I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the places I’ve made the effort to travel to, the sorts of places I still want to see. There are quite a few events that in my mind feel like I need to attend them one day (Sonar is up there, as I adored Mutek Montreal)
Curious which places from music history you’ve visited as I’d love to make a little guide to places DiSsers should visit
Inspired by Patti Smith’s polaroids at Plath’s grave, I tagged along on this pilgrimage at the start of the year. Elise’s essay really captures the magic of it
I went to Sonar in 05, but I’m not sure I’d consider that a pilgrimage. Definitely would count going to Chicago for the Touch & Go 25th anniversary Block Party at the Hideout. Scratch Acid played!!
I’m not sure that Ivd count going to a gig venue or festival, but if you want an easy one, then the Poplar DLR footbridge/tunnel has been used in lots of album covers and video shoots (FFO Pet Shop Boys and Daniel Bedingfield)
Went up to Liverpool to do the whole Beatles tour - Lennon, McCartney and Harrison’s childhood homes (Ringo’s house has been demolished), Penny Lane, Strawberry Field etc
Dakota building on Central Park West where Lennon was shot
Travelled out to Tanworth-in-Arden to visit Nick Drake’s family home and gravestone.
Salford Lads Club
The steps in Camden market from the first Clash album cover
The obvious Berwick Street and Heddon Street photo ops in London
St Marks Place to see the Physical Graffiti building in NY.
Greenwich Village for the Dylan haunts and the street where the Freewheelin cover photo was shot
CBGBs
Ludlow St for the Paul’s Boutique photo op
All of these because I happened to be in town (or lived there in the case of the London examples), so a maximum of 30 mins effort involved each time
I went to East Kilbride in 1991 to find Roddy Frame’s childhood home and school. . I was in Scotland for his gigs at the Edinburgh Festival so it was an add-on trip.
No specific pilgrimages, but gone to see things and places while I’ve been in certain cities, like the already mentioned Haight-Ashbury and The Grateful Dead house, or Hlemmur bus station as featured in Rokk i Reykjavik, or the re-enacted KLF graffiti at the National Theatre (“1997: What the Fuck Is Going On?”).
Often went for walks down Beck Road in Bethnal Green at lunch time at an old job with an office round the corner, just to go past the house Throbbing Gristle used to live and record in during the 70s and 80s.
I went to Coachella, and that definitely counts as a pilgrimage from the UK. One of the best live music weekenda of my life.
I went to Jim Morrison’s grave, but only because we were near it.
When I was a teenager and a metal head, I used to go to Jilly’s Rockworld every week, and occasionally a group of us would go to the crazy house in Liverpool or Nottingham Rock City like some kind of diplomatic delegation, and that always felt like a bit of a pilgrimage when I was younger.
. I was in Scotland for his gigs at the Edinburgh Festival so it was an add-on trip.