Liverpool Musicscapes: Music Performance, Movement and the Built Urban Environment

Abstract

Music has been closely related to movement. Popular musicianship, for example, is commonly spoken and written about using metaphors of mobility: musicians go out on the road, on tour, or gig in the club circuit (Laing, 2008) and most, like the musician noted above, come back. The language of popular music is suffused with movement. For example, the musical and stylistic development of the Liverpool post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen was described by Reynolds (2005: 439) as a voyage:

If Goth took one route from post-punk back to loud-and-proud rock, Echo & the Bunnymen followed another path: not descent into darkness but soaring into the light. The celestial drive of their crystal guitars and the seeking beseeching vocals conjured a sense of quest for a vague grail or glory. The Bunnymen pioneered a style of purified eighties rock.

‘I actually never played there. I was due to, and then I moved away to London and when I came back, it was gone.’ — Chris, a Liverpool musician, whilst walking past the former venue The Picket