Leicester rocks – it's official.

The city has made it into a top 20 list of musical places in the UK, based on where songwriters are born.

The list, topped by Bristol, looks at everyone from jingle composers to stadium rock acts to work out which places produce the biggest proportion of registered recording artists.

It is based on proportions of population so is not dominated by the biggest cities.

And thanks to the efforts of Kasabian, Showaddywaddy and hundreds of lesser-known songwriters, Leicester makes it in at number 17.

Dave Bartram's band Showaddywaddy are among the Leicester-born maestros.

He said: "Leicester certainly inspired music in my case and I think it is a relatively musical place.

"Leicester just has something about it musically."

Other famous city-born musicians include Queen bassist John Deacon, Deep Purple organist Jon Lord and Dire Straits bassist John Illsley, as well as bands such as Diesel Park West.

But the list, produced by the Performing Right Society (PRS) using their database of 65,000 living members, is largely influenced by the lesser-known names.

The top 20 also has a lot of surprises.

While London has the greatest number of musicians living in it, the city did not make the top 20 for musical births, coming in at number 26.

And Leicester is also ahead of Liverpool – home of The Beatles.

A public vote by Arts Council England two years ago had named Liverpool the UK's most musical city, with Leicester in fourth place.

PRS spokesman Andrew Fyffe said: "Because it's based on proportions of populations it's not as London-centric as people might have expected.

"We've got a few places from the South East but then there are places like Leicester that have done well, alongside three Scottish locations. It's very pleasing to see such a mix."

Two of Leicester's big names – Engelbert Humperdinck and Mark Morrison – did not help the city's ranking because they were born outside the UK.

Sheehan's music shop in London Road, Leicester, runs music lessons and promotes live music.

Dan Monk, who runs the orchestral instruments department, said: "There are a lot of jamming sessions that go on in Leicester and pubs like The Musician and The Donkey give people a chance to get into music. There's a good variety of pop, rock and folk. When it comes to attracting big pop acts Leicester doesn't do as well as other places. "We've got De Montfort Hall but that only tends to get the more serious music. But people in Leicester are obviously good at making their own music."

The Top 20 musical cities

1. Bristol

2. Cardiff

3. Wakefield

4. Glasgow

5. Cheltenham

6. Edinburgh

7. Manchester

8. Paisley

9. Doncaster

10. Londonderry

11. Halifax

12. Sunderland

13. Swindon

14. Blackpool

15. Wigan

16. Brighton

17. Leicester

18. Liverpool

19. Wolverhampton

20. Stoke