COVENTRY Music Museum curator Pete Chambers BEM writes for the Observer.
10 glorious years!
THE COVENTRY Music Museum will celebrate its 10th birthday on Saturday, November 4 at its Ball Hill base in Coventry’s Walsgrave Road in the 2-Tone village, with a rare appearance from the founding Father of 2-Tone Jerry Dammers himself performing a DJ set in the evening right below the museum.
Tickets have now all sold out.
This is just part of the celebrations with lots of famous local musicians popping in during the day and a special acoustic set from one of Coventry’s top new bands Yes, Princess at 12pm in the day.
The celebrations continue on Sunday with a free live set from Coventry super group The Dirt Road Band in the afternoon.
They are Steve Walwyn on guitar and vocals (Dr Feelgood, The DTs, Chevy, The Mosquitos, Steve Marriott, Roger Chapman, Eddie and The Hot Rods, Red on Red), Horace Panter on bass (The Specials, General Public) and Ted Duggan on drums (Badfinger, The Beat, The Selecter, Desmond Dekker, Chevy, The Drifters, Banco De Gaia).
I think when we opened, some gave us a few years maximum, probably even ourselves to be honest – there is no book on how to run a Coventry Music Museum.
That said, we soon became a part of the Coventry tourist offering and have constantly remained at number one on ‘things to do in Coventry’ on travel site TripAdvisor, keeping our five stars a decade later and winning awards from them nine years in a row.
It’s down to the amazing support from our visitors, supporters and of course our unique volunteers who we believe are the best in the business.
Thousands of people from Coventry, the UK and all over the world have visited, with thousands of return visitors eager to see our temporary displays ever year.
Having a permanent music museum in your city is a rare thing in the UK, we are so thankful we made this happen and here’s to many more years.
The Coventry Music Museum
The Coventry Music Museum is an independent music museum, located in Coventry, England, two miles east of the city centre.
The museum celebrates Coventry and Warwickshire’s musical history and achievements. Coventry musicians Hazel O’Connor, Neville Staple, Frank Ifield and producer Pete Waterman are Honorary Patrons of the museum.
There are two temporary exhibitions each year, and along with the permanent displays.
Exhibits
The collection comprises of a permanent collection including ‘Pre-Pop’ display, charting the city’s musical achievements from the Roman occupation and The Coventry Carole and onto artist of the 1940s.
All decades of popular music are included, plus a showcase of new talent in ‘The Artist of the Month’.
Each decade of Coventry and Warwickshire pop history is represented in the displays from the 1950s to the noughties.
Notable displays include a reproduction 1960s record shop, listening booth and a reproduction Rude Boys bedroom, based on a typical Specials, Selecter, Beat, Madness fan circa 1981.
Nearly half of the museum’s exhibits are dedicated to 2-Tone Records, as the sub-genre was created in the city by Jerry Dammers and The Specials and The Selecter in 1978 to 79, many of the items on display have been loaned by members of the 2-Tome movement.
Here you will also be able to ‘ride’ in the actual Ghost Town car as seen in the 1981 video for the chart topping song.
– Coventry Music Museum is celebrating its 10th anniversary – and in some style too.
For those not in the know the museum is at80 Walsgrave Road, Coventry, CV2 4ED, call: 07971 171441
