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Must see places for musicians visiting UK


phobucket
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Hi all,

My family and I are planning a trip to the UK in the summer. We'll be there for a couple of weeks and will most likely hit England, Wales, and Scotland. Tentatively our plans are to start in south (Brighton) and work our way north, with our time roughly divided between old stuff (castles, henges, etc), TV stuff (filming locations for Lovejoy, Poirot, Jeeves & Wooster), and eating.

Somewhere in there I'd like to sandwich in a few music related events. It could be anything from the British Music Experience (worth it?) to a jazz club (only one I know is Ronnie Scott's, others?), to a bass store. We'll most likely get to do this in London or Edinburgh. Any recommendations?


Thanks,
Ben

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Most overseas visitors like to have their photograph taken crossing the street a la Beatles, outside the famous recording studio in Abbey Road, North West London. I guess thats both musically and historically too!! :D

Edited by Hobbayne
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Brighton, London (Ronnies or the Pizza), Stonehenge, Salisbury or Winchester Cathedrals, Bath, Cardiff, Pembrokeshire coast, up through Wales road trip to Liverpool (Parr Jazz) via Snowdonia, Manchester (Band on the wall), The Yorkshire Dales, Ribblehead Viaduct, the M6 through the lakes, over the border into Scotland up the A82 past Loch Lomond to Glencoe, Loch Ness then back down through Edinburgh (the Tron? if still going), to the North east of England, Lindisfarne down to Lincoln Cathedral, and all the way down the Great North road (A1) to Cambridge and then then back into London.

I will meet you in Cafe des Amis in covent Garden (just round the corner from the Opera house) and you can tell me how your trip was.... :D

Fly back to Philly...

In all seriousness because of being a traveling musician I know this country intimately, so if you want any tips on locations and traveling times between them I will be able to give you a few pointers

Edited by jakenewmanbass
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For your Wales experience: Sightsee Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Millenium Centre (plenty of music related events there) - you'll find plenty of good places to eat nearby. If you're in Cardiff on a Friday you could do worse jazzwise than going to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama at 5.30 to listen free of charge to students on the jazz degree course. They are no slouches. And that leaves you the evening free to eat, see a play or whatever. Sleep, even. On a Tuesday in Cardiff, try Dempseys, opposite the Castle, on Sundays try Shot in the Dark on City Road. Both those places will give you that intimate jazz club experience. There's also Cafe Jazz on St Mary Street, which offers up jazz most nights of the week and has a reasonable restaurant so you can eat and listen at the same time.

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Cool! We love San Francisco.

Jake - your post cracked me up. I know it was all in English, but after a certain point my eyes glazed over like I was reading Greek. I hear Wales has awesome castles, so we're looking forward to that. I had fish and chips in Edinburgh for the first time 15 years ago, fulfilling a boyhood dream - no really. I hope the shop is still there.

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[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1327326166' post='1509295']
be sure to pay Mark a visit a vist at Bass Direct in Warwick. Be ready to go home a grand or two out of pocket and someting to add to the herd though.

There is nothing nice or musical in Nottingham, stay away.
[/quote]

the midlands in general.... Birmingham, nottingham, Derby, Leicester... All very unmusical and very boring. Oh and Liverpool, scum capital of the UK

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For a bass shop in London head over to the Bass Gallery. Be prepared to stay a while though (the GF had to put up with me being in there approx. 2 hours ;) )

Also if in london there's the london dungeons etc to find out just how nice we Brits really are :P

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[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1327326716' post='1509306']
the midlands in general.... Birmingham, nottingham, Derby, Leicester... All very unmusical and very boring. Oh and Liverpool, scum capital of the UK
[/quote]

Nottingham's city centre is rather small, and the surrounding area provides little (known) places for those musically inclined. It doesn't help that a large portion of the youths are more into the generic hippyhop and pop stuff than more diverse tastes.

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[quote name='phobucket' timestamp='1327325864' post='1509289']
Cool! We love San Francisco.

Jake - your post cracked me up. I know it was all in English, but after a certain point my eyes glazed over like I was reading Greek. I hear Wales has awesome castles, so we're looking forward to that. I had fish and chips in Edinburgh for the first time 15 years ago, fulfilling a boyhood dream - no really. I hope the shop is still there.
[/quote]
:D
I am in fact Welsh and admit to the trait of, the moment i find myself atop a little rise in the land, I experience an irresistible urge to build a castle!!

Edited by jakenewmanbass
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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1327320516' post='1509161']
Hi Ben. The Jazz Cafe often has worthwhile acts and an 'intimate' atmosphere... :D

[url="http://venues.meanfiddler.com/jazz-cafe/home"]http://venues.meanfi.../jazz-cafe/home[/url]
[/quote]Or, more specifically [url="http://venues.meanfiddler.com/jazz-cafe/full-listings/featured-gigs/5464"]http://venues.meanfi...tured-gigs/5464[/url] ;)
Although,possibly a little too soon for you :(

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[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1327321229' post='1509184']
Lots of beautiful places in Wales but there's nothing I would say was a musical "must-see", historically or otherwise.
[/quote]

:o
How about the knackered closed up Legendary TJs in Newport! ;)

Where Kurt proposed to Cortney... once he'd paid the £5 to get in..

Oh and the Cherub on Newport bridge, as featured on the Stone Roses' Second Coming album cover!

:lol:

Edited by bartelby
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[quote name='bigjohn' timestamp='1327343483' post='1509677']
I know.

I'm from Liverpool and I live in Nottingham... :o :rolleyes: :lol:

I went to Guildford once... can't say I remember much about it.
[/quote]

sorry big john, i was born in nottingham and its ok if you want to get a nice Paul Smith Suit ;) but liverpool.... <_<

and yes Guildford is for old people, if it wasn't for the ACM being here there isn't a chance in hell i would choose to live here! Because of ACM it has got a great music scene though. Nearly every pub has live music and there are jam nights every night somewhere.

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