Liverpool still the number one pop factory

This is slightly off-topic for me, and will admittedly be an odd landing page for anyone finding me from The Manchizzle, but what the heck.

I heard some good reports today from last night's Number One Project gig in Liverpool, so thought I'd look the project up online. While I'd love to say I found lots of web 2.0 elements out there, that's not true. The success of the campaign appears largely dependent on Echo readers (not a criticism, by the way).

Anyway - in short, the idea behind the campaign is based on the fact that Liverpool - European Capital of Culture in 2008 - has produced more UK Number One singles than any other city, with a tally of 56 so far.

The idea of the project is to push that total up to 57 by releasing a cover version of one of the past chart toppers and campaigning for people to buy the single. The song they've chosen is Cilla's Anyone Who Had a Heart, covered by Atomic Kitten.

Let me say clearly here - I'm not normally one for campaigns like this - I can't quite see why I would, or should, buy a record as part of a campaign if I wasn't already going to buy it because I like the music. But this time I'm going to.

I'll tell you why.

I'm a Scouser by birth. Having lived in Manchester for the past six years, Manchester is now home - but I still love Liverpool.

And one message this campaign might get across is that, while The Beatles were great, they are only part of the musical heritage of my home city. The list of 56 includes 17 Beatles singles and a further eight by former Beatles (that's including Wings' Mull of Kintyre and both occasions George Harrison's My Sweet Lord topped the charts). So that's 25 out of a list of 56. Not even half.

Unlike Dougal, I'm already fed up of hearing about The Beatles during Capital of Culture, as I think they're such a tiny part of what Liverpool has to offer.

For that reason, I like this project for reminding people that my home city was responsible for singles like Relax, You Spin Me Right Round and, of course, Gerry's You'll Never Walk Alone. (OK, so you can't quite hear Gerry on the link, but I couldn't resist!)

For that reason, I'll be nipping over to iTunes next week to download Atomic Kitten's version of Anyone Who Had A Heart - even if I delete it from my library shortly thereafter.