The Coventry Rocks Music Tour
A fascinating walk through Coventry’s musical past and present
Sponsored by Coventry Market
From John & Yoko and The Beatles to The Specials and 2-Tone, Chuck Berry, Kiss, The Enemy, The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, Panjabi MC and Pete Waterman and so much more in-between.
Welcome to Coventry and to a whistle stop tour of some of the music that has helped put this city on the map.
On The Coventry Rocks Music Tour, you will discover, there’s much more to us than simply 2-Tone music. Artists like Frank Ifield, Vince Hill, The Enemy, King and Hazel O’Connor all came from Coventry, and all made their musical mark...
It was the 1980’s however that saw the city shine, and for two glorious years Coventry became the epicentre of the British music industry. Thanks to the arrival of multicultural 2-Tone Records, a cross fade of Ska music and punk rock, with Coventry bands The Specials and The Selecter leading the way.
On this tour you will see venues like Coventry University where The Specials Rat Race video was recorded and where Oasis and U2 played twice. We move on to The Locarno later called Tiffany’s where Chuck Berry famously recorded his only number one single My-Ding-A-Ling and put Coventry at number one both sides of the Atlantic and where Led Zeppelin carried on playing despite a bomb scare. We will check out the site of Coventry Theatre, where The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and just about everyone else in the world of music played.
This is a tour that takes you into the heart of Ska City, reveals where Pop Guru Pete Waterman built his empire from, we’ll show you just where 2-Tone began and where John Lennon and Yoko Ono planted their acorns for peace.
Tour guide Pete Chambers who was recently inducted into The Coventry Music Wall of Fame said, "On this tour we hope to help people soak up the atmosphere of some important decades in the life of Coventry's music scene. With many visitors expected to come to Coventry for The Olympic Football, we hope that we can show some of them this great city of ours. we hope that everybody who does this tour will come away with some information that they previously didn't know.".
Be sure to check out 2-Tone Central and Godiva Rocks music museums and The Coventry Music Wall of Fame at The 2-Tone Village.
COVENTRY - THE SOUND PLACE TO SEE
Tour Guides Coventry Music Historian Pete Chambers & Julie Chambers
website www.covrocks.weebly.com
Tour starts at Tourist Information Centre, Cathedral Spire and lasts approximately 2 hours, including a 20 min break in Coventry Market, free tea or coffee included (not on Sunday or bank holiday tours)
Dates are May 19th 27th, June 2nd 4th 10th 16th, July 14th 22nd 26th 28th, August 3rd 5th 11th 19th 25th,September 8th 9th
Tour tickets are only available from The Tourist Information Centre and cost -Adults £5, Child (under 16 years) £2.50, Child (under 5 years)
Free Family Ticket £12.50 (2 adults, 2 children) Concessions and Passport to Leisure & Learning £4.00.
