Live music venues in Birmingham, from the arena to the back room

Birmingham has a stage for every size of band. The arena on King Edwards Road holds 15,800. The O2 Academy on Horsefair holds 3,009 in its main room. Symphony Hall on Broad Street seats 2,262, and the Town Hall in Victoria Square about 1,100. Then it drops through Digbeth's O2 Institute to the 150-capacity back room of a pub in Kings Heath where UB40 started. Here they are, biggest first.

The big rooms

Utilita Arena, King Edwards Road

It opened on 4 October 1991 as the National Indoor Arena, and plenty of people still call it the NIA, though it has also been the Barclaycard Arena and Arena Birmingham. It holds up to 15,800, sits on the cut at Old Turn Junction across from Brindleyplace and is built over the railway to Wolverhampton. The towpath is the best way in: it runs right past the door.

O2 Academy, Horsefair

The Academy moved to 16 to 18 Horsefair, on Bristol Street, in 2009, taking over the old Dome II nightclub. It has three rooms: the main hall for 3,009, including a 600-seat balcony, Academy 2 for 600 and Academy 3 for 250. All three can run on the same night with their own queues, so read the ticket.

The concert halls

Symphony Hall, Broad Street

Part of the International Convention Centre, Symphony Hall was opened by the Queen on 12 June 1991. It seats 2,262 and is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with acoustics by Russell Johnson of Artec. The room was built for the orchestra, and you can hear it.

The Town Hall, Victoria Square

The Town Hall opened on 7 October 1834, designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch. Mendelssohn's Elijah had its premiere here in August 1846, and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in 1900. The organ by William Hill has 6,000 pipes. It closed in 1996 for a £35 million refurbishment and reopened for concerts on 4 October 2007. About 1,100 seats, a lot of history, and the best room in the city to hear a singer with a guitar.

The middle: Digbeth

O2 Institute, Digbeth High Street

The O2 Institute at 78 Digbeth High Street was built in 1908 as the Digbeth Institute, a church mission. It now has four rooms: Institute1 for 1,500, Institute2 for up to 600, Institute3 for 250 and the Un-Plug club in the cellar for 400. That spread makes it the venue where most touring bands play on the way up, and again on the way back down.

Mama Roux's, Lower Trinity Street

Also in Digbeth, Mama Roux's at 2 Lower Trinity Street has been Digbeth's music hall and club since 2016. It is the right size for a band that has outgrown pub rooms, and it turns into a club afterwards.

The small rooms

The Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath

The pub on Kings Heath High Street dates from 1820 and was remodelled in 1907, and it is Grade II listed for the Art Nouveau interior. UB40 played their first gig here in February 1979, and a PRS for Music plaque says so. The Hare and Hounds has two rooms, for 250 and 150 standing, and Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Basement Jaxx all played them early on. Kings Heath station opened on the Camp Hill line this spring, so the trip from New Street is now a short train ride.

The Flapper, Cambrian Wharf

The Flapper has been an independent venue since the early 1990s, beside the canal on James Brindley Walk, looking over the Cambrian Wharf basin. The gigs lean towards hardcore, metal, rock, punk and ska, and there is a canalside beer garden for the interval. It is a grassroots room that still gets national and international touring bands, plus quiz nights on Thursdays and Sundays for the nights without one.

Picking the right room

• Stadium-sized acts: Utilita Arena.
• Big touring bands: the O2 Academy.
• Orchestras, choirs and seated shows: Symphony Hall or the Town Hall.
• Bands on the way up: the O2 Institute and Mama Roux's.
• The ones you will say you saw first: the Hare and Hounds and the Flapper.

Buy from the venue's own box office where you can, check which room the gig is in, and get there for the support. Every big act on this list started in a back room somewhere.