What Made Them Famous?

Some of music’s biggest names will be performing at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall this year. We take a look back at their star-studded careers.

Roger Daltrey – Monday July 4: Founder and lead singer of the legendary 60s rock band The Who. The former sheet-metal worker actually made his guitar – an imitation cherry red Stratocaster that he carved from a block of wood. Alongside band mates Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, The Who have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and their most famous songs include My Generation, Substitute and Pinball Wizard from the rock opera Tommy. Daltrey launched his solo career in 1973 and has since released ten solo studio albums, five compilation albums and one live album. For ticket information click HERE

Roger Daltrey in Tommy, 1975

Adam Ant – Wednesday July 6: Stand and deliver! Adam and the Ants hit the big time in the early 80s; defining a decade as a gateway into the New Wave genre. Before becoming a household name, lead singer Stuart Leslie Goddard (AKA Adam Ant) played bass guitar in a band called Bazooka Joe, who were the headline act at the Sex Pistols’ first ever live performance in November 1975. The Ants’ third album was their bestseller, spawning their two UK chart toppers: Stand and Deliver and title track Prince Charming. For ticket information click HERE

Adam and the Ants

Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason – Sunday July 10: Talk about talented families! Sheku Kanneh-Mason was just 17 when he became the first Black musician to win BBC Young Musician award, and a year later he played at the Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He was first spotted in 2015 when he was joined by his siblings on Britain’s Got Talent as The Kanneh-Masons. He will be joined at Symphony Hall by his sister Isata, a talented musician in her own right. She was awarded the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award and the Opus Klassik award for best young artist in 2020. For ticket information click HERE

Isata & Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Happy Birthday John Williams – Tuesday August 2: Star Wars, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter … if one name sums up the greatest musical scores of all time it’s John Williams. Before working on countless movie soundtracks he composed music, under the name Johnny Williams, for various TV shows in the 1960s, including Lost In Space, Land of the Giants and The Time Tunnel. He holds the Academy Award record for the most nominations for a living person (an incredible 52!). Symphony Hall and the CBSO commemorate his 90^th birthday with a special concert in honour of his amazing career – read more here (link to our feature). For ticket information click HERE

The greatest musical scores of all time

Paul Young – Tuesday October 11: One of the most talented singers of the Eighties, Young’s soul-inspired hits included Love of The Common People, Every Time You Go Away and Everything Must Change. His career started with Kat Kool & The Kool Kats before joining Streetband, who had the novelty hit Toast. His first solo album was No Parlez and famously, his is the first voice you hear on Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas. For his Symphony Hall show, Young will be joined by two big names from the 1980s – T’Pau and Hue & Cry. For ticket information click HERE

Paul Young

Will Young – Saturday October 15: The singer-songwriter shot to fame after winning the first series of ITV’s Pop Idol, beating Gareth Gates in the live final in 2002. His double A-sided Anything Is Possible/Evergreen hit the charts just two weeks later and at the time was the UK’s fastest-selling debut single. The former politics student has since notched up four UK Number 1 singles including Light My Fire and Leave Right Now. He’s also made a name for himself in film and on stage, with his performance in the 2013 revival of Cabaret earning him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. For ticket information click HERE

Will Young

Tony Hadley – Saturday October 23: Most famously the frontman of new romantic super group Spandau Ballet, there can be few 80s’ couple would didn’t have a Spandau Ballet hit as “their song”. True, Gold and Through the Barricades became the soundtrack to first kisses behind the bike sheds and first dances at countless weddings. Together with brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, John Keeble and Steve Norman, they sold more than 25 million albums. Bizarrely, the band’s name was inspired by graffiti in a Berlin nightclub toilet! For ticket information click HERE

Tony Hadley in Spandau Ballet

Marc Almond – Wednesday October 26: An icon of the Eighties and a massive influence to a new generation of musicians, Almond developed his style of mixing experimental performance and cabaret pop with music while studying a BA Fine Art at Leeds Poly. It was also here that he met David Ball and together they formed electro duo Soft Cell in 1979. They recorded four albums, including the seminal Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. Their biggest hit – Tainted Love – broke all records at the time of its release and has since been covered by artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson and The Pussy Cat Dolls. For ticket information click HERE

Marc Almond in Soft Cell

Debbie Harry – Sunday November 6: With a career spanning decades, and a back catalogue that includes Heart of Glass, Call Me, The Tide is High and One Way or Another, Harry founded Blondie with guitarist Chris Stein. A one-time Playboy bunny, she become one of the 20^th century’s biggest style icon and a new wave pioneer, incorporating a mix of disco, reggae and rap and rock ‘n’ roll into her music. The band consider naming themselves Angel or Snake, but one day, when Harry was walking across Houston Street in New York someone yelled ‘Blondie’. “I thought, ‘Jeez, that’s quite easy to remember’,” she remembers. And the rest, as they say, is history! For ticket information click HERE