Bringing music back home

The north east: a place of culture, creation and in some cases, general weirdness.
The best thing about this area of England has to be the music. Bands like The Futureheads and Maxïmo Park have put the North on the map as the centre of England's music scene.
In the last two years, special Christmas shows have been put together to commemorate just how good the area is. Both nights were headlined by The Futureheads and have featured support from Field Music, This Aint Vegas, Viva City and Uncle Monty to name a few.
A celebration of sorts is held each year in Middlesbrough town centre which brings together the people and talent from all over the world. The festival has been given a name impossible for use elsewhere which could be quite clever; Middlesbrough Music Live. I have been to two of these annual events, in which I enjoyed bands including Ash and Kubichek!. Bands such as Razorlight, The Cribs and Kaiser Chiefs also played the festival themselves in early days thus producing some sort of stepping stone for their careers. A lot of time from local bookings company, Ten Feet Tall, is put into presenting yet another successful day out.
Further north, located at Newcastle quayside is the annual Freevolution event, last year priced at £3 a ticket, therefore warrenting a name change to 3volution. 2007 saw headliners Maxïmo Park, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Enemy grace the main stage to great applaud. I myself have not been to this event but it has been reported as a great day out, enjoying the river views as well as the music, again talent from around the world is booked to play.
The weather is generally nice, however even rain doesn't manage to grey people's day out; they have the music to revel in and enjoy, nothing will stop their enjoyment. The only thing that will is ever these festivals are cancelled or discontinued. There are bigger festivals all over the country which people from all over the world attend but Middlesbrough Music live and 3volution are just an example of what the North East has done for music, and for the country for that matter!!

One final note...
As I wrote the other day, Newcastle Carling Academy has gained a name change; Carling seems to be losing a lot of 'advertising' at the moment as the brand was also removed from the Reading and Leeds festivals starting last year. The weekend was originally called Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds festivals. o2 took over the Academy, who knows what they'll take over next?
I'm out of here.