By Darren Grayer.
Music in the city took place in Southampton on Saturday (12/9/26).
The UK’s biggest one-day multi- venue festival saw more than 400 live performances from artists across 60 different venues that ranged from those already noted for hosting music, right through to some, such as St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s Churches, the Marlands shopping centre, and John Lewis, all getting involved in providing space for music to be played. Even the old Toys R Us car park became the setting for an Afro-Caribbean sound system to deliver roots reggae, as well as a Samba Drums.
In fact, it would have been nigh on impossible to navigate the city without the sound of music of one genre or another coming from somewhere. From Heavy Metal to Jazz, from Folk to Reggae, the list of entertainment available makes for a staggering read – The New Forest Community Tango Orchestra, Sea Shanties from Southampton Salty Sea Dogs, or The Shantywomen, The Woodfalls Brass Band, The Mountbatten Hampshire Community Choir, Bitterne Park Primary and Nursery School Choir and The Southampton Ukulele Jam. Added to that were Yoga sessions, Poetry and a silent disco.
Not only does that list provide some of the diverse nature of the event but also the amazing range of ages involved. No one is too young or too old to be involved.
Given that, where do you even start in trying to provide a piece that covers the day? Unless I could strap a drone to my back and be transported around the city in a matter of seconds, it’s nearly impossible. I’d love to be watching stacks of it, so please forgive me if I missed your performance, although I’m fortunate enough to be still quite nimble on my feet, I’m not the spring chicken anymore!
I thought it would be a good idea to start at Vinilo Record Store, where a panel of musical and historical minds had gathered to talk about Southampton’s musical heritage. Martin Brisland is well known as a leading historian on all things Southampton, as well as playing keyboards for various local outfits for nearly 60 years, and along with Don John, who moved to the city in1977 and became Race & Diversity officer for Southampton City Council, as well as founding Black History Month in the city, and forming reggae outfit Ebony Rockers, who went on to support the likes of Steel Pulse in the early 80s, and Martin James, an internationally published music critic who started as a journalist at Melody Maker, as well as writing the official biography of The Prodigy and teaching at Southampton University.
It was an hour well spent, as all three speakers contributed in different, but equally interesting ways. Martin provided a brief history of Southampton’s musical heritage – most people will be familiar with comedian Benny Hill providing a number one hit with Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West, but there is much more to discover. For instance, way back in the 1700s, Southampton composer, musician, dramatist, novelist, singer and actor, Charles Dibdin, wrote more than 600 songs, and is best known for one of his many patriotic sea songs, Tom Bowling, which still features at the Last Night Of The Proms.
The Bells of St. Mary’s is a popular song written in 1917 by A. Emmett Adams, with lyrics by Douglas Furber following a visit to St. Mary’s Church. It was revived in 1945 in the film of the same name, by Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. It’s also used in a Monty Python sketch called Musical Mice, the first Godfather film, and features in another gangster film, Good Fellows.
Billy Read was a songwriter and band leader born in Southampton who became the first British songwriter to top the American charts after The Ink Spots recorded his piece The Gypsy.
Martin went on to explain how Southampton as a port has been at the forefront of introducing new sounds and cultures, a view that was echoed by Don Johns during his talk. Don highlighted how diversity can create a very healthy music scene, but also how difficult life could be with the barriers a Black musician could be confronted with.
Martin James spoke of the many ingredients it takes to not just create a complete music scene within a city or town, but the difficulty in achieving and maintaining such a thing. Not just musicians, venues, promoters, producers, recording studios, but trying to get people to gigs within the local area and not seeing them travel off to the likes of London to watch a band.
It was all such fascinating stuff that I feel I could write an entirely separate piece about, and the hour or so I spent chatting with the two Martins afterwards was equally interesting, and the need to get people involved to not just archive what is already known, but to add to it, was at the forefront of the overall message.
I then thought I should take in some music, so had a lovely walk up through the parks towards the Bedford Place and Carlton Place area, which it was packed with football supporters enjoying a drink before heading off to St. Mary’s. But it was also clear there was a healthy contingent around for MITC.
The sound of a drumkit and crashing cymbals caught my ear as I approached Overdraft, and a quick look inside revealed Portsmouth three-piece rock outfit Freestone creating a mighty fine wall of sound. The need to try and pace myself a little saw me park at the London Road Brew House for a bit, walking in through the door to catch The Zone perform their last number, a Monkees cover.
Parked with a nice cold pint, I then enjoyed the SKA influenced sounds of Bournemouth four-piece Citizen Perez, whose upbeat set went down a treat and included some first-rate saxophone playing, even if they did have to compete with an enthusiastic small dog, who was intent on singing/barking along, much to the singer’s apparent amusement.
Salisbury Country/Blue Grass five-piece The Duskers provided a delightful set of steel guitar and keyboard laden ditties, fronted excellently by the gravelly dulcet tones of lead singer Tim Madden, who looked and sounded as though he arrived by horse.
A walk back through the park was greeted by the unexpected sound of heavy metal outfit The Call Cartel from Hell giving it all with their take of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. Great stuff!
A quick peek round the door at a pretty packed Heartbreakers allowed me to catch the last few songs from indie outfit Mad Simple, before heading over to Planet Sound, a place I’d not been to before, but was drawn by the fact that the whole day was filled with teenage bands performing.
It was a worthwhile, eye-opening experience, with a healthy audience of youngsters watching another young band performing, among other things, a Nirvana cover.
I thought I’d try and find out a bit more about the venue and had a lovely chat with Rachel from SOCO Music Project about how it connects with people of all ages and welcomes them to bring out their creativity. Young bands can use the space to rehearse on Saturday and Wednesday evenings free of charge. I hope to do a follow up piece in more depth in the future. Today’s proceedings were programmed by Gig Night.
It was quite fitting to end my day at the city’s most famous music venue, The newly refurbished Joiners, to see long standing indie legends, Accrington Stanley, play their first gig for seven years. It proved a good decision, the place was packed with people who’d obviously followed Dan O’ Farrell and band from many years ago, and the love in the room was clearly evident.
What followed was a joyous 45 minutes or so, with outings across the Stanley back catalogue that were met with palpable enthusiasm from the floor. Rufus Grig’s impressive musical skills were on display, swapping his Rickenbacker guitar for his Cello on numerous occasions, and ending the set by playing a Lap Steel Guitar that had been rescued from Dan’s shed and dusted off earlier in the day. With sweat pouring from them, Dan, Rufus and superb drummer, Chris Walsh then had to rush up to Overdraft for nine o clock to play another set, this time as Dan O’ Farrell and the Difference Engine.
Such is the scale of Music In The City, it’s very difficult to write a piece and do it justice. I can only really scratch the surface, but in doing so I hope you get some idea of how wonderful this event is.
Seeing people of all backgrounds meet to enjoy what it offers is an absolute joy, I spoke and shook hands with people I’d never met before, and at a time when divisive discourse seems to rear its ugly head on an almost daily basis, events such as MITC provide an opportunity for people to come together and unite. Music is one of the few things to achieve this, and yesterday provided a perfect example that organiser Chris Orr and all those involved should be mightily proud of.
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