The Auxiliaries, Chesterfield and Indie
History of Chesterfield
The town received its market charter in the year 1204 from King John and around two hundred and fifty stalls can still be found in the town centre every Monday, Friday and Saturday.
The 1204 charter also constituted the town as free borough, granting the burgesses of Chesterfield the same privileges as those of Nottingham. Elizabeth I granted a charter of incorporation in 1594, creating a corporation consisting of a mayor, six aldermen, six brethren, and twelve capital burgesses This remained the governing charter until the borough was reformed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. The borough originally consisted only of the township of Chesterfield, but was extended in 1892 to include parts of surrounding townships. In 1920 there was a major extension to the borough when it absorbed Whittington and Newbold urban district.Chesterfield's current boundaries date from April 1, 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972, the Borough of Chesterfield was formed by the amalgamation of the municipal borough with the urban district of Staveley and the parish of Brimington from Chesterfield Rural District.
Chesterfield benefited greatly from the building of the Chesterfield Line - part of the Derby to Leeds railway (North Midland Line), which was begun in 1837 by George Stephenson. During its construction, a sizeable seam of coal was discovered during the construction of the Clay Cross Tunnel. This and the local ironstone were promptly exploited by Stephenson who set up a company in Clay Cross to trade in the minerals.
During his time in Chesterfield, Stephenson lived at Tapton House, and remained there until his death in 1848. He is interred in Trinity Church. In 2006, a statue of Stephenson was erected outside Chesterfield railway station.
A new landmark was planned to be erected on the outskirts of the town-the Solar Pyramid, which would have been built by the side of the M1 at Poolsbrook. Work on the 'sculpture', which would have been the largest in the UK, commenced late Summer 2007 and was expected to be completed by mid-2008. This sculpture has now been cancelled due to a lack of funds.
Indie Rock
Indie rock is a commonly used tag for rock music that is produced either by small, independent record labels, or by the artists themselves. The idea of rock music made independent of the major label establishment first started to gain prominence in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Although it is often thought of as a genre of music, it is a term used to describe the means of production and distribution of independent underground music. Indie rock artists are known for placing a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on independent record labels (sometimes self-owned and operated) and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, airplay on independent or college radio stations and, in recent years, the Internet for promotion. Musicians classified as indie rock are typically signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels, although there are many examples of indie musicians switching to major labels mid-career. This practice blurs the lines between indie and mainstream music and is often the subject of debate amongst fans. Indeed, some bands that have spent most of their careers on major labels are still occasionally referred to by the press as indie rock because of their sound or aesthetic.
A variety of musical genres and subgenres with varying degrees of overlap are associated with the indie rock movement. Some of these include lo-fi, sadcore, C86, math rock, shoegaze/dream pop, jangle pop, indie pop, noise rock, noise pop, riot grrrl, post-hardcore, twee pop, post-punk revival, garage rock revival, dance-punk, indie folk, baroque pop, chillwave, and indietronica.
Alternative Rock
Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Britpop, gothic rock, and indie pop. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk rock, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s. At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from underground artists in the 1980s, and all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself, New Wave, and post-punk).
While a few artists like R.E.M. and The Cure achieved commercial success and mainstream critical recognition, many alternative rock artists during the 1980s were cult acts that recorded on independent labels and received their exposure through college radio airplay and word-of-mouth. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became commercially successful.