NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

done at Leeds, Birmingham and other places, where only first class concerts
were provided, whereas in Newcastle, there had been the same second-rate
class of concerts from year’s end to year’s end.’
Many years later, when Newcastle developed a conscience about its historical
heritage and there was a proliferation of books on all aspects of Newcastle’s
history appearing in Newcastle bookshops I hastened to buy them. But to my
great disappointment they either completely ignored music or, where there was
an entry in the index, the supporting text invariably comprised a few lines
dedicated to Music Hall and the song ‘Blaydon Races’. I began to think that
Newcastle had no musical heritage and if it ever had it must have been lost on
the road to Blaydon. Half a lifetime later I found myself still turning over the same
question in my mind but by then, of course, the North East had changed. The
Northern Sinfonia was getting more national and international exposure than
Newcastle United and no one was greatly concerned about what had happened
before. But I was, still, and came to the conclusion that the only way I was going
to find the answer was to dig back in history and unearth the facts for myself.
I hastened to the local reference library and consulted ‘The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians’ Edition. 2001. There, under Newcastle upon
Tyne, I found barely two columns giving a potted musical history of the town. The
account concentrates mostly on the developments since 1958 with an
assortment of unrelated historical facts interwoven into the text. To me it paints a
sad picture of the town’s musical heritage and leaves one with the impression
that there is not much to talk about prior to the nineteen fifties. I turned to
Birmingham and found twelve columns spread over seven pages of enthralling
musical history. I then looked up Liverpool to find nine columns over five pages of
music history. Even Bradford could boast two columns reflecting a continuous
musical culture in the town. “What does it matter now anyway”, I can here
someone say. It doesn’t matter for those who do not care but why should
Newcastle not give full recognition to its musical past as it does to its industrial
past and claim its place as one of the leading provincial musical towns of the 19 th
century long before it emerged supreme in the 21st Century.
The trouble seems to be that it has fallen to historians to write up the town’s
history, which is as it should be, but historians seem not to be overly concerned
with music matters, presumably on the basis that the history of the world would
not be changed one iota if not a note of music had been written. The musicians,
themselves, prefer to make music rather than write about it. This situation has led
to the town’s musical past being totally overlooked leading to the assumption, in
most people’s minds, that the town has none. The following story to some extent
bears witness to this fact. Whilst browsing in the music section of a second hand
book shop in Bournemouth I engaged in conversation with the owner and told
him I was thinking of writing a book on Newcastle’s musical history but would
need to spend time in the city to research it. He showed interest and when, a few
weeks later, I called-in at his shop again he told me that he had been discussing
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