March 12, 2010 16:34

Bristol named Britain's 'most musical city' in new survey

Massive Attack's hometown comes up trumps

Bristol has been named Britain's 'most musical city' in a new survey, beating the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and London.

A survey carried out by the Performing Rights Society (PRS) showed that the city, which spawned acts including Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead, has generated more musicians relative to the size of its population than any other city in Britain.

The rest of the West Country scored highly in the survey too, with two other locations from the area making it into the top twenty. Cheltenham took fifth position and Swindon came in at number 13.

The PRS' 65,000-strong database was used in the survey. Because the results were weighted by UK cities' populations, London made only number 26 in the poll, despite having the most musicians living there in total.

Ellis Rich, chairman of the PRS, told BBC News: "Bristol has been a longstanding contributor to the British music scene, constantly injecting its unique pizzazz of trip-hop and rock bands. The city's culture has always warmed to an eclectic music dynamic, paving the way forward for many of the country's greatest venues whilst also inspiring a hotbed of music talent."

The PRS top ten musical cities in Britain are:

1. Bristol
2. Cardiff
3. Wakefield
4. Glasgow
5. Cheltenham
6. Edinburgh
7. Manchester
8. Paisley
9. Doncaster
10. Londonderry