The Man Who Arranged Burt Bacharach’s Songs Is Bringing Them To Symphony Hall Birmingham With A Full Orchestra

Burt Bacharach’s songs are at Symphony Hall in Birmingham on Thursday 8 October, played by a full orchestra and led by the man who spent years writing the arrangements for Bacharach himself. It is called What The World Needs Now, it follows a sold out night at the Royal Albert Hall in July, and Birmingham is one of only a handful of stops before the run finishes.

When And Where

• Date: Thursday 8 October 2026
• Stage time: 7.30pm
• Venue: Symphony Hall, Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2EA
• Tickets: through the venue or Ticketline, with the other dates on the run starting at around £70

Ticketmaster lists the night at 7pm, which looks like the doors rather than the start, so arriving for 7 gives you time to find the seat before the orchestra comes on.

Why This Is Not A Tribute Act

Rob Shirakbari, who leads the show, was Bacharach’s long time music director and arranger, and he is conducting the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra here. He is not somebody who learned the songs off the records. He is the person who wrote the orchestrations Bacharach went out on tour with.

Bacharach said as much himself, in a line the promoters have been using, that Shirakbari was so instrumental in putting his show together, writing the arrangements and the orchestrations, that he could not have done it without him.

That changes what the evening actually is. A lot of songbook nights are a good band playing the hits the way the hits sound on the radio, whereas this one is the arrangements Bacharach himself signed off, played by the person who wrote them, with a proper orchestra behind them.

Rumer, And The Album Bacharach Backed

Rumer is the name most people will be buying a ticket for, and there is a good reason she is on this bill. Her album This Girl’s In Love, which is a full Bacharach and David songbook, was championed by Bacharach himself.

If you only know one of her records, it is probably that one, and having her sing The Look Of Love in front of an orchestra arranged by Bacharach’s own man is about as close as anybody is going to get now to hearing these songs the way he wanted them.

Who Else Is On The Bill, And Who Might Not Be

Ed Harcourt is on it, the Mercury Prize nominated singer songwriter, along with Georgia van Etten, Woody Mankowski and Jana Varga as special guests.

Shaun Escoffery is the one to be careful with. He is the Olivier Award nominated singer best known for playing Mufasa in The Lion King, and he is on the tour, but the organisers have said to check with each venue for who is appearing where. See Tickets lists the Birmingham night as Rumer and Ed Harcourt, so it is worth checking with Symphony Hall before going purely to see Escoffery.

None of that is a problem if you are going for the songs, to be fair, because the songs are the reason the whole thing exists.

The Songs You Are Going To Hear

The setlist covers the ones everybody knows, even people who could not tell you Bacharach wrote them.

• The Look Of Love
• Walk On By
• Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
• Anyone Who Had A Heart
• Make It Easy On Yourself
• What The World Needs Now Is Love

Walk On By and Anyone Who Had A Heart in particular are songs a lot of people grew up with on their parents’ records, and hearing them with strings at full size in a hall like Symphony Hall is a different thing from hearing them on a speaker.

How Big The Catalogue Actually Is

According to the promoters, Bacharach had 73 US Top 40 hits and 52 UK Top 40 hits, along with 3 Academy Awards, 6 Grammys and an Emmy. Fifty two top 40 records in Britain alone is a ridiculous number for one songwriter, when you sit and think about it.

Shirakbari’s own line on it is that the songs are the star of the show, and the band is there to serve the music the way Bacharach intended. It is a fair way to put it, given how few of the people in the audience will have come for any one singer.

The Rest Of The Tour

Birmingham is the fourth night of the run.

• 5 October: Southend, Cliffs Pavilion, Rumer only
• 6 October: Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
• 7 October: Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
• 8 October: Birmingham, Symphony Hall
• 10 October: Gateshead, The Glasshouse
• 11 October: Halifax, Victoria Theatre
• 12 October: Leicester, De Montfort Hall

A Bournemouth date on 13 October was on the original list, but See Tickets now shows it as cancelled, so Leicester looks like the last stop. If Birmingham does not suit, Leicester on the Monday after is the nearest alternative.