Latest news with #Birminghams
BBC News
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Joe Lycett invites bulger to create Birmingham anthem
A ceremonial bugler said when he received a call from comedian Joe Lycett to create a Birmingham anthem he thought it was a "wind-up".Antonio Socci, a trumpeter from Perry Bar, Birmingham, was asked by the Brummie comedian to create a "fanfare tune" for Lycett's TV show, the United States of new series follows him travelling across the US and other countries to bring 18 different Birminghams together in a signed friendship agreement with the West Midlands city. Mr Socci, 43, said he did not realise the song he created for the show would end up as something similar to a "national anthem". He said the programme makers requested "a little fanfare", but that "it kind of grew and grew, and then all of a sudden it is now the United States of Birmingham national anthem," he said. The tune, which will feature on the fourth episode of the Sky series, was played for the first time on BBC Radio WM on Socci said the 30-second song contains the lyrics "Birmingham, 18 states together, friendships now forever, Birmingham united." He has performed professionally on stage since he was five years old, after learning from his father, Antoine Socci who played in the Band of the Royal Regiment of fusiliers of Warwickshire."My father was pretty famous around the West Midlands for playing in a ballroom dance band for 60 years and he did all the big functions," he added."I learnt trumpet on the job, so I was probably one of the last generation to be out every night on a school night with my father's ballroom dance band, learning tunes."Having studied Jazz at Birmingham Conservatoire and previously been a guest conductor with West Midlands Police Brass Band, Mr Socci was appointed Bandmaster of the Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Warwickshire in 2019 and conducts them at engagements all over the has also appeared on BBC's Songs of Praise and CBeebies, as well as performing as a ceremonial bugler for the National Memorial Arboretum and the City of Birmingham. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Joe Lycett's United States of Birmingham review – what a brilliantly daft road trip, bab!
Joe Lycett is on a mission to visit every one of the 17 Birminghams in the US and the one in Canada too. Why? Because he is a native of the UK's own Birmingham, and he wants to see if there is any shared identifiable vibe and to foster a sense of togetherness among the scattered Brummies. Also, as he says, he has a pressing need to make a travelogue for Sky 'and if anyone can do it, it's Frank Sk– … it's me'. There is also a Birmingham on the moon (a remnant of an impact crater – save your jokes, please, that's Joe's department) and one in Belgium. But 'we don't have a lunar budget and I'm not going to Belgium,' says Lycett, so off he sets round the US in a tour bus suitably decked out in Cat Deeley and Alison Hammond scatter cushions. They both hail from Birmingham in the UK. This is not difficult, people. Do try to keep up. Joe has a sheaf of 'friendship agreements' for the Birmingham mayors to sign – including a promise to stand together in Nato's stead should it fall – a pen once used by the Queen Mother with which to do so, a collection of commemorative plaques and some Birmingham-centred presents to give to the people he meets along the way. There is Cadbury's chocolate, of course, originally manufactured by one of the Quaker families whose histories are centred round the city; Bird's custard ('sugar and asbestos') invented by Brummie chemist Alfred Bird in 1837; HP Sauce (born of Nottingham but made famous under the aegis of the Midland Vinegar Company); and some of the 723 novels by 'the David Walliams of her day', Dame Barbara Cartland, originally of Edgbaston. Not all of these facts are in the programme, by the way. Joe's enthusiastic spirit and evident love for his home town inspired me to go digging. He has that effect on you. And indeed on his driver, the North Carolinian Randy who, once he has figured out what little there is to figure out – and, indeed, that there is that little to figure out – relaxes and gets into the swing of things and functions as the perfect foil for his passenger. The first Birmingham they reach is in Pemberton, New Jersey, with a population of 32 'Pinies' as those who live so close to the Pine Barrens are known. 'Wow!' says Joe, looking round in wonder. 'There really is fuck all here, isn't there!' But this is America, so there is still a diner and a gun shop. Joe duly does the rounds, enjoying a Jersey Devil burger among the friendly people at the former and himself at the latter when it turns out that he is a surprisingly good shot. 'I'm a natural!' he exults as his first bullets land firmly within the target zone of a human-shaped silhouette. 'I'm a cold-blooded killer!' He is honest about the experience. 'It worries me how much I get it. I loved it … I have to remind myself that people shouldn't have these.' From there, he takes in the rest of the Birminghams on the east coast (one seems to be literally a set of bushes by a roadside, and from another he is firmly rebuffed by officialdom – or at least by emails from 'Susan' and 'Linda', who have lost their county the chance to be a tiny part of 'at least a difficult quiz question of the future'), heads on through the midwest and ends up in the deep south, where the most famous American Birmingham can be found – the centre of the civil rights movement in Alabama. He meets civil war re-enactors, cavern owners and mayors aplenty, drinks a bloody mary with a sausage in it and attends a Beer and Bacon festival (the last two among the Hungarian population in Birmingham, Toledo, one of the three Birminghams in Ohio alone), and discovers that the inhabitants of the one in Detroit, Michigan call themselves 'Birminghamsters'. 'Like the little critters?' says Randy. Yes, and I would very much like this to catch on over here. The Detroit suburb is an impressively polished one. 'It's as smart as Solihull thinks it is,' says Joe admiringly. It is the daftest of conceits held together by Lycett's charm and wit. He cuts his cuttingness with warmth and modulates neatly in accordance with his interviewees' needs without becoming boring or patronising. His other programmes have had worthier goals as part of his work as a comedian-activist, helping to draw attention to such matters as the sewage crisis, greenwashing by big companies and various consumer rights issues, but the man has earned the right to a little jolly across America in the pursuit of lighter entertainment. No Brummies were harmed in the making of this programme and some may even have enjoyed themselves. Can't say fairer than that, bab. Joe Lycett's United States of Birmingham aired on Sky Max and is on Now.
Telegraph
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Joe Lycett's United States of Birmingham, review: this wacky US travelogue is bostin'
Bostin' locals, Laurence Broderick's shiny brass Bull, that sprawling Spaghetti Junction, bins overflowing with rats and rubbish as far as the eye can see… Ah, Birmingham. With the headlines currently full of horror stories about the Second City's grim state thanks to those pesky strikers, I can't think of a better time for Joe Lycett to present his delightfully daft new travelogue Joe Lycett's United States of Birmingham (Sky Max), in which he visits some of the 13 places in the US that share the name. Lycett 's mission in life, it transpires, is to Big up Birmingham. Never mind shiny awards or hit TV shows – the Solihull native is intent on singing the praises of his home town. In the wake of Trump's presidency – and the uncertain future of Nato – Lycett has had the genius idea (in his eyes, anyway) to recruit community leaders from all the different Birminghams across America to form an alliance. He meets mayors and council leaders around the country, signing 'Treaties of Friendships', trying his luck at shooting ranges and tucking into fried chicken as he goes. Across four episodes, he takes every chance he can get to reiterate Brum's supremacy over similarly-sized UK cities ('No disrespect to Leeds and Manchester and Liverpool, but they are all dumps') as he promotes his ultimate dream: the International Day of Birmingham, to be held annually on the 24 September. For all his silly quips, though, Lycett's mission is a heartfelt one – you can tell he loves where he's from, and for a city as dumped upon (quite literally, at the moment) as Birmingham, it's nice to see it getting its time in the sun. Against a fitting soundtrack of Apache Indian, Dexys Midnight Runners and Black Sabbath, Lycett heads to the 'other' Birminghams: a suburban idyll in New Jersey ('It does have the vibe of Solihull. It's quite well kept, and I bet there's a few Right wingers here'), a remote village in Pennsylvania ('With a bit of the Cotswolds about it') made famous as the site of a Civil War battle and a tiny township in Ohio where he samples a local delicacy involving bacon fat splattered on white bread (a snack that, fittingly, my own British Brummie grandma was prone to enjoy for breakfast in those halcyon days before all anyone wanted was avocados or Ozempic). At one point he bumps into Wayne, a man from Dudley who has swapped the Black Country for a job as a barbecue pit master in Missouri. Fair enough. Lycett rounds off his US trip in Alabama, which has been on his 'to do list since I was a kid'. As Lycett discovers, the two metropolises don't just share a name, with the Deep South city's contribution to history and culture largely overshadowed by their noisy neighbours (sound familiar, Manchester?). He concludes his Brummie odyssey back on home turf, having flown his new American friends (including his hilarious driver, Randy) out to the West Midlands for a look around the world's biggest Primark (of course) and a meal at a local curry house. This isn't Palin. But it's good-hearted fun, and if you're a Brummie too, you might just understand why he's doing it.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Joe Lycett brings together Birmingham residents with US counterparts
Residents of Birminghams far and wide have had the chance to connect thanks to an initiative spearheaded by comedian Joe Brummies made a new friend in one of North America's 18 Birminghams via a live-link at Victoria one-day experiment, dubbed The Brum Hole, was orchestrated ahead of the comedian's new series, Joe Lycett's United States of was not present for the event but told BBC Radio WM: "We are the best city in the world and I say that because I'm in London - the irony of promoting a show about Birmingham [is] I've had to come to London." In his self-appointed role as ambassador for his hometown, Lycett visited the other placed called Birmingham in the United said people could "speak to somebody from another Birmingham and you never know what you might find out".He added: "There's a lot of, yeah, not great press about [our] Birmingham in the news, [but] actually we deserve a lot better [than] we get."I also feel like the Birminghams around the world experience that feeling of being underdogs."I think this is an opportunity for us all to kind of share in and celebrate in the fact that we're a great city and we've got proper real people." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
United States of Birmingham airs tonight as Joe Lycett says 'let's celebrate what joins us'
Joe Lycett's new TV show United States of Birmingham is due to air tonight. The proud Brummie wants people to "celebrate what joins us" after visiting scores of other places named Birmingham in America. There are 18 other Birminghams - 17 in the US and one in Canada. And dad-of-one Joe has been to a number of them to gather a 'Treaty of Friendship' between the Birmingham's. READ MORE: Moment Birmingham criminal rams police cars in bid to escape and admits 'it was stupid' READ MORE: Every 'broke' city council asset for sale including pubs and four shops on same street He also believes there are a number of similarities between the UK city and Birmingham, Alabama. Ahead of the show, Joe said: "It's to celebrate not only Birmingham, UK, but all the Birmingham's around the world. "I'd only heard of Birmingham, Alabama, but actually, there are 18 other Birminghams. "(There's) 17 in the US, one in Canada, and I've been to most of them. Brummie icon @joelycett launches his new show, The United States of Birmingham caught up with Joe during filming to find out the first episode at 9pm on @skytv Max! — Bham City Council (@BhamCityCouncil) April 22, 2025 "I've been there to get a 'Treaty of Friendship' signed between our Birmingham, their Birmingham, and all the other Birminghams, creating what we're calling the 'United States of Birmingham.' "The reason I loved it is that I know there's a Birmingham spirit, which is very sort of like we're not noisy. "I know I'm dressed like this, but we're not loud people generally. We're quite sort of humble. "We know we've got a great city, but we're not shouting about it loads and I do like that spirit. "But sometimes I feel like I want people to come here and see how brilliant it is and actually that spirit is shared by most of the Birminghams, particularly Birmingham, Alabama. "When we were there, I was sort of amazed at what they were telling me because it was so similar to Birmingham, UK. "They said that 'we know we're a great city but everyone thinks we're not that great, but we know we're brilliant.' "There are loads of great restaurants, there are loads of brilliant culture, brilliant artists, a brilliant music scene here, there's a great comedy club. "They said they have a great airport, which is really easy to get access to - it's only 15 minutes down the road. "And I was thinking - that sounds like Birmingham, UK, to me. And so we've got a lot that joins us and I think it's important to celebrate that." The first episode in on Sky Max at 9pm tonight, Tuesday, April 22.
