HMS Birmingham (C19)

HMS Birmingham was a member of the first group of five ships of the Town class of light cruisers. She was built at Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth, United Kingdom), and launched on 1 September 1936.

Early career

Birmingham initially joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron on the China Station in January 1938. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, she left for Malta for a refit before joining the Home Fleet in March–April 1940. Birmingham was a unit of the 18th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, initially used to patrol off the coast of Norway to prevent German fishing vessels operating in this area. In mid-April Birmingham, Manchester and Cairo escorted a troop convoy to Norway. On 26 April she shelled and sank the German patrol boat Schiff 37 after Schiff 37 rammed and damaged the destroyer Arrow off Norway. In May, Birmingham, in company with Manchester, evacuated 1,500 troops from Åndalsnes. She returned to the UK and was in refit between September–December 1940.

HMS Birmingham (1913)

HMS Birmingham was lead ship of the Birmingham group of three ships of the Town-class of light cruisers built by the Royal Navy. Her sister ships were Lowestoft and Nottingham. The three ships were virtually identical to the third group of Town-class ships, but with an additional 6 in (150 mm) gun worked in on the forecastle.

History

Birmingham, a two-screw ship, was built at Elswick, launched on 7 May 1913 and completed in January 1914. She joined the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet in 1914, visiting Kiel in June that year.

On 9 August 1914, she spotted the German submarine U-15, whose engines had failed as she lay stopped on the surface in heavy fog, off Fair Isle. The crew of Birmingham could hear hammering from inside the boat from attempted repairs, and so fired on her but missed. As the U-boat began to dive, she rammed her, cutting her in two. U-15 went down with all hands, the first U-boat loss to an enemy warship. Birmingham also sank two German merchant ships that year and took part in the Battle of Heligoland on the 28 August, and the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915.

HMS Birmingham (D86)

HMS Birmingham was a Type 42 destroyer laid down by Cammell Laird and Company, Limited, at Birkenhead on 28 March 1972, launched on 30 July 1973 by Lady Empson, wife of Sir Derek Empson and commissioned on 3 December 1976. She was named for the city of Birmingham, England.

"The Brum" spent much of her useful life as Fleet Contingency Ship and spent considerable time in the post-Falklands conflict patrol role. In 1984 she patrolled the Falklands and acted as a radar picket ship along with the frigates Broadsword and Ajax. In 1985 she took part in Standing Naval Force Mediterranean, calling at Gibraltar, Palma de Mallorca, Naples, & Messina. On completion of de-ammunitioning at Rosyth and being sent for a successful refit at Rosyth dockyard, she returned to Portsmouth in 1988 for sea trials and re-acceptance to the fleet. Commanded by Roy Clare, now Director of the Maritime Museum in London, her first deployment post-refit was a tour to the Persian Gulf region, returning in March 1989.

Birmingham

Birmingham (ⁱ/ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London with 1,101,360 residents (2014 est.), and its population increase of 88,400 residents between the 2001 and 2011 censuses was greater than that of any other British local authority. The city lies within the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous built-up area in the United Kingdom with 2,440,986 residents (2011 census), and its metropolitan area is the United Kingdom's second most populous with 3,701,107 residents (2012 est.) and is also the 9th largest metropolitan area in Europe.

Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir)

Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir) is a 2013 live album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, featuring the Orchestra of the Swan and their Chamber Choir Orchestra Conductor Andrew Powell, who was the man who did the string arrangements on the original studio albums. The album, a Comeuppance production, was released by Absolute via Universal. A DVD version of the performance was also released at the same time.

Background

The album was recorded and filmed live at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, England on 24 November 2012. The band, with the orchestra and chamber choir, made up about 50 performers together, and performed the band's first two albums The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo in their entirety - with some of the songs entirely new to the stage. The sold-out show was a one off performance of the two albums, and also included Spandau Ballet's Steve Norman on saxophone and percussion. Aside from the two albums performed, the band also played three additional tracks on the night; "Judy Teen" (the band's UK Top 5 hit single from 1974), "Stranger Comes to Town" (the title track from Harley's 2010 album) and "Black or White" (from the 1976 album Timeless Flight. Harley commented "It's been a long time coming - something like 39 years. Now we're here, at last, with an orchestra and a choir and a big rock band, to play those first two albums pretty well the way they appeared on the original vinyl. Maybe some things should never change, in spite of progress. Welcome, my old friends."

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham (/ˈbɜːrmɪŋhæm/ BUR-ming-ham) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. The city's population was 212,237 according to the 2010 United States Census. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabama's population.

Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, former Elyton. It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, and railroading. Birmingham was named for Birmingham, England, UK; one of that nation's major industrial cities. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. In one writer's view, the city was planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast.