who was briefly engaged to Agnetha Fältskog in the late 1960s. But having died of leukaemia at only 34 in 1978 arranger Alexander Gordan and producer Michael Kudritzki assumed the pseudonym.
Scotland
4. 00:07:15 The Stalemates – Skye Boat Song
1969 From Ten Guitars EP. A band from Papua New Guinea sing about an island off the west coast of Scotland.
5. 00:10:04 The Fall – Edinburgh Man
1991 From Shift-Work. The Fall’s singer and mainstay lived in the city for a period.
6. 00:11:41 Marillion – Heart Of Lothian
1985 From Misplaced Childhood. The band’s singer Fish (Derek Dick) was born and raised in the Lothian region in the lowlands of Scotland south of the Firth of Forth.
7. 00:14:13 Noel Coward – Loch Lomond
1944 From A Private Pressing. The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond at the juncture of Central and Highland Scotland would never be seen again by the protagonists of this song based on an 1876 Jacobite poem about the defeat of the attempt by Bonnie Prince Charlie to reclaim the crown of Great Britain was itself based on an earlier tune. Noel’s references to male lovers perhaps harks back to the original erotic song about a lover dying for his King and taking the ‘low road’ of death back to Scotland.
Marillion’s ‘Margaret’ on the B-side of the ‘Garden Party’ single included an updated version of the song.
8. 00:16:20 Skids – Iona
1981 From Joy. With Mike Oldfield on Fairlight Synthesizer and Bruce Adamson making his only appearance on the last album from the original run of the band. The latter having taken his signature ‘bagpipe’ guitar sound to Big Country.
9. 00:18:55 Cage The Elephant – Aberdeen
2011 From Thank You Happy Birthday. Originally ‘Maybelline’ it took it’s final title when the band’s singer found himself repeatedly singing ‘Aberdeen’ whilst rehearsing in the city.
10. 00:20:56 Dick Gaughn – Both Sides The Tweed
1981 From Handful Of Earth. A version of the traditional song calling for an amicable split from the UK.
England
11. 00:23:00 Roger Whittaker – Durham Town (The Leavin’)
1969 From New World In The Morning (1970). Changed from Newcastle to Durham after Roger and his producer decided it sounded better he left a reference to the River Tyne in the song when it’s the Wear that flows through Durham.
12. 00:25:55 Norrie Paramor – Stars Fell On Stockton
1965 From Shadows In Latin. The Producer of The Shadows arrangement of a song written by them.
13. 00:27:29 Alan Price – Jarrow Song
1974 From Between Today And Yesterday. Written by the ex-Animals’ keyboard player about the Jarrow March in 1936 from the town to London to protest against unemployment and poverty.
14. 00:33:03 Gershon Kingsley – Scarborough Fair
1969 From Music To Moog By. Like most recordings of this song it’s based on the version learnt from Martin Carthy by Paul Simon when he was living in Britain in 1965. Though a Traditional song Simon claimed the Copyright in his recording of it with Art Garfunkel leading to a rift with Carthy which took forty years to heal.
15. 00:35:45 Graham Fellows – Sheffield Steel
1985 From Love at the Hacienda. Graham’s stab only stab at music under his own name until 2018’s ‘Weird Town’. He was better known before as Jilted John and after as home keyboard virtuoso John Shuttleworth amongst other comedy creations.
16. 00:38:05 Jake Thackray – The Castleford Ladies Magic Circle
1969 From Jake’s Progress. Mainly known for topical songs on the consumer affairs programmes ‘Braden’s Week’ and ‘That’s Life’ the George Bassen influenced songwriter’s recording career waned after the 1970s and he ultimately gave up music to work as a journalist.
17. 00:40:25 The Cardigans – Emmerdale
1995 From Carnival EP. The Cardigan’s first LP was named after this fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales which has been the setting for a rural soap opera since 1972.
18. 00:41:45 Roy Harper – Blackpool (Extract)
1967 From Sophisticated Beggar. Blackpool on the Lancashire coast rose from a small hamlet to a city due to becoming a holiday destination, initially when sea bathing for health purposes became fashionable in the late 18th century.
18. 00:42:47 George Formby – With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock
1937 From Paired with ‘Oh, Dear Mother’ on a Single .
19. 00:45:50 1971 Japanese Cast Of Hair – Manchester England
1971 From Hair Soundtrack. From the 1967 musical about hippie counterculture and sexual revolution.
19. 00:46:55 Ruby Karinto – No Manchester
2018 From Ruby Karinto. I don’t know if this Canadian band are singing about Manchester in England or one of the dozens around the world but I quite like their song so it’s in.
20. 00:49:10 Frankie Vaughan – Stockport
1983 From Promotional A Single. Prompted by a Daily Mail competition this ode to the Lancashire town now subsumed by Greater Manchester was sung by Liverpool’s Frankie Vaughan who’d had number 1 hits in the 1950s as well as co-starring with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand in ‘Let’s Make Love’.
19 & 21. 00:51:39 Marie Laforêt – Manchester et Liverpool
1969 From A Single. A song of lost love written by André Popp and sung by the French actress/singer the tune has had long lasting popularity in Russia as the background music to the weather forecast on the Vremya television news programme since the early 1970s.
21. 00:53:57 Plommons – Last Train To Liverpool
1966 From A Single. The B-Side Of ‘Hungry For Love’ by Sweden’s first all female rock band.
21. 00:55:45 Jimmy Osmond – Long Haired Lover from Liverpool
1972 From Killer Joe.
21. 00:56:18 Jackie Lomax – Going Back To Liverpool
1969 From Unreleased At The Time. Signed by Brian Epstein shortly before his death Apple Records took on Jackie’s contract and George Harrison produced the album ‘Is This What You Want?’ to little success. This track produced by Paul McCartney went unreleased until the 1991 reissue of the LP.
Northern Ireland
22. 00:57:36 Bryan Ferry – Carrickfergus
1978 From The Bride Stripped Bare. The Roxy Music singer maintained a successful solo career in parallel to his main source of employment for many years. The modern version of this folk song was written by Dominic Behan based on verses learnt from actor Peter O’Toole.
23. 01:00:41 Energy Orchard – The Star Of The County Down
1993 From Shinola.
Wales
24. 01:03:47 John Cale – Child’s Christmas In Wales
1973 From Paris 1919. Originally a violist and avant-garde composer John was a member of the popular 1960s beat combo ‘The Velvet Underground’.
25. 01:06:58 The Morriston Orpheus Choir And The Band Of The Welsh Guards – March Of The Men Of Harlech
1973 From On Route With. What do you call more than two Welshmen gathered together. A choir.
England
26. 01:09:51 The Bullring – Birmingham Brass Band
1970 From A Single. Their only release.
26. 01:12:09 The Others – Birmingham Reggie
1978 From A Single. Another lone single. One of their members did go on to coordinate ‘The Worzel Gummidge Christmas Maxi Single’.
26. 01:13:52 Blackfoot Sue – Bye bye Birmingham
1974 From Strangers (1977). On the wane after their one significant hit ‘Standing in the Road’ in 1972.
27. 01:16:03 Fairport Convention – Nottamun Town
1969 From Fairport Convention. Nottingham in the East Midlands. Home of Boots The Chemists.
28. 01:19:08 Ronnie Bond – You’ve Never Seen Anything Like It
1979 From Promoting Central Milton Keynes. A song by the former Troggs drummer promoting the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre.
29. 01:21:29 Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
1977 From Peter Gabriel. The site of an Iron Age hill fort, above the village of Batheaston in Somerset. From the first solo LP by the former Genesis frontman. In 7/4 time don’t you know.
30. 01:25:13 Shirley Collins & Davy Graham – Bruton Town
1965 From Folk Roots, New Routes. Shirley appears to have taken some time off during this number. Davy Graham was hugely influential on acoustic guitar players in the 1960s and amongst other things popularised DADGAD tuning which he developed to play with Moroccan musicians.
31. 01:29:05 The Bonzo Dog Band – Keynsham
1969 From Keynsham. Between Bristol and Bath in Somerset with some notoriety from the adverts on Radio Luxembourg for Horace Batchelor’s football pools system where its name was spelled out.
32. 01:30:59 Mike Oldfield – Portsmouth
1976 From A Single. A successful attempt to follow up the Christmas hit ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ with another folk tune. Recorders by Les Penning who also played on Echo & The Bunnymen’s ‘Heaven Up Here’ LP.
33. 01:32:58 Green Man – Salisbury Plain
1975 From What Ails Thee. The boundaries of Salisbury Plain aren’t clear but it’s definitely in Wiltshire. And includes Stone Henge about which a lot more is known about than this band.
34. 01:36:46 Manzanera & Mackay – Black Gang Chine
1989 From Up In Smoke. More Roxy Musicians choosing a setting of the the oldest amusement park in the Country which opened in 1843. Named after a now-destroyed chine (coastal ravine) in the soft Cretaceous cliffs.
34. 01:39:04 Maxwell Plumm – Girl From The Isle of Wight
1975 From We Can Work In Out. 34. 01:39:04 Maxwell Plumm – Girl From The Isle of Wight
1975 From We Can Work In Out. Cabaret stalwarts.
36. 01:40:41 Bob Anthony – Down To St Helier
1975 From Jersey… Ile D’Amour. Direct from the capital of the British Crown Dependency off the coast of France. Though declaring his love for the island here Bob would later sing of ‘The Magic Of London’.
36. 01:43:16 The Jam – London Traffic
1977 From This Is The Modern World.
36. 01:44:59 Jae Judy Kay – London Bridge
1971 From A Single. This singer from North Carolina was the first female recipient of the US Department of the Army’s ‘Outstanding Entertainment’ award.
37. 01:47:22 Rambling Syd Rumpo – Clacton Bogle Pickers Lament
1967 From Rambling Syd Rumpo In Concert EP. Rambling Syd was a character played by actor Kenneth Williams in the radio series ‘Around The Horne’. The songs were mainly by the show’s scriptwriters Barry Took and Marty Feldman based upon traditional folk songs. Williams was unhappy with this recording performed in front of a largely drunk audience in the Abbey Road recording studios.
38. 01:48:52 John Martyn – Glistening Glyndebourne
1971 From Bless The Weather. John’s use of delay and other effects on his acoustic guitar is often overlooked in the development of more ambient styles of playing.
39. 01:53:53 Juan Maria Solare – An Old Cottage in Arun
2019 From From A Window. An Argentinian composer ‘tracing a line that subtly connects art music with light music and instrumental sound with electronics’. Available on Bandcamp.
40. 01:56:07 Roxy Music – South Downs
1980 From A Single. Originally the B-side of ‘Oh Yeah’ this keyboard instrumental by Bryan Ferry was also included on the 1988 re-release of their hit version of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’. It was released played backwards on the 1995 box set release ‘The Thrill Of It All’. This is the correct version.
41. 01:58:36 Toxic Chicken – Beachy Head
2023 From Radio Reveries. ‘Breezy beats and relaxing reflections inspired by listening to Beachy Head Radio’.
42. 02:00:24 Horsham British Legion Concert Band – Sussex By The Sea
2018 From An Armistice Concert At The Drill Hall in Horsham. With the Slinfold Concert Band, Horsham Borough Silver Band and West Chiltington Silver Band. Written by a Yorkshireman.