The British Music Experience — Attraction in Liverpool

The British Music Experience – An amazing journey of music over the decades

What is The British Music Experience?

The British Music Experience is a Music Museum that is located in the heart of Liverpool. It is the place for die hard music fans. It gives you a great insight into the history of music and also looks at most genres too.

There are lots of objects including costumes worn by singers and bands, photographs, musical instruments, song lyrics and posters to look at.

Highlights

The Beatles

It was great getting an insight into the history of the Fab Four. They started in 1961 with their first song Love Me Do and they split in the 70s due to differences with each other. It was thoroughly enjoyed looking at their LP covers, guitars, costumes and photographs.

If you are a big Beatles fan then there is the Beatles Museum for you people out there.

Costumes

Some of the costumes were lovely. There were some dresses belonging to big stars including Dusty Springfield, Sandy Shaw and Cilla Black. They were beautiful in their style with bright colours.

In addition there were costumes from the Spice Girls which included the leather print one worn by Mel B, an all black suit worn by Victoria, the Union Jack dress by Gerri worn back in the day, the bright pink dress by Emma and the tracksuit by Mel C. I really loved looking at them.

There were also the famous glasses worn by Elton John, the drums from Eddie Mercury, outfits and jackets worn by the Gallagher Brothers with the Don’t Look Back in Anger CD cover with song lyrics. These were some of the other favourite items from the collections.

The Stage

There is also a stage in the middle of the Discovery Zone with hologram performances from big names. It was Boy George and Culture Club. It was really entertaining and it truly makes your visit more exciting.

As the Eurovision took place here not long ago there was also an energetic medley of some of the best new and old songs from the history of the competition. It was great.

The Dance Studio and Instrument Hall

The Museum offers an immersive and an interactive space in the form of a dance studio and an instrument hall.

The Dance studio was thoroughly enjoyable and was entertaining. There are multiple categories of songs to choose from including Disco, Hand Jive and more. Within the Disco category we chose Night Fever and Macarena. It was simple to follow. Position yourself in front of the screen and a virtual person will give you a snapshot as to the history of the song and the moves. There will be a short practice before doing it to the full song. It was fun.

The Instrument Hall was engaging, fun and educational. There were lots of different guitars and a drum kit to practice your music skills. I tried the Electric Guitar and the Drums. Once you begin it gives you the buzz and the confidence in doing something new.

Entry and Pricing

To enter the British Music Experience then you will need to book a ticket in advance at a timed slot and pay online. You can pay on the day however it will be slightly more. Once you get your ticket on arrival then it entitles you free entry for 12 months from the date of your initial visit.

The prices are as follows:

Adult £17 or £19 on the day

Concession £16 or £18 on the day with ID

Child 5 – 15 Under 3s go free £10.50 or £12 on the day

Family of 4 £44.50 or £50 on the day 2 adults and 2 children

Access

There are two main entrances to the Museum one is at the front of the building where there are a number of stairs to get in. If you have mobility problems then there is another entrance through a ramp but the door has an intercom so you might need to ring it to go in. It was great that inside it was open plan in the main space with ramps.

Parking

The British Music Experience does not have its own designated car park however there Is pay and display parking nearby. There is also disabled parking in front of the building. There is a Q-Park multi-storey car park nearby where payment...

I went to The British Music Experience with my music-nerd girlfriend, and we both left rather disappointed. I think there is a great opportunity to tell a story about the British music experience from the 1940's to the present, but this did not live up to my expectations and I hope that this feedback can be used to improve that experience. To start, the museum exhibit is organized into approximately 5 year chunks starting in the 1940's till present day. As you walk through the different eras, they present a selection of some iconic instruments, costumes, and other memorabilia from selected musicians of that era.

My biggest challenge with this museum was that the storytelling was lacking. I felt, as a person accompanying a music-nerd, a lack of context and meaning behind these artifacts. When I looked at the collection the museum had on offer, I expected some photos or videos connecting the artifacts to their historical context which could have gone a long way to situating these important things. These were hidden behind the computer-interactive presentation, but the amount of information that was presented was so overwhelming combined with the awkward controls and difficult discoverability of the interesting or important information from that experience, we ended up skipping most of these after the first few.

In the end, my girlfriend ended up contextualizing the music history that she knew and why it was meaningful and she was unable to explain the music that she did not know. My suggestion would be to better visualize the timeline and history as a static object, maybe broken-up with smaller exhibits which can show a piece of a concert, music, or documentary that helps to contextualize the collection they have there.

In addition to the collection, there were also several interviews with older musicians. There seemed to be a lot of good information and stories within these, but if I compare these to a well-executed documentary which would use the interviews and context to help weave a story and help guide someone through that experience, these interviews were not like that. These could have been stitched together with important snippets of concerts, videos, or music of the era to help create a more meaningful experience.

Ultimately, we both felt disappointed from this experience and that we felt there were several missed opportunities. One was that my girlfriend could share some of her love of music with me and could learn to better appreciate and experience that. Two, she wished she could have expanded her love of music and connect it to areas she already knew. At the end of the experience we were both discussing how the experience could have highlighted the history and legacy that British Music has had on the world and ways that this experience could have been improved. We felt this experience did not deliver on that intention and has the opportunity to improve. All the staff we encountered at the entrance were friendly...

A totally awesome experience. An incredible overview of the British contribution (wherever you may have grown up across the world) to the soundtrack of our lives. An eye-opening, and often surprising, reminder of what was happening in British music before rock n' roll made it's way across the Atlantic. And then the story of the history-making pioneers of the British version of rock n' roll, and the amazing artists who have followed in their wake for over 60 years. This exhibition includes the stories of many of the songs, and artists, which and who have given our lives a greater meaning, and remain as reference points for our younger lives, as well as many of the instruments played on those songs and, in some cases, the original, hand-written lyrics for some of the songs many people would both recognise in a moment, and love for all time. This exhibition is clearly important, because it not only serves as a reminder for older people of what has already been in the past. It also absolutely serves as a source of inspiration for young people, and particularly young musicians, of what could be the(ir) futures - "These people did something incredible in music. If they could do it, I can do it." I absolutely recommend this exhibition as an outstanding reminder of what British music has given...