Beyond Liverpool and London: Britain's Important Rock Music Regions

The city is also where a young band called the Sex Pistols had a June 1976 performance at the Free Trade Hall. It's known as "The Gig That Changed The World" because it helped usher in punk as well as New Wave. Among the few dozen attendees were future members of the Buzzcocks, The Fall, The Smiths, and Joy Division.

In fact, Joy Division was actually formed the day after the show—Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook had been there and the Buzzcocks' music prompted Hook to buy a guitar. They performed until lead singer Curtis' suicide in 1980 (the remaining members became New Order):

Here's a 1983 performance from The Smiths at The Hacienda, the famous Manchester club financed by Factory Records and New Order. It was also the first place Madonna played in Great Britain in 1984:

The Stone Roses, who are headlining Coachella this year, played at the Manchester Flower Show in 1985:

Oasis's breakout year was 1995 and a few years later the notoriously bickering brothers played a huge concert back home:

Since the Free Trade Hall is no longer a performance space (it's a Radisson Blu Hotel now), here's where you can catch bands: The big music venues in Manchester are Manchester Arena, O2 Apollo Manchester, and Manchester Academy. Smaller venues include Band on the Wall, The Roadhouse, Night and Day Cafe and the Warehouse Project.

GLASGOW: Scotland's largest city naturally boasts a vibrant music scene, what with dozens of music venues like King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Bar Bloc and the Barrowland Ballroom. Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Belle and Sebastian all formed in or around the city.

Mogwai formed in 1995—they're still together, making music and sometimes they can be found at local clubs DJing:

The Jesus and Mary Chain formed in East Kilbride outside Glasgow. They struggled to find success (or interest from management) in Scotland and eventually moved to London:

Back in the 1980s, influential British music magazine NME started to distribute compilation tapes of up-and-coming bands as well as established acts. The 1986 issue—known as C86—became legendary for laying the foundation of what's known as indie-pop with jingly-jangly guitar and power-pop structures. Teenage Fanclub formed in 1989 and had C86 qualities. Their song, "The Concept" from their 1991 album Bandwagonesque was a huge hit (and immortalized in the film Young Adult) and they have a powerful cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin":

Belle and Sebastian are known for their wistful, dreamy and twee sound. The band was launched through Stow College's music business program and music label at first and became college radio favorites in the U.S. and even found themselves a punchline in the Hollywood version of the seminal British bestseller High Fidelity. Here's a 2006 performance of "Like Dylan In The Movies" at the Barrowland:

WALES: The modern Celtic nation boasts not just gorgeous scenery but also some great rock music. Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers more recently—as well as one of the Beatles' first signings to Apple Records, Badfinger.

Badfinger was originally called The Iveys and had Beatles-like hits like "Day After Day" and "No Matter What":

Super Furry Animals formed in Cardiff, Wales' capital, and received some flak early in their career from Welsh critics for not singing in Welsh all the time. But they did pay tribute to the town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod in Anglesey, Wales by naming their first EP after the extremely long-named village. Here's the beloved animated video for their song "It's Not The End of the World?":

Manic Street Preachers have been around since 1986 and the mysterious, still-unsolved disappearance of their guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards in 1996. After Edwards' disappearance, the band became a trio and even released an album in 2009 from lyrics that Edwards had left behind (his family had his status changed from "missing" to "presumed dead" in 2008). The 1996 song, "Design for Life," was the first song written and released after his disappearance and the group thinks it's one of their best:

BRISTOL: The largest city in southwestern England, Bristol is a maritime center. While there's the "Old City" in the center, Bristol is also home to an underground scene that spawned street artist Banksy as well as the "Bristol Sound" music scene. Venues like Mr. Wolfs, The Louisiana and Coronation Tap feature great acts.

Massive Attack founded the "trip hop" music movement and their song "Unfinished Sympathy" is considering one of the best British songs:

An intern at the recording studio of Massive Attack's first album went on form Portishead, which is actually the name of a town near Bristol. Their song "Sour Times" was even covered by The Civil Wars:

Tricky had rapped on Massive Attack's first album but then struck out with his own work. His 1995 album, Maxinequaye, was critically hailed for its dark combination of hip-hop, electronica and vocals and even had a cover of Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" with the lyrics sung by a woman instead of rapped:

DORSET/SOMERSET: The two counties in southwestern England are home to some famous cultural touchstones—Thomas Hardy's books are set in Dorset while the world-famous Glastonbury Music Festival is in Somerset. One talent from the area is Polly Jean Harvey, known to her fans as PJ Harvey. Born and raised on her family's farm in Dorset, where her parents exposed her to music like Bob Dylan and Captain Beefheart, she later joined bands Somerset, which is where she also attended college. Then she joined the Bristol-based band, Automatic Dlamini; while it disbanded after a few years, her connections with the bandmates formed the foundation for her successful solo career (John Parish has produced four of her albums).

Here's part of her famous performance at the 1995 Glastonbury Music Festival:

Some small live music clubs in Dorset are Mr Kyps and Electric Palace.

ABINGDON ON THAMES: This bucolic town in Oxfordshire is where a group of boys attending the Abingdon Day School formed what would become Radiohead. Early in their career, they played venues in Oxford like Jericho Tavern (since renovated) and The Zodiac, which is now O2 Academy Oxford. Here's a 1993 show at the Zodiac:

SHEFFIELD: Sure, Pulp namechecks Saint Martin's College in London, where frontman Jarvis Cocker studied, but the group formed in Sheffield, a city in South Yorkshire. Cocker and Peter Dalton, then 15 and 14 respectively, started the band at the The City School in 1978 and a few years later, with more members, performed at the Rotherham Arts Centre in 1980.

Cocker did study at Saint Martin's College and caught someone's eye in the 1995 hit "Common People." Last year, Cocker and Pulp had a homecoming performance in Sheffield, at the Motorpoint Arena:

Considerably more intimate that the Motorpoint, The Leadmill and The Plug are smaller Sheffield venues worth checking out.

SOUTHAMPTON: The band that a Telegraph reviewer just raved as "best band in the world you've never heard of" is from this city 75 miles south of London. The trio Band of Skulls specializes in bluesy rock reminiscent of the White Stripes. While some probably have heard of them (they have played SXSW, Coachella and Austin City Limits), the Telegraph reviewer explained enthusiastically why more should know about them, "There may be only three of them but they make the biggest of sounds. Everything about Band of Skulls is big, big, BIG. They are the biggest band with the biggest sound." Listen for yourself:

Music venue The Joiners Arms was an early stop in the careers of Radiohead and Coldplay; other Southampton clubs are The Cellar, The Talking Heads and The Brook.

DARTFORD RAILWAY STATION: We'd be remiss not to mention this unassuming mass transit stop. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had been childhood friends in Dartford, a town in Kent, until Jagger's family moved. But, as legend has it, the pair met up again in 1960 at the station and, over 50 years later, the rest is rock history.