Richard Witts Manpool, the musical: harmony and counterpoint on the Lancashire Plain. Richard Witts is Reader in Music and Sound at Edge Hill University. He is the author of the biog- raphy of the German chanteuse Nico (1993, revised edition 2017), a study of the music of The Vel- vet Underground (2008), and a history of the Arts Council (1999). He has contributed many articles for journals, including recently The Musical Times (Summer 2015) and vol.7/3 of Popular Music History (2012). His contributions to BBC radio include the documentaries 1968 in America and The Technocrats where he discussed pop music with Stockhausen. Edge Hill University St. Helens Road Ormskirk, Lancashire L39 4QP
[email protected] Abstract Since 2015 Liverpool has been designated a UNESCO ‘City of Music’. Not so its neighbour Manchester, which has nonetheless been hailed in the press as the ‘capital city of music’. They remain globally valued as two of the chief cities identified with the development of popular music in the second half of the twentieth century. As de-industrialised centres seeking new engines of growth, they have invested in these cultural reputations in order to attract for themselves tourists, university students, the conference trade and foreign business. Yet across the past decade numerous claims have been made in a range of journalistic outputs that Liverpool and Manchester are cultural rivals. These claims appear to be predicated principally on sport and music, key meeting points of commerce and leisure. There are certainly differences between the two conurbations – the industrial site of Man- chester grew at the interstices of three rivers while Liverpool evolved as an Atlantic port.