Every so often a poll will be done by a magazine or a radio station, or perhaps even a regional tourist board, to decide on the most musical city in the UK.
The results always involve Manchester and Liverpool. They usually take in Sheffield, Glasgow and Bristol. Rarely, if ever, is Oxford mentioned.
Film director Jon Spira, born and bred in the city of cathedrals and colleges, thinks the oversight is a travesty.
To prove Oxford has contributed more to the world than Radiohead (already far more than most cities), he spent a summer interviewing its major players and put the results in his first feature-length documentary, Anyone Can Play Guitar.
“Oxford is a unique case because it has a different scene to Manchester or Liverpool. The movements in those cities were brief. There were about four or five bands who knew each other, making similar-sounding music at the same time. They lasted maybe 18 months.
“Here it’s different. It’s a community. It has not been nebulous. Everyone has come through because of the infrastructure, which is like a boot camp.”
He says the infrastructure includes the venues: the old Zodiac (a venue part-owned by Radiohead, Supergrass and Ride, whose takeover by the group of O2 Academys sparked Spira into making the documentary in the first place back in 2007) and The Jericho Tavern.
There are the promoters and the magazine Nightshift, run by music fanatic Ronan Monro.“None of the bands play the same kind of music and everyone supports everyone else. We have dance, indie, singer-songwriters. There isn’t a specific sound – if anything, it’s indie rock. But remember, many of the bands that came out all created genres of their own.”
He cites Ride, who pioneered shoegaze – a term the NME originally threw at them as a slur – and calls Supergrass “the cornerstone of Britpop”.
Foals are future-thinkers because “they took math rock and made it disco”, while Talulah Gosh “created the Riot Girl movement”.
So rather than summing up a regional stereotype manufactured in the landscape, Oxford’s musical output is about several bands over a 30-year period with different sounds.
“But it’s all connected; it’s practically a soap opera. It’s not like London – all our stories are interlinked.“I can’t stress how important the community aspect is. If you want to start a band, there is a route from day one.”
Oxford punches above its weight for its size. Some put it down to all the students but Spira says they have very little to do with the local scene.
“The only influence Oxford has is that it is a whimsical city. It was the home of Tolkien, Pullman, Lewis Carroll. It’s a beautiful place near the countryside and because it is small, you can do things, it’s got that atmosphere.”
There is more than music in the film, though. As a tale of disaster, The Candyskins – “one of the greatest, and also unluckiest, bands ever” – is pure tragedy.
Tipped for big things, their debut single, Car Crash, was recorded, printed and ready to go. Just before a scheduled appearance on TFI Friday, Diana, Princess of Wales, died.
That the single was pulled is only one in a string of bad turns. Still, it had to feature Radiohead, whose career ran parallel to The Candyskins. Spira admits Ed and Colin from Radiohead, who feature in the film, were baffled to hear of their old mates from Oxford.
“The whole point of the film is that the best music is not on the radio. The music business is not a meritocracy.
For every one of those bands from Oxford that made it, there was another band as good as them, if not better.
“It’s not about just being good, and that brings in the human side of the story. “The Candyskins had bad luck every step of the way and never made it. The first thing Ed did after the interview was phone up The Candyskins to apologise.
”Ride’s Mark Gardner will perform a live acoustic set at the show, there will be a Q&A with the director, and Spira is hoping The Candyskins will also play.
Corn Exchange, Church Street, Brighton, Saturday, March 31
Starts 7pm, £12. For tickets, visit www.seefestival.org
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