Musical and geographical offerings from GeoBlogs: a 365 blog project for 2026.
Los Santos is the name of the city where the action happens in Grand Theft Auto V.
Grand Theft Auto V is a huge game... but version VI is out in November.
Tangerine Dream produced some music for the game.
On their album 'Recurring Dreams' they added a new version of the music from the game in a track called 'Los Santos City Map'.
GTA6 is coming out in November.
It is the most eagerly anticipated game perhaps, and also has a huge budget.
Those who are familiar with the game will know that as you play and drive around you can tune into the radio and there is plenty of music to accompany the game. Tangerine Dream have previously provided some of the music for earlier versions of the game - and I have heard some of that performed live.
The first six tracks on the soundtrack album have been released.
Pink Floyd have a strong association with Cambridge.
Founding members went to local schools.
This website unpicks some of the locations they are connected with as a sort of walking tour of the city.
Band members Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour were raised in Cambridge, and many of their Cambridge friends, including girlfriends, roadies and album cover designers Storm Thorgerson and ‘Po’ Powell, became part of the Pink Floyd extended creative family. In London they met up with Nick Mason and Rick Wright. But while students, here in Cambridge—they forged the unique Pink Floyd sound against the backdrop of the late ‘60’s counter-culture and succeeding decades.There are connections with particular places in the city and songs:
King’s College Chapel, which has a lawn in back where Roger Waters said inspired “the lunatic is on the grass“, (from the song Brain Damage) and Pink Floyd played a May Ball gig—Which “... went down quite well. Everyone was pissed,”One of the places where they are linked with is a pub called The Flying Pig - just further down the road.
Back in 2022, there were fears that the pub would be demolished.
For a long time there was a plan to try to save the pub. It is now in an incongruous position, dwarfed by the huge redevelopment behind it.
The final link of course is with the album 'Animals'. More to come on that in December...
Quite an acronym... and one which was important for the promotion of a series of bands.
The new wave of British heavy metal (often abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that began in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of heavy metal bands in the mid-to-late 1970s, as punk rock declined amid the dominance of new wave music.A release date has been set for Peter Gabriel's new album. It's a very small gap between albums and also the longest album.
A reminder of better times and worse times.
A reminder of the COVID era...
And a reminder of Taylor Hawkins.
Foo Fighters - Times like These - dedicated to teachers...
This is my favourite version of the song.
I had it on my iPhone some years ago when it first came out and also on an iPad.
The app costs £3.99 and can be purchased on the app store.
A newer version of the app is also now available. This allows background play, which means it will carry on generating music when not opened. There is also the option to stream the music via Airplay to a device.
Kenneth has been creating a map a day all year so far, using AI to create them.
Here's his US music map and further information about today.
I hadn't ever heard of this place in Poland, but one of my favourite live Tangerine Dream concert recordings, which I have in my Bandcamp account, was recorded here.
I had a look for it on the map.
It's a city in Poland.
Check out the album... you can find tracks on YouTube, or look at the Bandcamp account, where you can listen to it, and pay for a permanent high quality download - as I did.
Just don't ask me how to pronounce it.
Here's Kiew Mission from the album....
It's a city that I've been visiting each year for some time as we break the journey on the way down to Devon. We stay in the same hotel and always have a good time there. I've also been to the University quite a few times over the years to lead sessions for PGCE colleagues and others.
There is a Rough Trade records shop in the city which is a focal point for many.
Just outside of the city is Portishead, where I have also stayed. It's a nice marina area, and there is a band which took their name from it.
Music is also represented in the street art which can be found in certain districts of the city.
Here's one of Portishead's more famous tracks: Glory Box.
Gary Numan shared a picture on his social media of him sat on some steps, one of which had his name on them, along with lots of other musicians and bands' names on the other steps.
I was intrigued at where this might be, and discovered that it is at the fairly newly redeveloped venue called
I visited this summer and took my own pictures of some of the groups featured.
Images: Street Art and Portishead Marina Alan Parkinson - shared on Flickr under CC license.
As we approach the three-quarter mark on the blog, here's a diagram that was shared by Geomorphology Rules on Facebook of a soil pyramid complete with punning soil types....
Source unclear...
If you recognise where this is from please let me know...
I particularly like 'We silt this City'....
Also let me know of your own ideas for further soil related song puns.
Peter Gabriel has been sharing videos all year - each new moon - as a new song is released from his O/i project... following his 2013 project to do the same for i/O.
Here he talks about music as a cathartic process.
When I was initially developing the idea of the blog, I did some searches for academic papers on a musical / geographical theme. I came across a paper on the music of Joy Division (the precursor to New Order - who have also featured on the blog).
This is perhaps their most famous song.
It is from an album called 'Unknown Pleasures'. This has a very well known album cover.
One of them was worn by Paul Whitehouse in an episode of 'Gone Fishing'.
This academic paper explores the urban connections
Remember that in the days before the internet, you discovered what was happening by reading NME, or Sounds, or other music magazines. Your choice of magazine said something about you.
Q Magazine was founded by journalists and presenters Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in 1986.
They were involved with another magazine, and I have already posted a musical memory from Brendan Conway, which is worth repeating here:
In early 1985, I was invited to help make some ‘youth’ programmes for County Sound, a Surrey radio station. An arrangement was made for me to interview Mark Ellen who at the time was editor of Smash Hits and a regular presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Later that year he was a co-presented for the Live Aid TV broadcast. I went up to the Smash Hits head office in Carnaby Street where Mark was kind enough to spend an hour of his day talking to me and answering my esoteric questions, all recorded for one of the programmes we made later. While in his office another of the journalists brought me a cup of tea and joined the interview for a few minutes. It was Neil Tennant. Unbeknown to me at the time, he was just about to leave Smash Hits because he had just secured a recording contract with Chris Lowe as The Pet Shop Boys.I had lot of issues of this magazine, and it was thanks to Q that I discovered 'Til Tuesday and Aimee Mann, for example.
At the time, taking a gamble on a new band could be a costly mistake.
Any other memories of Q magazine and bands you discovered through its pages?
Earth Run was an album released in 1986 by Lee Ritenour.
He used an early guitar synthesiser called a SynthAxe.
On the track Sanctuary you can hear this guitar being used. It has an interesting tone, which was then developed further by Pat Metheny and others.
A few years back I worked with Anne le Brocq to produce an education pack to accompany the Ice Flows Game.
Give the game a go - it's online and available as an app. I've blogged about it over on my LivingGeography blog several times.
I made a Spotify playlist for the game, with songs linked to Ice.
“Being able to come back to Alexandra Palace – where we first launched the album in 2014 – and play our biggest ever headline show, in support of The Race For Space, is very special. That record means a great deal to us as a band, and we know it’s similarly important for a lot of our fans; we’re hoping to create a truly memorable, celebratory experience that will live long in the memory.”J. Willgoose Esq.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of heading for London with my friend Simon, who I've known for over 40 years to see Public Service Broadcasting's biggest ever gig, and to celebrate the 10+1 anniversary of their Race for Space album.
I met J Willgoose Esq. at the start of the summer at the PTI Geography Symposium.
Unfortunately when I said I was going along he didn't add me to the guest list...
I hadn't been to Alexandra Palace before. There's a great view of London from the top and there were lots of people with cameras waiting for the sunset. There's a big food and drink court and the large main hall.
There were lots of added features for this gig. One of them was to bring on the original vocalists: Andreya Casablanca for 2 tracks from 'Bright Magic' - their 'Berlin' album and the Smoke Fairies' for Valentina from the Race for Space commemorating the first woman in space. There were extra screens, pyro and squishy moon balloons.
There were also three roller skaters doing the 'People lets Dance' moves from the video.
The gig ended with 'Everest' of course.
And it was followed by a cover version of The Waterboys' 'The Whole of the Moon'....
Are there any songs which feature your home town in the title of the track's name?
John Shuttleworth has 'Relatives in Rotherham' on his album 'The A1111'
I've previously mentioned some local bands such as the Reytons.
An earlier example was Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers.
They had a hit with this classic... this was one of three number ones they had.
"Veer off the track
Take the path
That leads beyond the map
I'm a travelling man
Each day I walk the byways of this life..."
I need to find a way to watch this new documentary on Neil Peart...
Any advice on how to watch it in the UK?
Back in May, I posted about the Canadian band Angine de Poitrine.
Their Vol 2 album has been winning prizes, and they have been wowing crowds at festivals across the USA all summer.
They are coming to the UK in October for a string of sold out shows.
Here they are on Jimmy Fallon.
Heavy Metal music in its finest flower had one central, obvious message: There is no hope. Whatever you do, you can’t win. The world is run by war pigs who have turned you into human dogs and you must accept your fate as ignominiously as you possibly can.
Lester Bangs (1978)
I've mentioned the link between Black Sabbath, Birmingham and heavy industry before.
Deena Weinstein is amongst the academic researchers whose work has been featured in various academic papers which have helped add a little bit of nuance and gravitas... In this piece, she explores the origins of the term 'heavy metal' when applied to music.
Source:
Weinstein, D. (2013). Just So Stories: How Heavy Metal Got Its Name—A Cautionary Tale. Rock Music Studies, 1(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401159.2013.846655https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/19401159.2013.846655?needAccess=true
Back in October 1989 I went to see the Scottish folk band 'Runrig' at Sheffield University. It was a good gig.
The support band that day was This Picture.
I enjoyed their sound and performance and had quite a few of their singles on vinyl and also other recordings on CD. I also have their two albums.
This is one of my favourite tracks they produced. Has anyone else heard of this band?
In 2023, we had the Barbie and Oppenheimer competition in the cinemas. I went to see both.
Here's the trailer for Greta Gerwig's Barbie.
In 1978, Mike Oldfield released his fourth album: 'Incantations'.
Incantations was a double album with four pieces spread across the 4 sides of the vinyl.
It was mostly instrumental.
I remember hearing a fragment of this for the first time while in the car with my family coming back from a trip out to a village pub in Firbeck, South Yorkshire. The radio programme played part of Side 1 as a trail for the album - not sure what channel or show that would have been, but I instantly knew I would need to get this album and that I would love it. At this point, the idea of seeing him was not something that seemed possible. I was yet to see my first live gig and I didn't know how one would go about seeing someone so famous anyway.
The album remains one of my favourites, particularly Side 3 which is basically an extended guitar solo for most of it.
The front cover features Mike on a beach with a distinctively shaped rock behind him.
This is a place called Cap Pregonda on the Spanish island of Menorca.
It is one of those places that I've always wanted to try to get to... I'll get there one day.
Are there any places that you have always particularly wanted to go to which were inspired by an album cover or a piece of music.
Name five famous Belgians...
It's a famous challenge. Perhaps Plastic Bertrand (Roger François Jouret) would make the list?
Newcastle is one of the cities that features in Karl Whitney's book on music.
Image: Alan Parkinson
The River Tyne is famously foggy...
Lindisfarne sang about that.
Jimmy Nail came to prominence as 'Oz' in 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet'. He still tours as a singer.
Here's his most well-known song
I decided to extend this post down south a little...
I saw Vin Garbutt quite a few times at the Wentworth Folk Club, which I posted about earlier in the year.
A favourite of mine was about the drive to build bypasses, and the loss of the countryside that they led to:
There's a film made about him. Here's the trailer:
Here's some Gil Scott Heron street art down by the Tyne as well.
Bruce Dickinson has had a life well lived, with plenty of lows as well as highs. He has beaten throat cancer - a gruelling treatment, and fences internationally.
He is also a trained/qualified airline pilot
On some Iron Maiden tours, the band used a jumbo jet which was piloted by Dickinson, called 'Ed Force One'.
In this song from 2010 he describes the experience of piloting his plane and looking down at the Earth below:
Credited songwriters: Stephen Percy Harris / Bruce Dickinson / Adrian Frederick Smith
Curving on the edge of daylight
A plaque linked to Haroon Shamsher, founder of the Joi collective. They recorded albums for Real World Music.
Image: Claire KyndtZTT Records was a label that was particularly active during the 1980s, having been founded in 1983.
Their first signing was Frankie goes to Hollywood.
It was founded by Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley.
ZTT is an initialism of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's sound poem Zang Tumb Tumb, which described "zang tumb tumb" as the sound of a machine gun.“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”Desmond Tutu
There has been quite a bit of coverage of Ed Sheeran's upcoming tour and political issues because of statements made by a support act called Macklemore, and decisions made by other acts to pull out of the tour.
This piece explores the issue of keeping silence over political causes as a musician.
Quite a few musicians are very open about their political views of course. A Roger Waters live show is very political in nature, and not without controversy...
This track from the Jethro Tull album J-Tull Dot Com (bad title - based on their website at the time) is relevant to the atmospheric phenomenon which threatened to lead to record temperatures in some parts of the world when it was seen to be developing earlier this year, and the predictions about its impacts are quite dire. Certainly sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are off the charts...
It unbalances the climate of Australia and South America.
OK, so it's Rush again, and this time it's a take on teenage life and not fitting in. The 'Subdivisions' are the suburbs of a city in Canada.
The album cover for 'Signals' was particularly memorable. I had the tour t-shirt and programme from this tour.
It was created by Hugh Syme, as were most of Rush's album covers.
The back of the album featured a well rendered vision of a fictional Canadian suburb, with hidden meanings to many of the street names.
Sprawling on the fringes of the cityIt's 41 years today since this album was released in 1985.
That makes me feel old. I had a copy on cassette and remember the original release and TV appearances to promote 'Running up that Hill'.
This was brought to the attention of a whole new audience when the music was featured on 'Stranger Things' and it went back to the top of the charts again.
There are some classic tracks on the album, and the whole of the second side of the album works beautifully together. More on this album and Kate herself in a separate post...
Recorded in 1981 for the album 'As falls Wichita, so falls Wichita Falls' by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays.
Bill Evans died on September 15th the previous year...
Rick Beato has broken down the song here.
The Manor was owned by Richard Branson for a while in the 1970s.
It was used by a wide range of recording artists who recorded some classic albums there, including Tangerine Dream and XTC, and It Bites (who have appeared on the blog)
It was at the Manor that Mike Oldfield was given some time to work on a solo project with some support from Tom Newman.
Here's a short film made by Robert Reed about that.
When it went up for sale in 2010, there was a booklet produced by the estate agent handling the sale:
The Manor, high altar of 1970s rock and birthplace of the legendary album Tubular Bells, has been put up for sale. The eventual buyer will snap up not only a grand 16th-century, Grade II-listed house in Oxfordshire, but also a large slice of music history.This album features one of the finest vocal performances of any album, from Peter Gabriel.
It is a concept album which was released 51 years ago this year, but still sounds as fresh as ever. It was Gabriel's final album with the band and he left following the tour of the album which featured even more costumes than usual.
I have played this regularly for well over 40 years and have various versions of the album in different formats.
Sandra Patterson sent me quite a lot of useful information related to the city which helped shape this post, and has contributed a guest post to the blog as well. It's been read over 500 times.
Belfast has had a troubled history, and music is an important part of the city's history. There are several pieces of street art commemorating some key local bands.
The Undertones were formed in the city. Here's one of their classics:
I have mentioned The Imagined Village a few times this year I think, as their music is definitely infused with place.
Here's the title track...
I saw some coverage of Jon Anderson and the Band Geek's first UK gig in Brighton a few years ago and apparently they opened with 'Close to the Edge'... I can't wait to see them at the London Palladium in a weeks' time...
