subject research

1. SUBJECT
RESEARCH

2. Sunderland
Sunderland is well known as being a port city in the Northeast, the city is 10 miles away
from Newcastle- Upon-Tyne. Through Sunderland you will find the River Wear running
through it which not only meets the North Sea but runs through Durham city centre. In
Sunderland there was three original settlements which are still part of the modern city to
this day they are: Monkwearmouth, Jarrow and Bishopwearmouth which were established
in the years of 674-930.
In the 19th century Sunderlands shipbuilding industry continued to grow and became
Sunderlands main industry and defined Sunderlands identity as being a ‘port city’. From
1846- 1854 almost a third of the UKs ships were built in Sunderland, during this time
Sunderland was proclaimed to be the greatest shipbuilding port in the world by
‘Sunderland Herald’.
The wear also launched the first ever iron ship in 1852, however as the century progressed
the number of shipyards across the wear decreased but others increased in size to allow
them to accommodate for the demand of ships that were needing to be built. The
shipbuilding industry was nationalised in 1977, and substantial job losses followed. 7,535
people worked in the shipyards 1978 this decreased to 4,337 by 1984. In 1980 the last two
of Sunderland shipyards merged into one but were eventually closed by 1989. This brought
a end to over six centuries of shipbuilding in Sunderland to a close, and also a large part of
Sunderlands identity to a close.
In May of 2002 the Tyne and Wear Metro service was extended through towards
Sunderland in an official ceremony that was attended by the Queen, 22 years after it had
officially opened in Newcastle. The Metro service then included Pallion, Park Lane,
Sunderland Central and University of Sunderland, this allowed people who may have lived
in Newcastle to get to Sunderland with easier access then what was available to the public
before hand. The original Sunderland Central train station was opened in 1879 to
accommodate for all of the football fans, however during 2020 the station is going through
major construction to modernise the structure too fit the new landscape of the city and tto
accommodate the number of people coming from up and down the country.

3. Sunderland Music
The notorious band ‘The Beatles performed in Sunderland in 1963 at the Sunderland
Empire on their ‘Bottom of the Bill Helen Shapiro’ tour. They also appeared at the Rink
Ballroom in Sunderland in May of 1963. Another famous band that have played in
Sunderland is ‘The Who’, from the years of 1966-1971 they played in Sunderland four
times. The first three times they played in Sunderland they performed in the
Sunderland Empire and the other time they performed at the Bay hotel in 1969. Author
Richard Houghton said “The music business was much less corporate that it is now and
there were more small and medium sized venues with very few really large places that
bands could play. Sunderland was somewhere that benefitted from that, because bands
like The Who were gigging constantly”. This allowed Sunderland music scene to start
growing rapidly and gain more attention from people who weren’t from the area.
Emeli Sande is also from Sunderland and has many success stories to her name. Emeli
has won four Brit awards, performed at both opening and closing ceremonies at the
London 2012 Olympics, she was also appointed an MBE in 2017 for her services to
music. She also had a best-selling album in 2012 ‘Our Version of Events’.

4. Newcastle- Sam Fender
With my project being based in the northeast I also decided to look into some
local talent that have showed what talent we have in the area. Sam Fender was
born in April of 1994 in North Shields which is just outside of Newcastle, Sam
was brought up in a lower middle-class family. His mother was a nurse, and his
father was a singer- songwriter, guitarist and pianist, which allowed him to grow
up around music and find his passion for it. He grew up in a area in north shields
where drug rates were very high, and his friends started getting involved in
selling and taking them. At age 17 Sams mother had to leave her nursing job
due to her fibromyalgia which sent the family into a money crisis where they
ended up below the poverty line, as the area that Sam grew up in had high drug
rates which led him to want to start selling drugs to help provide for his family
which he was prevented from doing by his mother. Sam then worked in a pub to
help provide for his family and dropped out of his A levels to go full time in the
bar, which is where his music manager discovered him. In 2017 Sam
independently released his own single called Play God’ which was then played
on BBC Radio 1. As well as ‘Play God’ he also had two other singles that were
released which were seen as his breakthrough singles, they were ‘Friday Fighting’
and ‘start again’. In 2018 he was put onto the BBCs sound of 2018 shortlist which
also included artists such as Billie Eillish, Khalid and Lewis Capaldi. In 2018 he
also released his first EP which was called ‘Dead Boys which also gained him a lot
of attention as people were drawn to the indie/ rock music that he was releasing.
On March 6th, 2019 ‘Hypersonic Mistles’ was released, and everything changed as
the song skyrocketed through the charts, this would also be the name of his first
studio album in the future. Once the song had become majorly popular, he made
his first US debut after appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel show which after he
then went on his first Northern American tour. On this tour he sold out both New
York City and Los Angeles. In 2020 Sam Fender played at the AIDS foundation
academy awards party where he performed one of his singles ‘Will We Talk?’ with
Elton John. In 2022 ‘Seventeen Going Under’ was released which was his second
studio album and within its first week of release sold over 44,000 copies in which
79% of those were physical copies of the album. This also beat the UK top 10
sales combined.

5. Low Lights Tavern- Tynemouth
The low Lights tavern is located on Brewhouse Bank in North Shields, which is a 25 minute
drive to Newcastle City Centre. The building was designed by Newcastle architect John
Stokoe, the newer building was rebuilt in 1807 and cost around £2000. The walls of the pub
are covered in old photographs of the surrounding fish quay to add more character to the
local pub. As well as being in the North East, famous Geordie singer ‘Sam Fender’ use to
attend this pub regularly and even had a job at the pub where he started his singing career
by singing on their buskers nights. These nights are important as they allow local talent to
start their musical journey without feeling intimidated and feel more encouraged. Linking
back to Sams career they have had one of Sams BRIT awards turned into a beer pump of
their ‘Fender Ale’. From the early stages of Sams career the local pub have always
supported his career and encouraged him to push his music to a high standard.
Tynemouth is a coastal town in the borough of North Tyneside in the North East England.
The town has been the headland of the River Tyne since the iron age. Up until 1974
Tynemouth was historically part of Northumbria, which also included the town North
Shields. Tynemouth castle is located on the rocky headland overlooking Tynemouth pier
and was built in the 13th century. Tynemouth has a population of 67,519 which has had a
large increase in the last decade when the population was at a total of 17,056 residents.
This is due to the boundary changes within the town rather than the population increasing.
For example North Shields and Shiremoor were two different urban subdivisions with a
combined population of around 41,000 as of 2001. However in 2011, Tynemouth's
boundaries changed and now included areas now such as Shiremoor and North shields.
This allowed Tynemouth to become larger in both population and area in comparison to
2001 where if the boundaries were in place the population would have been around 60,000.

6. Newcastle
Newcastle is a city in Tyne and wear England, the city is well known for its industrial heritage, party life, brown ale and
the distinct Geordie accent. Newcastle is located on the river Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest built-up area
of Tyneside. Newcastle is also the most populated city in the North East with a population of 818,000. Like Sunderland,
in the past the city relied on its port to support the economy. Newcastle also had the status of being one of the worlds
largest ship building and repair centres. Newcastle was also the countries fourth largest print centre after major areas
such as London, Oxford and Cambridge where books would be large amount of books in different languages sent
there. In the 19th century Newcastle's ship building and heavy engineering were the city's main source of income and
main source of success.
In 2017 the city played a key part in a important event by being the venue for the 2017 Freedom City festival which
marked 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King visited Newcastle where he received his honorary degree from Newcastle
University. Another key event that the city played a large part in was ‘Exhibition of the North’ which was the largest
event in England in 2018, the event began on 22 June with a ceremony along the River Tyne and ended with the Great
North Run weekend, this exhibition allows the story of the North East to be told through artists, designers and
businesses. As well as hosting large events, in 2019 Newcastle was named the friendliest city in the UK by a various
amounts of travel sites.
In modern day Newcastle the cities nightlife was voted as Great Britain's number 1 attraction in the ‘Rough Guide’. As
well as the cities nightlife Newcastle is also well known for the popular bakery chain ‘Greggs’. The food chain was
founded and is headquartered in Newcastle and has the greatest number of Greggs per head in the world. There are
10 just within the city centre and many more surrounding the area.
Some notable famous people from Newcastle are Ant & Dec, Rowan Atkinson, Sam Fender, Perrie
Edwards, Jade Thirlwall, Cheryl Cole and Lee Hall. Many of these celebrities are proud of their North
East heritage, One celebrity who is very proud of their heritage is Sam Fender as he incorporates his
childhood and where he grew up in his music.