It’s a strange fact that Nottingham is best known for something that probably never happened.  But beyond the usual tales of benevolent mythical armed robbers, Nottingham is a vibrant modern city that is looking to the future. 

In the real world the city is home to the headquarters of Boots the Chemist and was once a centre for production of lace.  Bicycle manufacture was also an important part of the city’s manufacturing heritage being the base for Raleigh for many years.

21st Century Nottingham is a thriving centre for digital and textile design and has a growing financial sector.  It is also the home to HMRC and the Driving Standards Agency as well as being joint base for the Paul Smith fashion house.

The National Watersports Centre, a fundamental part of the Great Britain’s push for Olympic success, is also just outside the city.

In the realms of music, Nottingham has always been home to some great venues.  From the massive Nottingham Arena and Royal Concert Hall right through to the more intimate venues such as (among others), The Salutation, Seven (formerly Junktion 7), The Loggerheads and The Maze, there is something for everyone.

The legendary Rock City (most northerly port of call for many an intrepid US act suffering nosebleeds the further north they travel up the country), has hosted some of the biggest names in the industry on their way towards the stadium tours they now enjoy.

Another venue of note is the Britannia Boat Club.  With a fantastic history of acts that have played there before going on to be true megastars (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, Eric Clapton, Elton John - and we could keep going!) it’s hard to find too many 250 capacity venues that still exist with such a rich past.

Bolstered by the support of such a high number of fantastic venues the city has a great reputation around the country as a place to play.  It also attracts large audiences from far beyond the city limits.  

Several bands and musicians of note have called Nottingham their home.  60’s blues rock band Ten Years After are from the city, as are Deep Purple’s drummer Ian Paice and Swing Out Sister’s Corinne Drewery.  Noise-meisters, Pitchshifter are also from Nottingham; almost certainly a product of its adoption of all things new and nasty.

Nottingham’s dark side has long been acting as incubator to some of the most intense and brutal music the world has ever heard.  Digby Pearson, founder of Earache Records hails from the city and has been responsible for introducing bands like Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower and Carcass (to name but a few) to a quivering, shell-shocked world .

While the list of acts from the city that have gone on to break through into the limelight is not too extensive, the quality and number of bands and artists currently part of the Nottingham music scene surely means that’ll change soon.

Indeed, for a city with a population of just under 300,000 the sheer volume of bands we have come across has been

truly mind-blowing.  In fact, by our reckoning, approximately 1 in every 375 people of this remarkable city is in a band!  This really is an amazing statistic.  Even taking into account the wider Nottingham Urban Area (over 650,000) the number of acts is still very impressive.

One of the city’s strengths beyond venues and bands is the fantastic Leftlion.  The bi-monthly magazine and great website cast an insider’s eye on the culture of the city.  Nottingham is also one of the 12 places represented on the This City website giving users access to information about events in the area.

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