EVERYONE knows the big names of the city's musical legacy – the Beautiful South, The Housemartins, Mick Ronson, Everything But The Girl and The Fine Young Cannibals.
They are the ones that reached the big time, the lucky few that shone in the spotlight and the groups that escaped Hull's gravitational pull to make a name for themselves on a bigger stage.
But for every Beautiful South there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of bands that never quite made it to the top, but still managed to shine on Hull's raucous and eclectic music scene, providing the soundtrack to many a generation's teenage years.
Maybe you were a Juniper Chute fan or a Penny Candles groupie. Perhaps, you enjoyed nothing better than rocking out to The Red Guitars, singing to The Silkies or doing whatever you could to 1990s punk outfit Gobble And The Cocks. Yes, that's a real band name.
Despite – or maybe because of – its isolation at the end of the M62, Hull has always enjoyed a vibrant music scene rammed with punk, rock, indie, goth, metal and dance outfits all tilting at the big time from myriad back street venues with names such as Tiffany's, Peppermint Park and, of course, The Adelphi.
Some made it as far as cutting records at hallowed places such as Fairview Studios. Others simply faded from the scene and got jobs in IT.
In the words of Brian Adams: "Jimmy quit, Jody got married. Should have known we'd never get far."
But a new website will be launched this week, suitably by Wreckless Eric, aiming to give a definitive overview of everything about Hull and its music scene down the decades.
From the bands that made it to the ones that did not, via their records and the venues they played, the Hull Music Archive hopes to provide an encyclopedic insight into anyone and everyone who ever picked up a guitar or microphone in anger in the city.
Now, its creators want the help of fans to fill it with band biographies, forgotten tour schedules and classic club memories.
The archive is the brainchild of 39-year-old data analyst, music-lover and fervent record collector Nick Boldock, a man who can't resist picking up old vinyl from the record shop bargain buckets, as his collection of 1,200 singles and 800 LPs proves. And that's not even including the CDs.
"The whole thing stems from the fact I'm a record collector," says Nick, who spent his formative Friday nights jigging up and down to Crazy Uncle and The Surf Butchers at The Tower's Soundtrack competition.
"I tend to pick up local record releases when I'm trawling through the bargain buckets. After a while I realised that I'd collected quite a few from Hull artists and thought someone should really catalogue these.
"I already moderate on an international record collecting website so eventually, after dithering for a bit because I knew what a big job it would be, thought, 'If no one else is going to do it, it might as well be me'.
"What it's developed into, though, is much more than just a directory of artists and records. I wanted it to encompass everything about Hull's music scene, from the groups and the music to the venues, the different labels and the great lost fanzines. Basically, if it's about music in Hull, we want to know about it."
Nick, whose own band Faith Gone Blind played one gig in the 1990s before deciding pop stardom was not for them, said the criteria for inclusion in the archive is simple.
"If you were in a serious band that played a few shows and were around on the Hull scene for at least a short while, then we want to hear about it. Maybe not if you and your mates rehearsed twice in your garage when you were teenagers, but anything else is good.
"It's an ideal time to get the archive up and running now with 2017 coming up and all the City Of Culture stuff happening. I hope by 2017 we'll have a comprehensive archive about music in Hull to show what an rich history the city has.
"We are also looking for people with specialist knowledge who were involved in the Hull jazz scene or any niche music scenes."
For archive contributor Andy Richardson, it is essential that the uniqueness of the Hull's music scene is recorded for future generations.
He says: "Everyone knows about Liverpool or Sheffield and the Manchester music, but no one outside Hull knew about what was going on here because we were always out on a limb.
"But that's what made it great, too. It was self-contained and there was a load of brilliant bands started here. Hull was the big city that attracted everyone in from Driffield or Hornsea or even south of the river and it had a lot going on.
"Hull was a massive influence on the Spiders From Mars; Rod Temperton, who wrote Michael Jackson's Thriller, and Boogie Nights, spent time in Hull; and Wreckless Eric wrote his hit Whole Wide World sitting on a bench in Cottingham Road.
"We always forget that Hull was a massive influence on the Sixties English folk revival. The Watersons, the royal family of folk, lived just over there," he adds, pointing out of the pub window. "In the Avenues."
"This is stuff we should all be proud of. Hull's contributed a massive amount to the country's cultural heritage. This archive is our way of putting that on record."
Visit www.hullmusicarchive.co.uk to contribute to the Hull Music Archive.
Wreckless launchTHE Hull Music Archive will be launched in a suitably Wreckless fashion next week.
The archive will have its official unveiling as part of Wreckless Eric's national tour at The Adelphi in De Grey Street, west Hull, on Wednesday, December 10.
Sussex-born Eric, 60, who penned his global hit (I'd Go The) Whole Wide World while living in Hull, said: "I'm honoured and thrilled to be asked to launch the Hull Music Archive. Hull is the city where I began my rock'n'roll career when I came to the Hull School of Art and Design in 1973.
"I wrote Whole Wide World on a park bench in Cottingham Road, and my band Ruby And The Takeaways played it every Friday night at the Bull pub, in Beverley Road, with Graham Beck on keyboards.
"Twenty-five years later I met my American wife Amy Rigby, not 'on a tropical beach somewhere', but in the Bull where we played Whole Wide World together.
"Hull, to me is very much the 'home town gig' and will always hold a special place in my heart."
Whole Wide World has since been covered by everyone from The Proclaimers to Elvis Costello, The Wedding Present and Will Ferrell.
Visit www.wrecklesseric.com for tickets to the show, which cost £8.
