Symphony Hall
By Dave Woodhall.
It may come as a surprise to realise that Symphony Hall is celebrating its 20th birthday this year. Opened by the Queen in June 1991 as part of the ICC complex, the venue remains one of the finest concert halls in the world but although it’s a well-known city centre landmark few of us know much about what goes on behind the scenes. It was therefore a bit of an eye-opener to be shown around the venue and its older, grander sister Birmingham Town Hall by their press officer Lyle Bignon.
The first thing to spot on standing sidestage at Symphony Hall is a notice banning all drinks except water on stage. “It damages the floor and also causes problems with the technical; equipment in that area” Lyle explains, “although it can be difficult to uphold that one.” Indeed, and it’s just one thing that us outsides might not think of but shows the attention to detail that separates such a prestigious venue from the rest.
Some of the acts who perform at Symphony Hall can also make some strange requests. Van Morrison, for example, a regular at the venue, insists on the bars being closed when he performs. Others present different problems, “When Tori Amos was here recently, her different costumes filled the backstage corridor.” Another recent notable event was a Chris de Burgh concert which saw an eighty-strong stage crew in addition to the 200 or so staff members on duty for a large event; “They had five truckloads of equipment. It was like the old days, when equipment was a lot larger.”
When it was built, Symphony Hall was reputed to be the most acoustically perfect concert venue in the world, a 450,000 cubic foot reverberation chamber helping to provide cutting-edge sound quality. Twenty years on, new halls around the world are still being built to the same template. “It’s a cliché,” explains Lyle, “but when the hall was built, a pin was dropped on the stage. Yes, you could hear it all around the room.”
It’s not just a concert venue, though. Symphony Hall is available for private hire, and like the Town Hall, licensed for weddings. You can get married onstage, and hold a reception in one of the function suites. It was also the scene of much of last year’s Conservative Party conference.
For all its undoubted advantages though, Symphony Hall will never be described as a particularly beautiful building. If it’s aesthetics you want, the place to look is through Paradise Forum and onto the recently-renovated Town Hall. Re-opened in 2007 after a £34 million refurbishment (more than the cost of building Symphony Hall) the Town Hall is rich in history, its stage having been the setting for performers ranging from Charles Dickens to the Beatles.
Birmingham Town Hall
As you might expect in such a historic setting, there are a few surprises dotted around the place. The Hansom Suite on the first floor, for example, decorated in keeping with its Victorian roots and complete with authentic graffiti from 1855. There’s the room backstage from which a pumping system controls the fountain in Chamberlain Square. Or the constant rush of wind along a corridor, caused by an authentic Victorian form of air conditioning still in use today. And I’d love to know how, after four years of use, they’ve managed to keep the new carpet smell in the artists’ areas. I can remember the old dressing rooms and backstage, and the refurbishment has transformed them into something fit for the modern era – particularly difficult within the confines of a grade 1 listed 19th century building.
There’s also one more unexpected use for part of the Town Hall, as Lyle explained. “Up a staircase, across a ladder or two and you’re up in the roof space from where you can look through the roof decorations and into the auditorium. That’s where musicians used to sneak away to ‘relax’.”
As ever when you look at somewhere familiar from an unusual angle, it was a fascinating hour or so, and thanks to Lyle for taking the time to show us round.
