One booking sums up why the ICC Birmingham is such a good room to bring a band to. A duo set up in the Grande Foyer for the drinks reception, lifting the room while guests arrived and the bar got going, then everyone moved up to the Ballroom for dinner and the full showband - two rooms, one night, the music growing as the evening did. It is a format the building is made for. It is also just one configuration of many, because the ICC is big enough and flexible enough to put a corporate event almost anywhere in it.
We’ll cover the whole building, not one room
Birmingham’s city-centre convention centre sits on Centenary Square, just off Broad Street and a couple of hours up the M5 and M42 from our South Wales base. It runs ten halls plus a run of foyers and suites across several levels - everything from a flat-floor hall that seats well over a thousand for a dinner down to smaller rooms for a partner dinner or a board-level do. We are not a one-room act here. We have played the foyer receptions and the upstairs Ballroom, and the same band scales up or down to whatever space the event takes - so the honest answer to “which room do you do?” is all of them. Tell us the space and the guest count and we will spec the line-up to match.
Getting in, and being looked after
A couple of things only really matter once you have worked the place. The Ballroom is upstairs, so the get-in is via the service lift rather than straight off a loading bay - no drama, but it shapes the timings, and it is the kind of detail a band that has played here builds into the schedule instead of discovering on the day. And the ICC looks after the acts it books: a dedicated dressing room to set up, eat and settle between soundcheck and the set, plus access to the artist lounge with drinks as needed. On a long day up from Wales that is not a luxury, it is what keeps a band sharp enough to give you the night you booked.
Music that grows through the night
The duo-then-band shape is the one we would point most planners to. A smaller line-up - a duo or trio - covers the reception, then the full showband, eight pieces and up with brass, takes the main room once everyone has eaten and the speeches are done. We run two hour-long sets blended together and loaded with floor-fillers, a DJ either side, and a corporate crowd that has been in conference mode all day tends to let go the moment it starts. We mix front-of-house on our own or the on-site system, run in-ears rather than wedges, and travel self-sufficient from South Wales so we are one fewer supplier on the planner’s list.
The Brotherhood are South Wales’ go-to corporate band, working the Midlands regularly. Check our availability for your conference, awards night or gala at the ICC Birmingham.
