For years the world’s biggest music acts have passed by Southampton- is the tide about to turn?
A cursory glance at the most popular UK tours on Ticketmaster and Live Nation will show you that the big acts just aren’t interested in Southampton.
Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons, Foo Fighters, John Legend, Nicki Minaj and even childhood throwbacks McBusted are just a few of the acts who are avoiding us on their tours this year.
Southampton’s O2 Guildhall looking dramatic
So why does Southampton struggle to attract the big names?
Location. While Southampton is easily accessed by road, air and even sea, its position at the foot of the UK means that it’s too out of the way for the big acts to work into their tours.
Lack of cultural and musical history. Compare Southampton’s cultural reputation to the likes of Portsmouth and Brighton. We are very much a dull, shipping city in comparison.
Southampton doesn’t exactly have a reputation for producing great musicians either (although we can boast Craig David and the drummer from Coldplay. Go us).
Lack of a big venue. Southampton boasts several small music venues, such as the Joiner’s Arms and the Talking Heads. While these are great for smaller acts, they can’t attract big names.
The O2 Guildhall, our biggest venue, can only hold 1,500 people. Compare that to Nottingham’s Capital FM Arena (10,000) or Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena (13,000); we just can’t compete.
But all is not lost. There are reasons to be hopeful that Southampton may be undergoing a musical renaissance.
Towards the end of May, Southampton will play host to the Common People festival, a Bestival ‘satellite’ which is bringing us Fatboy Slim, Clean Bandit and more.
Could sights like this become more common in Southampton?
In a recent interview for the Tab, Bestival founder Rob Da Bank told us he’s optimistic about the future of Southampton’s music scene:
I’m really encouraged by what’s happening in Southampton and Portsmouth and the whole south coast at the moment. Between the Isle of Wight, Southampton and Portsmouth, we’re creating quite a cool triangle of bands, festivals and things for people to do that weren’t there before”.
This is promising stuff for an area overlooked by acts for years.
Rob Da Bank, local boy and music mogul
Warehouse and Switch are also contributing to Southampton’s resurgence. They’ve drawn in big names such as Annie Mac, Hannah Wants and Chase and Status.
They’re not stopping there; the Soundclash Festival at the start of May is another new creation which is helping to put Southampton on the map.
Southampton has potential. It has a growing student population, and the backing of people such as Rob da Bank and Ryan Keary.
Soundclash and Common People are just the beginning, and the addition of a large-capacity venue really could make Southampton a musical powerhouse in the future.
Do you think Southampton has what it takes to become a big music destination? Let us know in the comments.
Southampton doesn’t get major acts because it’s too close to London to be an obvious stop for a touring band. It’s assumed we would travel to London. Bournemouth does better because it’s slightly further from London.
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Also, you have to look at the number of English dates any given band are playing. Most bands on a big European tour will only do London, Birmingham, and somewhere up north (maybe Manchester).
Given that it’s easy to get to London for big gigs and to Bournemouth for slightly smaller ones, Southampton is pretty well placed as it is.
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Hey, let’s not forget that the Guildhall is an utterly abysmal venue for live sound. Awful acoustics and the shape of the venue kills a lot of the atmosphere.
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Hell yes for this. I’ve skipped bands I like playing at the Guildhall after too many bitter disappointments.
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I stopped going after the place managed to ruin Bloc Party and Friendly Fires.
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It is the top on, simply.
If you imagine, at most, people would travel 100 miles to a concert etc for example. Drawing that 100 miles as a radius around a venue: Southampton immediately has half the audience capacity of a venue in London for example, as half of that radius is the Solent.
And with London only being 74 miles away, all artists weigh up that its more economical to perform there. With famous arena’s like Wembley and the O2, people from Southampton will easily travel to see stuff there.
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There are plenty of good musicians in and around Southampton but you wouldn’t know them because they aren’t on Radio 1
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Manic Street Preachers, The Happy Mondays, Laura Marling, Seasick Steve. Just some of the Critically acclaimed acts playing just the Guildhall this year. Southampton has a thriving music scene with the Joiners playing host to loads of acts who have gone on to be massive, one example off the top of my head is Oasis. Of course if you twiddle your thumbs and don’t make an active effort to explore music past Nikki Minage and the Foo Fighters the music scen will look pretty dead. Bare in mind we are an hour from the capital where 8 million people live, of course massive acts will not play in Southampton (a city far smaller than Nottingham and insignificant in size compared to Birmingham, crap examples).
Sound clash is in Ringwood, which is half way between Bournemouth and Southampton so it’s more likely to put the New Forest on the musical map.
We live in a provincial town and get acts that reflect our size, it isn’t a shocker.
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Soundclash is in Southampton, near Wide Lane….not Ringwood. Hence the name Southampton Soundclash
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Two thirds of Portico and the lead of Alt-j also come from Southampton you forget…
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Band of Skulls are a huge band from Southampton…
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This feature is very one sided
“Southampton doesn’t exactly have a reputation for producing great musicians either (although we can boast Craig David and the drummer from Coldplay. Go us).”
BAND OF SKULLS should have got a mention, they are huge.
“Lack of cultural and musical history. Compare Southampton’s cultural reputation to the likes of Portsmouth and Brighton. We are very much a dull, shipping city in comparison. ”
Your lack or reserch is a bit disappointing! Southampton has a rich history of music and its even more cultural and diverse today. seems a bit lazy to not look and discover whats going on.
From High Tide boat parties to Southampton Jazz club there is something going on every weekend. Original, unique and cool.
Ryan Keary
All hes doing is getting rich from a lot of students!!!! Hes a business man, not a music mogul
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1865 and Engine rooms could have the big bands play. They have potential to do that and take on the Guildhall I think.
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This feature is very one sided
“Southampton doesn’t exactly have a reputation for producing great musicians either (although we can boast Craig David and the drummer from Coldplay. Go us).”
BAND OF SKULLS should have got a mention, they are huge.
“Lack of cultural and musical history. Compare Southampton’s cultural reputation to the likes of Portsmouth and Brighton. We are very much a dull, shipping city in comparison. ”
Your lack or reserch is a bit disappointing! Southampton has a rich history of music and its even more cultural and diverse today. seems a bit lazy to not look and discover whats going on.
From High Tide boat parties to Southampton Jazz club there is something going on every weekend. Original, unique and cool.
Ryan Keary
All hes doing is getting rich from a lot of students!!!! Hes a business man, not a music mogul
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It’s not just Southampton – Portsmouth and to some extent Bournemouth do not get huge acts either. The music industry doesn’t appear to be the biggest fan of the South Coast.
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“Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons, Foo Fighters, John Legend, Nicki Minaj and even childhood throwbacks McBusted are just a few of the acts who are avoiding us on their tours this year.”
Well thank god for that.
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How do articles this bad even get published?
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