It’s been a big year for the Shelbys. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man brought the family back to screens in March, and now their music is coming home. Candlelight: Peaky Blinders is heading to Birmingham Cathedral, right in the city where the whole saga is set. This time, the drama comes from the music, with a classical tribute to the sounds of the Shelby world.
Most of the world met Small Heath through a TV screen. Brummies didn’t need the introduction. Canal-side streets, back-to-back houses, the hum of industrial Birmingham—this is Shelby territory, and it’s the city’s own story coming home by candlelight. Sign up to the waitlist for early ticket access, 24 hours before the general sale.
Birmingham Cathedral
Peaky Blinders: where Birmingham history meets Shelby fiction
The real Peaky Blinders were a Birmingham street gang dating back to the 1880s—the founding year is widely given as 1887—with their base in Small Heath and Cheapside. They’d faded by the early 1920s, so the series moves their heyday into that decade, and the Shelby family itself is fictional. The name is all about style: historian Carl Chinn is commonly credited with linking “peaky” to a peaked flat cap and “blinder” to Brummie slang for something smart or dapper.
Steven Knight’s BBC drama ran for six series from 2013 to 2022, winning Best Drama Series at the 2018 BAFTA TV Awards and several National Television Awards. Along the way, it built a Shelby family legend that reached far beyond the Birmingham streets where the story began.
Candlelight: Peaky Blinders in Birmingham: a tribute show in the city where it all began
Peaky Blinders is known for pairing its period setting with modern rock, which is exactly why it suits dark, powerful arrangements in a room lit by thousands of candles. Expect “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—the show’s opening theme—and Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?”. That’s a Sheffield band, so the soundtrack stays proudly English from the first bar.
The concert runs for 60 minutes, and the arrangements keep the weight and edge of the originals rather than smoothing them over. There’s no dress code, but if a sharp three-piece and a flat cap are good enough for Tommy Shelby, they’re good enough for a night at the cathedral.
Peaky Blinders joins a growing line-up of Candlelight tributes that already includes Bridgerton, Outlander and The Wizard of Oz. None of those, mind, can claim Birmingham as home. This one’s story starts in Small Heath, give or take a hundred years.
Dates and tickets haven’t been announced yet. Join the waitlist to be first to hear when they are, with presale access before tickets go on general sale.
PEAKY BLINDERS © 2013 – 2026 Garrison Drama Limited. Peaky Blinders is a registered trademark, used under license from Banijay Entertainment.
Candlelight: Peaky Blinders – Waitlist
Birmingham Cathedral
