THIS IS WHAT A CITY ORCHESTRA LOOKS LIKE
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There’s something wonderfully Birmingham about encountering one of the world’s great symphony orchestras while buying a tuna mayo baguette.
For five days over the Bank Holiday weekend, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra escaped the magnificent confines of Symphony Hall and went roaming.
CBSO in the City delivered not one, not two but 20 free performances across Brum and Solihull. And the whole thing was glorious...
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At New Street, beneath the departure boards, the CBSO performed Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 to commuters, shoppers and people who had absolutely no idea they were about to hear a symphony orchestra before squeezing aboard the roasting 15.22 to Euston.
Phones came out. People stopped. Faces beamed. Trains, for just a few minutes, became considerably less urgent. Members of the public even got to conduct the orchestra.
And that moment travelled. Footage I posted across I Choose Birmingham’s social channels went spectacularly viral, racking up well over a million views and taking a few joyous minutes of orchestral Brum far beyond the station. Proof, if it were needed, that you don’t have to know your Beethoven from your Brahms to recognise Birmingham when it happens in front of you.
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Elsewhere there was The Wind in the Willows for families at the Library of Birmingham, performances at The Exchange (above) and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, while brilliant saxophonist Jess Gillam led a mass saxophone and clarinet session at a rainy Brindleyplace, below.
And then there was CBSO Music Director Kazuki Yamada playing electric piano on a tram. I mean that's wild, right? Kazuki is a fizzing, irresistible force of musical nature: exuberant, expressive, mischievous and seemingly incapable of containing his joy. And there he was on a tram Wolverhampton, entertaining 30 people as if they were 3,000 at Carnegie.
There’s a lazy temptation to call all this “bringing classical music to the people”, but that feels slightly wrong. A bit, y'know, Victorian. Like the CBSO has descended from its marble palace to improve us.
What this actually felt like was an orchestra representing the city that made it.
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The CBSO was founded in 1920, with its first concert conducted by Edward Elgar, no less. Across more than a century it has become inseparable from Birmingham’s cultural identity, its history including names such as Adrian Boult, Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
It tours internationally. It records. It wins awards. It plays some of the great concert halls of the world.
But those three words matter: The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Birmingham isn't just the address on the headed paper. It's fundamental to what this orchestra is. It's not just where the orchestra happens to live. It is stitched into its identity. And, in return, the CBSO is stitched into ours.
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"BIRMINGHAM ISN'T JUST THE ADDRESS ON THE HEADED PAPER. IT'S FUNDAMENTAL TO WHAT THIS ORCHESTRA IS."
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For more than a century it has carried Birmingham’s name around the world, quietly making an argument for this city as ambitious, creative, international and culturally pivotal.
But perhaps the most beautiful expression of that relationship isn’t playing thousands of miles away. Perhaps it’s playing 9 to 5 on the New Street concourse.
Because an orchestra shouldn’t only belong to people who already know they like orchestras.
That was the wonder of these five days. Classical music wasn’t something that required a decision. You didn’t have to book it, glam up for it, understand it or even seek it out.
It simply happened to you.
You could be visiting somebody in hospital, shopping, spilling coffee, missing a train or waiting for a tram and suddenly there were extraordinary musicians making extraordinary music a few feet away.
For a moment, the mundane became magnificent.
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And maybe that’s where lifelong relationships with music begin.
The CBSO handed out 5,000 Golden Tickets, redeemable for a Symphony Hall concert this season for just £1. Perhaps somebody who stopped for Dolly goes to Symphony Hall next. Perhaps somebody who conducted an orchestra for three minutes becomes curious about Mahler. Perhaps a child watching The Wind in the Willows remembers the sound of those instruments for the rest of their life.
Not every seed grows. But you plant them anyway, right?
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By Monday, the whole adventure had arrived at the Bullring for a packed full-orchestra finale.
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is not exactly known for understatement. It is music designed to burst through walls, shake hands with strangers and announce the brotherhood of mankind before lunch.
In the middle of one of Britain’s busiest shopping centres, surrounded by people lining balconies and filling every available vantage point, it was pure gold.
Some had come specifically for the CBSO. Plenty had plainly just wandered into it.
And that was the magic of the entire thing.
At a difficult time for Birmingham and for the arts generally, here was one of the city’s greatest institutions not retreating behind its doors, but booting them wide open.
No ticket. No dress code. No prior knowledge necessary. Just music. Right there in the middle of everyday life.
The CBSO has travelled the world carrying Birmingham’s name with it for more than a century. For five wonderful days, it travelled a few miles down the road instead.
And somehow that felt every bit as important. Maybe more.
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BRUM’S BANKING HISTORY UNLOCKED
There are more than 4,000 safe deposit boxes beneath The Exchange, and if walls could talk these ones would have seriously good goss.
Unlocking the Vaults, a free exhibition inside the former Birmingham Municipal Bank, explores the building’s century of stories through archives, objects, photography and first-hand memories from staff and customers.
Among them is the day the banking hall was cleared so Joan Collins could cash a cheque — standard procedure, presumably, when Alexis Carrington needs a few quid. Another recalls two sisters visiting in their wedding clothes to collect gold jewellery, returning it safely to the vault after the photographs before carrying on with the celebrations.
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There’s also the story of the bank helping Brummies survive decimalisation, complete with a shopping guide converting old money into new, plus photographs created with local communities, oral histories and a short documentary.
The Grade II-listed bank, Britain’s only municipal savings bank, opened in 1933 and became The Exchange, the University of Birmingham’s city-centre hub, in 2021.
Part of Birmingham Heritage Week (starts tomorrow, September 11), the exhibition offers a rare excuse to nose around its beautifully restored halls and formidable underground vaults. Unlocking the Vaults is free and runs until November 7.
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THREE NEW WAYS TO EXPERIENCE BRB
Birmingham Royal Ballet and B:Music are serving up three ways to get closer to the classics, from brunch with the dancers and family-friendly Swan Lake fun to a full-blooded celebration of Tchaikovsky.
On October 24, Ballet & Brunch offers a civilised introduction to the art form, pairing food with an up-close performance of Swan Lake excerpts by BRB dancers, accompanied by one of the company’s pianists. Tickets are £20 for the performance alone or £40 with brunch.
Later that day, Swan Lake Family Fun invites children aged 4 to 11 — and their grown-ups — into the story through dance workshops, introductions, storytelling and a performance. It starts at 2pm, with tickets costing £15 for adults and £10 for under-16s.
Jumping ahead to March 6 and BRB and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia take over Symphony Hall for Tchaikovsky Classics. Expect danced highlights from Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, alongside orchestral fireworks including Capriccio Italien, Dance of the Tumblers and the 1812 Overture. Tickets cost £37 to £49, with discounts for younger audiences.
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THE MOUSETRAP
★ ★ ★ ★
When my theatre date texted me to say he was looking forward to the Agatha Christie musical, my immediate thought was that this man was going to be severely disappointed. The Mousetrap is an old-school play that has been around for 75 years and is certainly not an all-singing, all-dancing show.
However, the cast are of such quality in this production (especially Thomas Barrett as Christopher Wren and Emily Laing as Mrs Ralston) and the storytelling so strong that this show really does offer an entertaining night. The set is small and largely static, other than a hard-working window that opens and closes perfectly to the snowy blizzard outside. But the simplicity of this show is testament to the fact that you don’t need a load of theatre-y wizardry if the play itself can do all the talking.
This classic thriller opens with news of a murder in London, before the action turns to a remote country guesthouse, where the new owners welcome five strangers to stay. The weather soon turns, leaving the household stranded, and when an unannounced policeman arrives to reveal that the murderer may be in their midst, the stage is set for this great British murder mystery. As with all good mysteries, we were sworn to secrecy by the cast following the applause, but we recommend tickets.
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BRITAIN'S GOT TALONS
Hundreds of drones will transform Midlands skies this autumn, with WILD: The Drone Light Show coming to Spetchley Park Estate, Worcester, on Sep 19, followed by Sky Kingdom: A Dragon Drone Light Show at Edgbaston Stadium on Nov 6 and 7.
Created by Britain’s Got Talent Series 19 runners-up Celestial, WILD explores four very different worlds: desert, ocean, Arctic and jungle. Expect illuminated animals prowling, swimming and soaring overhead, accompanied by cinematic music and some seriously clever technology.
The family-friendly spectacle has already attracted more than 15,000 audience reviews, averaging an impressive 4.9 stars.
Sky Kingdom, meanwhile, swaps real-life wildlife for considerably more fire-breathing fare. Towering dragons, enchanted landscapes and epic fantasy-inspired formations will unfold across the Birmingham night sky.
Basically, if you like wildlife, mythical beasts or staring open-mouthed into the heavens, autumn is looking unusually accommodating.
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THIS IS DIGBETH
One of Britain’s great chroniclers of working-class life is coming to Digbeth, as Shane Meadows takes centre stage at this year’s Forward Film & Television Festival.
Running across five days, Forward brings premieres, shorts, documentaries, workshops and screenings to venues including The Mockingbird and The Old Crown. But for our money, the Meadows strand is where things get particularly tasty.
On Saturday, October 3 at 4pm, the director of Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England and The Virtues will appear In Conversation at The Old Crown. Few filmmakers have captured Midlands life with quite his combination of humour, tenderness, violence and uncomfortable truth. Expect three decades of stories about filmmaking, casting and finding extraordinary performers in decidedly ordinary places.
Then, at 7pm the same day, it’s a short wander to The Mockingbird for a 20th anniversary screening of This Is England. Set in 1983 and starring Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham and Vicky McClure, Meadows’ masterpiece remains funny, frightening and painfully human — and spawned three subsequent TV series.
The Meadows love-in continues on October 4 at 8pm, when A Room for Romeo Brass closes the festival. The tale of two 12-year-old best friends also introduced the world to Paddy Considine, whose brilliantly unsettling Morell turns a warm comedy of boyhood into something considerably darker.
Elsewhere, Forward is hardly phoning it in. Michelle Yeoh stars in the European premiere of It’s My Time, while Birmingham-made action thriller Lotus brings John Wick-ish mayhem to streets you might recognise. There’s also cult joy courtesy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with live drag, the European premiere of darts comedy The Broken Arrow, and 90 minutes of internet cats at Cat Video Fest. Oh, and Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 9 to 5 plus a watch-along with Richard Armitage. All the best people love Richard Armitage. Full Programme
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THIS SUNDAY: EAT MOSELEY, SAVE MOSELEY
Moseley has never struggled to feed itself. The trick, in these bone-rattling times for hospitality, is making sure its best independents are still around to do it.
Enter Birmingham-based Restaurant Touring Company, launching its first Moseley Neighbourhood Food Tour on Sunday, September 13. The edible expedition will take in six local favourites — Zindiya, Tehran, Satori, Chakhana, Greek Aura and Cuban Embassy — with signature dishes, drinks and introductions to the people keeping Moseley magnificently well fed.
Founded by Harborne residents Del Gardner and Sarah Wagstaff, RTC’s message is refreshingly blunt: “If we don’t use it, we will lose it.” The idea is to turn neighbourhood dining into something closer to active civic duty, albeit civic duty involving Indian small plates, Japanese finesse, Mediterranean flavours, cocktails and rum.
Guests will hear the stories behind each venue, discover somewhere new and, ideally, return under their own steam. Further monthly tours are planned for Harborne, Moseley and Stirchley.
Tickets cost £69. Prepare to eat heroically in the line of local duty.
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100 SHOWS.
25 VENUES. ZERO SERIOUS BUSINESS.
Birmingham Comedy Festival turns 25 this year, meaning it can rent a car, complain about its knees and make firm opinions known about air fryers.
Running from Fri Oct 2 to Sun Oct 11, the volunteer-led festival will unleash almost 100 performances across 25 venues. Big hitters include Daniel Sloss at Symphony Hall; Stevie Martin and Olga Koch at The Glee Club; and Laura Smyth (above) at Town Hall.
The Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award also returns, with winners Celya AB, Tom Towelling, Hasan Al-Habib, Ryan S Lewis and Hannah Weetman appearing across the programme. They’ve since accumulated honours, BBC appearances and, in Celya’s case, a place on the Saturday Night Live UK team. No pressure, 2026 entrants.
Prefer your laughs free? The Free Half-Dayer brings back-to-back shows to Cherry Reds and The Victoria, including Rob Kemp, Tal Davies, Danny Clives, James Cook and Tim Biglowe.
There’s comedy on the big screen, too, with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Galaxy Quest at Thinktank, plus a Laurel and Hardy triple-bill at West Midlands Police Museum.
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Firm ICB fave, Henry Paker, brings Pencil Case to Town Hall on Sep 23, mixing razor-sharp stand-up with live illustration from the Three Bean Salad co-host and acclaimed comedy writer. Tickets
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Flat Iron opens on Temple Street on Oct 10, with 50% off food during its two-day soft launch (Oct 8 and 9), serving featherblade steaks, burgers, beef dripping chips and more.
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Blow Water joins forces with Tomorrow’s Plate for a four-course Tofu Feast on Sep 24, showcasing Wing Fat’s 40-year tofu-making tradition, complete with a Tofu Colada.
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Easy Streat returns to Mell Square today (Sep 10), bringing some of the Midlands’ finest street food traders to Solihull for an all-day feast from 11am to 8pm.
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Digbeth Dining Club ends its 2026 tour at Black Country Living Museum tomorrow (Sep 11), with street food, cocktails, entertainment, vintage fairground rides and after-hours access to the museum. Book
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670 Grams has given bread and butter a Brummie makeover, pairing Hokkaido milk bread and truffle with ‘Birmingham Soup’, inspired by Matthew Boulton’s 1793 recipe. More
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It's Kings Heath Artisan Market this Sunday, don'tchaknow?
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