The BBC’s first national music day will feature a “Hadrian’s Wall of Sound”, a 73-mile musical relay beginning at daybreak in west Cumbria and finishing in north Tyneside.
The Roman fortification in northern England will play host to a 14-hour musical marathon featuring hundreds of musicians playing a wide variety of music broadcast across BBC radio, including Radio 2, 6 Music, Radio 3, and on local TV news.
BBC Music Day, part of the corporation’s big music push which included its first BBC Music Awards last year, will also feature a search for the country’s “unsung” musical heroes and a range of other events across the UK on 5 June this year.
But it is Hadrian’s Wall of Sound – a nod to producer Phil Spector’s legendary “wall of sound” – that is likely to capture most listeners’ imagination.
6 Music DJ Mark Radcliffe will broadcast from the World Heritage site on his afternoon show with Stuart Maconie, while Radio 3’s breakfast show with Petroc Trelawny will broadcast live from the Birdoswald Roman Fort, accompanied by the BBC Singers.
The BBC said it would comprise a “unique, visually spectacular musical relay” from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend.
“Hundreds of musicians from diverse communities along the wall will journey by bicycle, horse, open-top vintage bus, motorbike and unicycle, passing a baton from performer to performer”.
The day ends with a concert from Glasgow’s City Halls, hosted by Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce and Radio 3’s Katie Derham, from where BBC1’s The One Show will be broadcast.
There will also be a Radio Cymru world record attempt, between Wales and the Welsh colony in Patagonia, to achieve the greatest distance between people singing a duet, 7,000 miles apart, simulcast on Radio 3 and Radio Wales.
“Ambassadors” for the BBC event include producer Mark Ronson, The Voice coaches Ricky Wilson and Tom Jones, and Lulu. BBC Music Day will also feature broadcasts on the Asian Network, BBC local radio and BBC Look North in the north-east of England and Cumbria.
