Shaun Ryder voices trams in Manchester for BBC Music Day

Listen to Shaun Ryder's tram take-over

Step On! Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder is voicing announcements on MetroLink trams in Manchester for BBC Music Day.

The singer riffs on some of his biggest hits, including the Gorillaz' single DARE, telling commuters: "It's coming up, it's coming up, it's... Anchorage!"

"I enjoyed doing it," he told 6 Music's Chris Hawkins, "but I'll never listen to it. I hate hearing my own voice."

Ozzy Osbourne, Alfie Boe and Miles Kane have also lent their voices to public transport in their hometowns.

Commuters in Birmingham, Blackpool and Liverpool will be able to hear the announcements all day on Thursday.

Other Music Day events include concerts in hospitals, world record attempts and the unveiling of 47 blue plaques.

Musicians including David Bowie, Delia Derbyshire and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band are being honoured with the plaques, after being nominated by listeners to BBC Local Radio.

A plaque commemorating the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney performed in Caversham has been presented to the pub they played in

In Caversham, a pub which played host to John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney's only gig as The Nerk Twins will also receive a plaque; while the Brighton Ballroom, which hosted Abba's victorious Eurovision performance, earns another.

The group's founding members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, recorded a special message to say they were "very honoured at being commemorated".

"These were days I will never forget, so thank you for this," said Andersson. "I will go down and look at it one day."

ABBA thank you message for blue plaque in Brighton

More than 200 events will take place for BBC Music Day on Thursday, including a co-ordinated, country-wide bell-ringing performance at 19:00 BST.

Schoolchildren in Bradford set a new world record for Tamboo Bamboo - with 992 pupils playing the Caribbean percussion instruments simultaneously in Centenary Square.

At the opposite end of the country, in Portsmouth, more than 900 people broke another world record, for largest djembe drumming ensemble.

Indie band The Courteeners visited Manchester Royal Infirmary to explore the impact of music therapy on patients; while BBC Radio 3 broadcast five dramatic monologues by new writers about the power of classical music, performed by actors including Liam Neeson and Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Later, The Charlatans will play an exclusive concert for BBC Radio Scotland and BBC 6 Music; while poet Tony Walsh, whose reading of This Is The Place was an emotional centrepiece of the vigil for victims of the Manchester terror attack, has written a new piece about the power of music.

BBC Music Day was originally scheduled for 9 June, but the day was changed to accommodate the UK's General Election.

Some ticketed events - including a free concert by the pop group Texas - took place on the original date.

The Power of Music - A poem by Tony Walsh
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