Since coming home from university a question I have been asked very frequently is, what’s the better music scene Liverpool or Brighton? Admittedly this is a hard answer to give, however, I find that they are both different but wonderful.
Having spent a year down South, enjoying all sorts of music from different places and going to gigs in small and large venues. I find that Brighton appears to be more DIY.
Now this is not to say that Liverpool is not DIY, as it is there are many bands that book their own venues and headline their own shows quite often.
But, there is an argument that a lot of the music scene relies on promoters/ venues like The Lomax to put their own shows on and fill their own bill.
Again, this is not a hindrance because any musicians in the scene in Liverpool who are worth their salt know that this is something that works well. Most bands seem happy, as do promoters.
I read an article lately from The Guardian claiming that Arctic Monkeys and Bastille were the North/ South divide in music because of record sales in certain cities?
To me that was just lazy journalism. I have came across 100s of bands of similar sounds to Bastille doing fantastic in the North and 100s of bands like Arctic Monkeys doing well in the South.
There is no North/ South divide in music there are just different cultures.
But that’s beyond the point, I enjoy liaising with bands from both music scenes as they all respect and enjoy where they have came from.
One difference that I have noticed in Liverpool though, is that the scene is starting to grow more independent and whether that is because of there being loads of new independent bars or whether the relationship between artist and promoter has finally reached boiling point, who knows.
But one thing I can assure you is that, both Brighton and Liverpool are on par with one another in terms of diversity.
Some scenes favour certain types of music for example, Reading has a large Pop-Punk scene and is mostly dominated by them where as, Liverpool and Brighton could have gigs where a metal band is supporting a reggae band with a Post-Punk revival band middle of the bill.
When it comes down to it, I feel as though both Brighton and Liverpool are still producing the best music and will continue to do so for many years to come just like they have done in the past.
And as very wise man (Craig Charles) once said “Be proud Liverpool”.
The Pentatonic 