Why has no proper music scene ever emerged from Brighton?

[Fourteenth Eye]

As was Mat Osman.

and Bernard Butler

 

[Superphil]

There's a great music scene in Brighton, there is loads of live music of varying quality every night of the week. Pretty much every genre from Indie, metal, punk and country is covered as well as the club and hip hop scenes.

The thing I like about the Brighton music scene is that it doesn't all sound the same, bands are prepared to do what they want rather than follow a trend. As there isn't a homogenized sound it doesn't get labelled a 'scene' as such.

Anyone at the Buzzcocks gig last night would have seen two Brighton's finest open the show, the brilliant Drookit Dogs and Los Albertos.

Nail on Head

PS, Drookit Dogs are very fine

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Maybe it's because Brighton people like to get out and about their city and countryside.

I mean if you lived in alot of those northern cities is there any point going outside?

Might as well sit in ya room all day and learn to play guitar.

 

[Arthur]

It's because Brighton has spent far too long living in the shadows of Buxted!!

 

[Storer68]

I am reading the memorial biography to WG Grace published in 1919. One quote which partulalrly rings true 88 year later.

...."the notorious apathy of the Brighton public"

refers to cricket butyou get my drift

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Croydon is drowning!

According to the News here in Arsessex Croydon is disappearing beneath the waves....I was considering some sort of half hearted rescue attempt a'la Dubyas effort in New Orleans...but then I thought....No.Let them become boat people, floating around the Thames basin looking for a friendly port, always being turned away because of their clown like kits..looking forward to their Orange Captain pleading for terms in Weybridge.

n.b. Hillbilly has been to the pub.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Yes..Obviously the above message was intended as a new thread,,,although it is true that I have, at best, a passing relationship with context. And I have been in the pub.

 

[otk]

Just on Brighton's 'new found' popularity, we are frequently mentioned/appear in/on national media programmes, hence the cost of a semi is a quarter of a million pounds and upwards

 

[bristolseagull]

Brighton has always had a lack of identity

the cockneys playground unfortunately

 

[Stinky Kat]

Especially when that band (the kooks) are actually from SEAFORD.

I would have thought Brighton has had a strong dance scene for YEARS.

Certainly hip-hop has always thrived there.

As far as SUSSEX scenes go - the best for years is ROTHERBEAT.

Youngplan are great but Mummra soory thats pooh music

 

[mona]

Just a theory but a lot of British musicians since the 50s are from celtic, black or jewish backgrounds. Ireland/Wales/Scotland and Manchester/Liverpool fit the first category. The third category went mainly into jazz and the second category is predominantly big city. So Brighton, like a lot of medium-sized English places, doesn't have a strong local music culture.
Sorry about the racial generalisations but English sporting crowds are as bad at singing as they are at dancing.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Stourbridge? I cannot belive they have ever had a scene, unless it was started by The Wurzels.

The Wurzels? Stourbridge?

Sheesh!

 

[the right footed denilson]

too many outsiders who eventually move on, lack of a real identity as a town....

 

[the right footed denilson]

you could argue that the big beat scene was a brighton scene no?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

For all the musicians, creativity, venues and scenesters in Brighton why have we never had a proper music scene emerge similar to those from Liverpool, Manchester or Camden or even Sheffield? Even Stourbridge has had its moment.

Too easy to be a big fish in a cosy little scene in Brighton. Why try harder?

 

[NMH]

Too easy to be a big fish in a cosy little scene in Brighton. Why try harder?

It would have to be a VERY 'cosy little scene' to be worthwhile then, as becoming known by enough people to fill a pub hall, is how every band starts gaining momentum. The word obviously doesn't spread far or for long either, if 30 years of music has left us struggling to think of bands from Brighton who have made anywhere near an impression.

The bottom line is that we're shit, aaaaagghhhhhhhh

 

[coventrygull]

Even Coventry has had more bands than Brighton

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It would have to be a VERY 'cosy little scene' to be worthwhile then, as becoming known by enough people to fill a pub hall, is how every band starts gaining momentum. The word obviously doesn't spread far or for long either, if 30 years of music has left us struggling to think of bands from Brighton who have made anywhere near an impression.

The bottom line is that we're shit, aaaaagghhhhhhhh

Rarely been many Brighton bands wanting it bad enough to slog their guts out round the shit pub circuit long enough to build a decent-sized following. And with the advent of Youtube and millions of digital yoof TV channels and the general downturn of interest in new music, there's unlikely to be many in the future either.

 

[nevergoagain]

So, taking Sussex as a whole, in recent years;

Keane, Suede, Cure, Kooks, Fatboy Slim, Levellers, etc. looks quite respectable.
The thing with the other towns is they are probably similar - ie are all the 'Sheffield Bands' really from Sheffield are are half of them from Rotherham, Worksop and Doncaster?

etc....

You've missed the legends that were Cutting Crew !!!, and unless I am seriously deluded wasn't Wendy James from Cuckfield ?

 

[Pork Sword]

Big Beat, Sterns.