7:50am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Dave King
FIRST it was roundabouts, and now Swindon is facing a double assault on its reputation – this time through music.
Musicians, promoters and rock journalists in neighbouring Oxford have reacted with horror to a survey which failed to put the town in the top 20 musical cities, but which had progressive Swindon figuring at 13.
It was based on a survey by the Performing Right Society which calculated the number of musicians per head of population. Bristol topped the chart, while Oxford came 21st.
Among Oxford’s high profile bands are Stornoway, who played last year’s Glastonbury Festival.
They will release their first album, Beachcomber’s Windowsill, in May, but singer and guitarist, Brian Briggs is not impressed that Swindon is higher up in the musical pecking order.
He said: “I can’t believe it. Swindon isn’t exactly famous for its music scene, but I would have thought Oxford would have been on quite a few people’s key cities for music.”
Ronan Munro, the editor of Oxford’s independent music magazine Nightshift, said: “These things are worthless, and I don’t think anyone should take any notice of it.
“Oxford has great bands, great venues and great promoters. If you look at all the towns surrounding Oxford, including Swindon, Reading, and Northampton, none of them have anything like Oxford.
“Let people think what they want, we will just get on with producing great bands.”
Radiohead and Supergrass were both born in Oxford, while the city has also seen the rise of acts like Foals, Young Knives and The Epstein.
Venues which regularly play live music include the O2 Academy, the Regal, the Bullingdon, the Jericho, the Wheatsheaf, and the Cellar, with numerous others providing places for musicians to cut their teeth.
Philip Guy Davis, who runs a weekly blues night at the Bullingdon pub, said: “Oxford has a huge number of musicians and I think it’s ludicrous for it not to be in the top 20. Oxford is rock city, you can go to something every night.”
“There are a huge number of venues considering the size of the city and a huge number of bands as well.”
The Performing Right Society has 65,000 musicians on its books. A spokesman said: “Although Swindon may have just pipped Oxford in terms of musicians and composers per head of population, Oxford has still done extremely well and we’re sure will still continue to produce many excellent musicians.”
However, the survey has provoked the ire of Tim Hughes, the music editor at the Adver’s sister paper, the Oxford Mail, who said:“Remind me who Swindon have produced? XTC? Billie Piper?
“There is more musical talent in the average East Oxford street than the whole of Swindon put together!
“I don’t think anyone should take this kind of survey too seriously. To exclude Oxford from a list of musical cities is clearly a joke. Our reputation for producing amazing bands is second only to our fame as an academic centre.
“You can’t enter an Oxford pub without walking into at least half a dozen talented artists –many of whom are making waves around the UK and overseas.”
The music row comes after a newspaper in Hemel Hempstead compared one of its own roundabouts to Swindon’s legendary Magic Roundabout and dared to claim Hemel’s was better.
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