The Best Towns & Cities in the UK To Be A Musician
The Best Towns & Cities in the UK To Be A Musician
6 Jun 2017
At some point in our lives, we’ve all probably dreamed of packing in the day job to become a rock star, but which UK cities would give you the best chance of making your dreams come true?
We’ve taken a look at which towns and cities have the most live music venues, rehearsal and recording studios and music shops and teachers, according to those which are listed on Yelp, as well as which have the most upcoming gigs in the next 30 days, according to Songkick.
We then looked at how the numbers stack up, relative to the population of the town of city, to give us our final results.
As you can see, despite boasting the most venues and studios by some way, it turns out that London didn’t come out on top, and it was in fact Manchester which came out on top, with Brighton just behind, despite having a population of just 285,300!
Town/City
Venues (Pts)
Rehearsal Studios (Pts)
Music Shops & Teachers (Pts)
Studios (Pts)
Upcoming Gigs (Pts)
Total (Pts)
Manchester
49
48
47
49
49
242
Brighton and Hove
50
48
44
47
50
239
Liverpool
48
50
49
50
36
233
Nottingham
45
37
50
46
42
220
Cardiff
46
49
39
49
34
217
Newcastle upon Tyne
38
39
42
39
46
204
Glasgow
42
46
27
45
44
204
Edinburgh
43
44
29
43
37
196
Birmingham
41
45
41
44
22
193
Bristol
47
31
40
28
45
191
Bournemouth
28
37
48
37
39
189
Norwich
25
33
39
33
47
177
Oxford
40
38
11
36
48
173
Portsmouth
34
42
32
43
20
171
Cambridge
44
28
23
25
41
161
Reading
21
40
20
41
38
160
London
30
41
17
38
24
150
Birkenhead
16
44
46
41
2
149
Leeds
35
25
19
26
35
140
Belfast
33
31
10
33
30
137
Coventry
27
32
30
31
16
136
Sheffield
22
31
21
28
30
132
Southend-on-Sea
10
37
31
35
14
127
Southampton
19
23
13
31
40
126
Wolverhampton
27
12
45
10
28
122
Milton Keynes
10
12
28
22
43
115
Bradford
38
19
36
10
12
115
Derby
32
12
34
10
26
114
Huddersfield
38
19
25
13
19
114
York
31
26
5
18
33
113
Blackpool
39
6
37
5
23
110
Ipswich
5
37
18
35
13
108
Leicester
16
23
12
25
28
104
Peterborough
12
28
27
25
8
100
Swansea
19
19
9
19
32
98
Stoke-on-Trent
24
12
35
16
10
97
Kingston upon Hull
7
20
15
20
25
87
Middlesbrough
24
19
17
5
18
83
Sunderland
30
19
8
13
11
81
Slough
3
23
23
29
3
81
Bolton
16
6
34
16
7
79
Dundee
17
6
24
5
21
73
Poole
5
6
43
14
5
73
Plymouth
6
12
8
10
31
67
Northampton
13
12
6
10
17
58
Warrington
20
14
3
11
6
54
Swindon
8
14
4
18
9
53
Telford
1
25
1
22
4
53
Aberdeen
11
6
15
5
15
52
Luton
2
6
2
5
1
16
We’ve also included all of the stats from each of the factors we looked at – how does your local town or city fare?
