Scene Here Liverpool – A Visual Representation of the City’s Music and Venues

Scene Here Liverpool is an ambitious new mapping project that Baltic Triangle based design studio Dorothy have been compiling with the help of customers from the new Rough Trade store on Liverpool’s Hanover Street.

The project, which has culminated in a special edition print designed by Dorothy maps the connections between the venues, bands and individuals at the heart of music scenes in the city of Liverpool and its surrounds from the 1950s to the present day. 

The print celebrates both large and small, old and new venues and the bands and scenes that have thrived around them. Including the world famous Cavern club which will forever be synonymous with the Beatles and Merseybeat bands including Gerry and the Pacemakers and Liverpool’s first female rock and roll band The Liverbirds: the legendary Eric’s and post-punk bands Big in Japan, The Teardrop Explodes, Echo & the Bunnymen, Wah! Heat, OMD and Frankie Goes to Hollywood; The Timepiece and the seminal funk and soul DJ Les Spaine; the much loved and massively missed Picket which hosted early gigs by local lads The La’s; The Zanzibar and bands like The Coral and The Zutons who played the club’s Bandwagon night and helped coin the phrase ‘cosmic scouse scene’; The Kazimier and its creative community including musicians and visual artists Stealing Sheep; and new community focused venues like Future Yard across the water in Birkenhead and Quarry in the North Docks who are both supporting local emerging talent. 

The print also features clubs that, although less well know, have been just as important in the history of Liverpool’s music scenes including The Rialto, Palm Grove, Kirklands, Mr Pickwicks, the Sink Club, Cosmos and the Mardi Gras. And other institutions like Liverpool College of Art who spawned (amongst others) the new wave group Deaf School, record stores like the adored and revered Probe, record labels, radio stations, fanzines, festivals including Larks in the Park and Africa Oye and individuals who have all played a part in making Liverpool the world’s most famous city for music.  

Not forgetting the dance clubs that shaped Liverpool’s nightlife in the 1990s and beyond including Quadrant Park, The State, 051, Cream, Garlands and more recently the Baltic’s District and 24 Kitchen Street which hosts iconic nights by Sonic Yootha and Girls Don’t Sync.

Jim Quail, Director of Dorothy explains the inspiration for this project: “I was really frustrated seeing a favourite local venue disappear and another under threat of closure and I wanted to celebrate and document the places that are so important in people’s lives. A big inspiration to me is the work of the music writer and author Emma Warren who talks about documenting your culture. I can’t write particularly well so I use graphic design as the medium to do that.”

Dorothy are well known for their music mapping projects but this one came with its own set of challenges. As Jim explains “This is the most challenging music mapping project I have worked on. As well as collecting contribution from Rough Trade customers I have also been talking to bands, artists, label owners, venue managers and lots of audience members (like me) and it soon because clear that the project was going to be way bigger and much more complex than I first imagined. There are so many lost places in our city’s cultural history that played such an important part in people’s lives that I wanted to record as many as I could.”

The first edition print is available to buy from Dorothy’s online store here: wearedorothy.com/collections/shop-all/products/scene-here-liverpool-special-edition and from instore at Rough Trade Liverpool. 

This is an ongoing mapping project which can still be contributed to at Rough Trade Liverpool.

Dorothy are a design studio based in the baltic triangle liverpool and well known for their intricate music blueprints which map the history of disco which can be seen here: wearedorothy.com/collections/blueprints