23 Nov 2009

PRS for Music launches Heritage Award

Venues across the UK set to be awarded Heritage Plaques to mark first live performances

PRS for Music, the organisation that champions the nation’s songwriters, composers and music publishers has announced a Heritage Award scheme, celebrating the first performances of the UK’s leading bands. Launching on November 30th to mark Blur’s first public gig, the scheme will recognise unusal venues up and down the country that have witnessed the birth place of the nation’s best loved and iconic music talent.

Using the knowledge of the 60,000 strong PRS for Music membership the organisation is building a database of first performances and is calling on the public to nominate their favoured bands. Collating first hand accounts, images and recordings PRS for Music will build an interactive map and archive that can be accessed online.

Celebrating this country’s musical heritage is a great thing to do and these plaques will be springing up all over the country. The UK has given the world some fantastic songwriters and performers which enrich our lives and provide the music we love; I’m proud that their humble musical beginnings will now be marked for all to see.

Blur played their first ever gig at the Goods Yard of the East Anglian Railway Museum near Colchester which will be the venue that launches the Heritage Award Scheme. The plaque will be unveiled at the venue, which has been confirmed as Blur’s very first public performance. On the 3rd December the second heritage award will be unveiled at Dire Straits’ first performance together which has been traced back to a block of flats in Deptford, South-East London.