My city .... my song ........ or Song for Belper ....... on the wireless today*

Now being from London I grew up with a shedload of songs about my city, and because dad was from Newcastle Upon Tyne there were plenty to stand in contrast.

But Belper, and Leicester passed me by, so I was intrigued by a gentle progrmame on the wireless about those towns who went out and commissioned their own song.*

Of these my favourite has to be "It's a Leciester Fiesta" which is on You tube, and which I have played at least five times, sharing it along the way with our Josh and Polly who live there.

All of which leave me to share the programme notes and a link yo Song for Belper.

"Britain has a revered canon of Great Music inspired by particular places and composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, Arnold Bax and others. Music performed live across the centuries and evoking parts of the British Isles in the imagination of millions around the world through recordings.

Then there’s the pop records released in the 1970s and 80s that were commissioned by town councils around Britain to promote the joys of the place and its people.

These are the small songs about places that were not created by great artists in the bliss of inspiration - but by the offer of hard cash, as an answer to critics, or as social engineering by a local council.

Bafta-winning writer and musician Jason Hazeley (Ladybird Books, Portishead) and producer Peter Curran enlist the help of legendary DJ Tony Blackburn, Emmy-winning James Bond and Sherlock composer David Arnold and contemporary architecture and social historian, John Grindrod. They are joined by town planner John Frankland and songwriters Tracey Wilkinson from the Rough Truffles Community Choir and The Rt Hon Sir Gregory Knight MP, composer of It’s a Leicester Fiesta.

A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4"

Pictures; The Market Place, entry to the Market Place,  from a set of six, published in 1902, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB  http://tuckdb.org/history

*Song for Belper, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gk63

**It's a Leicester Festival, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNUZIWce3cE