Popular music

Although its music scene is not as renowned as those of Liverpool or Manchester, Birmingham has had a vibrant and varied musical history over the last half-century.

In the 1960s, the “Brum Beat” era featured blues and early progressive rock bands such as The Fortunes, Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, The Move and The Moody Blues.

The city is often described as the birthplace of heavy metal music, with Judas Priest and Black Sabbath coming from Birmingham. Robert Plant and John Bonham came from nearby towns, and played in local Brum Beat bands before forming one half of Led Zeppelin.

In the 1970s members of The Move and The Idle Race formed the Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. The 1970s also saw the rise of reggae and ska in the city, with Steel Pulse and later on UB40, The Beat and Musical Youth. Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading had many hits during this decade.

The 1980s brought Duran Duran, possibly the most successful new romantic group, and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and the 1990s the Charlatans, Dodgy and Ocean Colour Scene. Recent chart success has come from Mike Skinner (a.k.a. The Streets), RandB singer Jamelia and Editors.

Jazz is popular in the city, and the annual Birmingham International Jazz Festival is the largest of its kind in the UK.

Party in the Park, a popular chart music event, is Birmingham’s largest music festival.

Birmingham has also been synonymous in the development of the British electronic music scene. Digbeth, near the city centre, features some of the country’s top dance clubs, and the nearby National Exhibition Centre has played host to the biggest indoor dance events in the country.

Classical music

The internationally-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s home venue is Symphony Hall, where it gives frequent performances.

Birmingham is one of the few remaining cities in the UK to still have the position of City Organist. Since 1834 only 7 men have held this position, the current holder, Thomas Trotter has been in post since 1983. Free weekly recitals have been given since the organ in Birmingham Town Hall was opened. The recitals are temporarily being held in St. Philip’s Cathedral, until the Town Hall organ opens again after restoration in 2006.

The equally world-renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet also resides in the city as does the world’s oldest vocational dance school, Elmhurst School for Dance.

The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival took place from 1784 - 1912 and was considered the grandest of its kind throughout Britain. Music was written for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvorak, Bantock and most notably Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham.

Albert William Ketèlbey was born in Alma Street, Aston in 1875.

Birmingham’s other city-centre music venues include The National Indoor Arena (NIA), the CBSO Centre, Adrian Boult Hall at Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham Town Hall (currently closed for refurbishment).

Theatre

There are many theatres in Birmingham. The four largest professional theatres are the Alexandra Theatre (”the Alex”), Birmingham Repertory Theatre (”The Rep”), the Birmingham Hippodrome and the Old Rep. The Mac and Drum arts centres also host many professional plays.

The Fierce Festival teams with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre annually to present a series of quirky performances from local and national companies.

Literature

Literary figures associated with Birmingham include Samuel Johnson , J. R. R. Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Louis MacNeice, Washington Irving, David Lodge, W. H. Auden and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Visual art

Birmingham has one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world at The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Edward Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham, spent his first twenty years in the city, and later became the president of the Birmingham Society of Artists. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts was declared ‘Gallery of the Year’ by the 2004 Good Britain Guide. For a fuller list of art galleries in Birmingham, see Arts in Birmingham.

Other famous Birmingham artists include David Cox, David Bomberg, and various Afro-Caribbean artists including Pogus Caesar, Keith Piper and Donald Rodney.

Graffiti (or “spraycan art”) culture appeared in the early 1980s, and graffiti art competitions are still regularly held.

The construction of the Bull Ring Shopping Centre allowed local and international artists to display their work. These included three light wands which were erected at the main entrance, a huge mural on a glass facade located at the entrance facing New Street station and three fountains in St Martin’s square in the shape of cubes, which are illuminated at night in different colours.

Festivals and shows

Birmingham is home to many national, religious and spiritual festivals including a St. George’s Day party. The Birmingham Tattoo is a military show that has taken place in the city for several years. The currently biennial Caribbean- style Birmingham International Carnival was originally the Handsworth Carnival, held in Handsworth Park from 1984, but now takes place in the August of odd- numbered years, parading through the streets of Handsworth to Perry Barr Park. Birmingham Pride takes place in the ‘gay village’ and attracts up to 100,000 visitors each year. The city also hosts an annual arts festival (Artsfest) during September, where people can enjoy many of the regions’ arts, free.

The city’s largest single-day event is its St. Patrick’s Day parade (Europe’s second largest, after the one in Dublin).

Film and media

Birmingham is unusual in supporting two local newspapers - the Birmingham Post and the Evening Mail - as well as the Sunday Mercury, all owned by the Trinity Mirror, who also produce The Birmingham News, a weekly freesheet distributed to homes in the leafy surburbs along with Forward, the Birmingham City Council’s free newspaper distributed to homes and via community centres and public buildings.

The Electric Cinema on Station Street is the oldest working cinema in the UK, and Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in Perry Barr during the 1920s. The Birmingham Film Festival takes place annually, and the Birmingham School of Acting won a Royal Television Society award for their short film ‘Soul Boy’. StarCity is said to be Europe’s largest leisure and cinema complex and is not far from the Britain’s only permanent drive-in cinema maintained by T-Mobile; both are in Nechells.

The BBC has its regional headquarters, BBC Birmingham, in the Mailbox, in the Convention Quarter (where they relocated from Pebble Mill), and many television and radio programes are produced in the city, including the world’s longest running radio soap opera, The Archers. The Central TV and BBC studios are famous for many shows, including Tiswas, Crossroads, Dalziel and Pascoe, Midlands Today, the BBC Asian Network,.

Local radio stations include BRMB, Galaxy, BBC WM and Heart FM, and Kerrang, Birmingham’s first dedicated rock station.

Birmingham is also the hub for various national ethnic media, including The Voice, The Sikh Times, Desi Xpress, The Asian Today and Raja TV (based in the Mailbox).