British Music Experience facts for kids
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| Established | 2009 |
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| Location | Cunard Building, Water Street/Canada Boulevard, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom |
The British Music Experience is a cool museum all about British music. It's a permanent exhibition located in the historic Cunard Building on Liverpool's waterfront.
This museum first opened in March 2009. It was originally inside The O2 Bubble in Greenwich, London. The exhibition covered over 20,000 square feet. It showed the history of British music from 1944 onwards. The museum closed in London on April 30, 2014. It then looked for a new home. On September 10, 2015, it was confirmed that the museum would move to the Cunard Building in Liverpool.
A music expert named Harvey Goldsmith helped start the museum. It was designed by Land Design Studio. The O2 owners, AEG, provided the funding. The goal was to create a place for rock and pop music history in the UK. Before this, another museum, the National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield, tried something similar. But it didn't get enough visitors and closed down.
The British Music Experience is set up as a charity. AEG invested £9.5 million to help create it. Other sponsors also helped, like The Performing Rights Society, Gibson Guitars, and Sennheiser. In 2010, The Co-operative Group became a main sponsor. They even gave away 15,000 tickets over three years.
Contents
Exploring Music History: The Galleries
The museum tells the story of popular music in the UK. It's divided into different sections called galleries. These sections work together to show a timeline of British popular music. This timeline goes from 1945 to today. The sections aren't just by decade. They show important moments when music changed a lot over 70 years.
Each gallery has an interactive timeline. This timeline shows a screen of events. You can touch the screen to learn more. When you select an event, you'll see headlines, pictures, and videos.
Interactive Exhibits to Try
The museum has many cool interactive displays. Here are some you can find:
- Showcases and Timelines
- Hey DJ!
- Where It's At
- Anatomy of a Pop Star
- Gibson Interactive Studio
- The Great Divide
- Dance The Decades
- Table Talk
- Atlantic Crossing
- Transmission
- Playback
Many of these interactive exhibits were made by special software companies. These include Clay Interactive Ltd, iso design, and Studio Simple. Experts like Robert Santelli also helped. He worked on other big music exhibits. These include The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and The Grammy Museum. The first curator for the BME was Paul Lilley. He, along with Sarah Clark and Laura Bailey, found all the amazing items on display. Other music experts helped with the content too.
Amazing Music Items and Memorabilia
The British Music Experience has a huge collection of items. These are used to show the rich history of British popular music. They also show how music connects to social and political events.
The collection includes:
- Over 600 stage outfits, instruments, and handwritten song lyrics. These items come to life with interactive displays.
- Over 6000 images and video clips. These are part of a digital timeline and archive.
- Displays showing how music movements reflect UK social history, politics, and technology.
This collection is the only one that fully shows the rise of British popular music. It covers everything from its jazz roots to the present day.
Here are some of the cool items you can see at the museum:
- Some of Elton John's famous glasses.
- Five outfits worn by the Spice Girls.
- Humphrey Lyttelton's trumpet from VE-Day.
- David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust costume.
- Noel Gallagher’s guitar with the Union Jack flag.
- Iron Maiden's Eddie the Head Icon.
- Roger Daltrey's outfit from a gig at Woodstock.
- Amy Winehouse's dress from her ‘Tears Dry on Their Own’ music video.
- Guitars from famous musicians like Keith Richards and Brian May.
Play Like a Pro: Interactive Instrument Studio
The instrument studio lets you try out different musical instruments. You can play electric guitars and drums. You can even mix your own music track!
In this studio, you can get an on-screen lesson. For example, KT Tunstall might teach you how to play chords for her hit song. Then, you can play along with her video. You don't need any musical skills to have fun here.
Learning and Special Events
The British Music Experience often hosts special learning programs. They also have temporary exhibitions. These events help visitors learn more about bands or music trends.
Past events and exhibitions have included:
- Bon Jovi: A master class and concert.
- The Faces: A master class and concert.
- Master classes with artists like Emile Sande and Imogen Heap.
- Photo exhibitions like "Photographs Of Bob Dylan" by Daniel Kramer.
- "Messenger: Bob Marley Exhibition."
The museum also offers interactive workshops for schools. These workshops connect to the UK National Curriculum. They cover subjects like geography, ICT, and pop culture.
