Well, I think CMU alone, which its two North West born editors, is proof that all the real talent in the music world comes from the North West of England. But now we have indisputable proof of that fact. Well, a fundamentally flawed survey designed to sell a website, but that will do for me. Yep, according to 'research' done by Yahoo! Music, the North West of England has produced more successful music artists since 2000 than any other UK region.
The statistic is based on the number of chart topping singles or albums that have come from any one region compared to the area's total population. The North West has achieved a number one for every 115,254 people, whereas Greater London, the second most successful region, has one for every 216,647 people. Other high scoring regions were the South East in third place, the West Midlands in fourth place (presumably thanks in the main to the fact Robbie Williams harks from Staffordshire), and Scotland in fifth place.
Oasis, with three chart topping singles and three chart topping albums, accounted for 12% of the North West's number one records, while releases from Doves, Morrissey, Richard Ashcroft and The Coral all also helped. London's score was aided by number one records from So Solid Crew, Faithless and The Libertines.
Commenting on the survey, Yahoo! Music Europe's Shannon Ferguson told reporters: "There have always been key areas that are hubs of musical creativity, and the North West has proven to have a higher success rate in terms of artists' chart positioning in the 21st Century".
I won't even begin to ask the questions a survey of this kind raises. Like, how do you decide where a band comes from, when most bands are London based by the time they have a number one? And what happens if members of a band are from different places? And is having a number one single a measure of success, given how few singles you need to sell to get to number one in a quiet release week? Oh look, now I've begun asking questions - damn you Yahoo!, now the Daily is going to go out late again.