Rock ‘n’ Road campervan history tour: Important music sites in Lincolnshire & Yorkshire

Now you’ve bought your campervan, theming a tour in it is a great way to make the most of time on the road, adding a motivating focus to your trip. For example, you may be interested in hopping from location to location used in your favourite film or TV series. You might want to spend some time in locations that were integral to the life of your most-loved author. Or you might be a big music buff and want to see the places that are important in, or quirkily connected to, British music history. In this edition of our blog, we proudly present a guide to some great rock music sites in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire…

1. Lincolnshire

Modest county though it may be, the flatlands of Lincolnshire have given the world some excellent music over the years. Our brief selection here provides you with a few possible starting points for a musical campervan tour.

2. Sleaford and Market Rasen: Bernie Taupin

In the 1970s Elton John’s musical prowess was without doubt, as he straddled the globe dangling monster-sized hits into the public’s ears. It would be foolish, though, to give Elton all of the credit. He was merely the tunesmith to a rich seam of lyrics which gave the songs true human depth. Your Song, Candle In The Wind, Tiny Dancer and Rocket Man (to name just a few) all flowed from the pen of compassionate and poetic Lincolnshire lad Bernie Taupin.

Born in 1950 at Flatters House, a farmhouse in Anwick, just outside Sleaford, Taupin attended school in the nearby market town. The family eventually relocated to the nearby village of Rowston and lived in Rowston Manor – a significant step up after a farmhouse with no electricity. When Taupin was 9 years old his family had moved to Maltkiln Farm in Owmby-by-Spital. The family churched at Holy Rood in Market Rasen, where Bernie served as an altar boy and later attended school at the Secondary Modern. At 15, he left school and started work as a trainee in the print room of the Lincolnshire Standard (in Boston), with aspirations of becoming a newspaper journalist. In his down time, he would drink and play snooker in his favourite pub, the Aston Arms in Market Rasen. In 1967 Taupin left Lincolnshire and moved to London.

• Flatters House: NG34 9SQ
• Rowston Manor: LN4 3LT
• Holy Rood: LN8 3BB
• Maltkiln Farm: LN8 5NF
• Market Rasen Secondary Modern (site of): LN8 3BL
• Lincolnshire Standard: PE21 6ND
• Aston Arms: LN8 3HL

3. Cleethorpes and Market Rasen: Rod Temperton

A name perhaps not immediately familiar, but this Lincolnshire writer had a massive impact on pop in the 1980s. Originally part of disco-funk band Heatwave (which scored hits in the 1970s), Temperton was recruited as a writer by legendary producer Quincy Jones. He ended up penning Michael Jackson’s hits Off The Wall, Rock With You and the iconic Thriller, title track of one of the best-selling albums ever made.

Temperton was born in 1949 on Grimsby Road in Cleethorpes, the east coast seaside town. There is now a blue ‘heritage plaque’ on the building. He attended De Aston Grammar School in Market Rasen and, on leaving school, started working as a fish filleter for a frozen food company in nearby Grimsby. In his spare time, he played in local dancehall bands, though moved away to join Heatwave after answering an ad in the music press.

• Grimsby Road, blue plaque: DN35 7HE
• De Aston Grammar School: LN8 3RF
• Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre: DN31 1UZ

4. Grantham: Sleaford Mods

Although the punk-hop duo’s name suggests they originate from the town of Sleaford, that’s not the case and the name was chosen because it sounded sleazy and downbeat. Politically charged lyricist and vocalist Jason Williamson was actually born in 1970 in divisive former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace of Grantham (23 miles south of Lincoln and 22 miles east of Nottingham).

Williamson attended Belton Lane Primary School, the now demolished St Wulfram’s secondary and then Grantham College and then worked the Moy Park factory in Grantham, and in the Little Chef at Colsterworth. He left Grantham in the early 1990s for London, then San Francisco and finally Nottingham where Sleaford Mods was formed.

• Belton Lane Primary School: NG31 9PP
• St Wulfram’s (site of): NG31 9RA
• Grantham College: NG31 9AP
• Moy Park: NG31 8HX
• Little Chef, Colsterworth (site of): NG33 5JR

6. Also notable in Lincolnshire

• Louth: Former Soft Machine frontman Robert Wyatt lives in a quiet street close to the centre of the Lincolnshire market town.
• Stamford: Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts was born in this small market town.
• Authorpe, Louth: Swing Out Sister singer Corinne Drewery lived here in her younger days. Swing Out Sister scored major hits (Breakout, Surrender etc) in the 1980s.
• Tetney: X-Factor singer Ella Henderson was born in this village near Lincoln.
• Swarby: Hard to believe, but Joe Brown was born in this Lincolnshire village a few miles south of Sleaford. Brown scored hits in the 1960s, became best friends with George Harrison (The Beatles) and raised daughter Sam, who had her own hits in the 1980s and did session work for, amongst others, Pink Floyd.
• Barton-upon-Humber: Iain Matthews of folk-rockers Fairport Convention lived in this small town sited at one side of the Humber Bridge.
  Wragby: This village near the North Lincolnshire steel town of Scunthorpe was home to young jazz and blues singer Carmel McCourt, who had chart success in the early 1980s with, amongst others, the notable single Bad Day.
• Scunthorpe: BBC Folk Award-winning musician Martin Simpson was born in Scunthorpe. Despite a life which has seen him live in New York and Sheffield, his work often harks back to his roots (e.g. Home Again, which refers to Scunthorpe steelworks).
• Grimsby: Steve Currie, bass player in Marc Bolan’s legendary T-Rex was born here.

7. Yorkshire

As any Yorkshire person worth their salt will tell you, Yorkshire is absolutely steeped in musical talent – particularly the city of Sheffield. Our brief selection of Yorkshire talent here provides you with a few starting points for your musical campervan tour around ‘God’s own county’.

8. Cawthorne: Kate Rusby

The Barnsley Nightingale, as she was once nicknamed, was born in Penistone and lives in Cawthorne near Barnsley. Kate has enjoyed an excellent 30 years in the music industry, producing 21 studio albums and winning four BBC Folk Awards. She’s also worked with many greats, including Paul Weller, Eddie Reeder, Richard Thompson, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Richard Hawley, KT Tunstall and Martin Simpson. Despite her success, Kate Rusby has remained firmly grounded in her Cawthorne roots.

Also from Barnsley: Heavy metal band Saxon, Robert Haigh (Omni Trio) and Alan Barton, singer of 1980s party band Black Lace.

9. Bradford: New Model Army

If you’re looking for a politically and spiritually charged band which views the world from a left-wing perspective through a historical prism, then you could do no better than New Model Army! Formed more than 40 years ago but still playing rapturous sell-out shows to loyal audiences, this intelligent and passionate band took its name from the standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War. Based in Bradford since their inception, New Model Army, the band’s first ever show in October 1980 was at Scamps Disco on Hall Ings (BD1 1HZ) which was demolished and is now a shopping centre. The band’s base is in a former mill on Thornton Road.

Also from Bradford: Kimberley Walsh (Girls Aloud), Kiki Dee, Tim Booth (solo artist and frontman of the band James), The Cult and Zayn Malik (One Direction).

9. Hull: Bowie, The Housemartins and Everything But The Girl

Just north of the river Humber is the city of Kingston-upon-Hull (most commonly known as Hull). Amongst its most famous contributions to music is giving the legendary David Bowie his early 1970s backing band (Mick Ronson, Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder). There is an eight-feet high guitar statue dedicated to Ronson on display in East Park off Holderness Road (HU8 8JU). Ronson had lived at Milford Grove and worked as a gardener for the council before moving down to London to work with Bowie.

Around ten years later the duo Everything But The Girl formed in the city and named themselves after a slogan used by Turner’s Furniture shop at 34 – 38 Beverley Road (HU3 1YE). They lived in a flat at 3 Salisbury Street, a pleasant leaf suburb in the heart of student land. Close by is Grafton Street, where The Housemartins shared a house (no.70) in the 1980s. They hung out at the Grafton pub (HU5 2NP) and played numerous shows at the Adelphi Club in nearby deGrey Street. In a much-loved promo video, the band sailed out into the Humber, performing their single Think For A Minute. Scoring big with single Happy Hour and album London 0 Hull 4 in 1986, this quartet of politically and socially conscious songwriters charmed the UK for a couple of years. Frontman Paul Heaton went on to form The Beautiful South.

Also from Hull: The London-based jazz-pop band Sade was actually formed in Hull (or, at least, the musicians who backed sultry singer Sade formed their group on Mayfield Street in the city). Roland Gift of Fine Young Cannibals lived in Hull and attended Kelvin Hall School (HU5 4QH). Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge of electro-psych pioneers Throbbing Gristle lived at 8 Prince Street (HU1 2LJ), very close to Hull Minster, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The indie band Kingmaker was formed in Hull in 1990 and wrote classic debut album Eat Yourself Whole in villas off Mayfield Street. Britain’s Got Talent singer Calum Scott was born in the nearby town of Beverley.

10. Sheffield: Richard Hawley, Human League and ABC

The self-proclaimed Socialist Republic Of Sheffield is an absolute hotbed of rock talent and, over the years, has forged some real musical steel. The list is more-or-less endless, but for starters let’s mention Pulp, Richard Hawley, Arctic Monkeys, ABC, Def Leppard, Joe Cocker, Heaven 17, High Hazels, Cabaret Voltaire and Human League. The city was even home to the (ill-fated) National Museum Of Popular Music, and has such a strong connection to music that it had produced its own music map, featuring a range of locations, venues and sites of interest to the rich music scene, past and present.

Sites if interest are too numerous to mention, though as a starting point try Division Street, where Jarvis Cocker famously fell out of the window of a flat above a shop! Handily, Richard Hawley often mentions specific sites in his songs (all of which are recorded at Yellow Arch Studios in the Neepsend area of Sheffield. Early album Low Edges was named after a suburb on the outskirts of the city, breakthrough album Coles Corner was named after a city centre spot where lovers would meet to go courting, follow-up album Lady’s Bridge was named after a landmark that crosses the River Don from the low centre of the city into the throughfare Wicker, and Standing At The Sky’s Edge was named after Skye Edge, a playing field with incredible hillside views over the city.

11. Also notable in Yorkshire

• Bailiff Bridge: This small village near Huddersfield and Bradford was the starting point for Embrace, a rock band who scored eight Top Ten albums between 1998 and 2022.
• Leeds: The ‘other’ city in Yorkshire, Leeds has been home to indie legends The Wedding Present (frontman David Gedge lived just around the corner from Headingley cricket ground), Cud, Sisters Of Mercy, Soft Cell and Gang Of Four.

In all of the sites we’ve mentioned here, you’ll find plenty of opportunity to ‘touch base’ with something or someone from music history. From the birthplaces of musicians to the locations of their first gigs, our country is a rich seam of ‘hidden’ amazing places which have influenced our cultural lives. Picking your favourite artist or band, doing your research and visiting these important stepping stones on their way to your heart is a really rewarding way to spend some time in your campervan. Pick the right one from Don Amott and then get your motor running, head out on the highway…