The
National Exhibition Centre (
NEC) is an exhibition centre in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is near junction 6 of the
M42 motorwayThe M42 motorway is a major road in England. The motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre and Tamworth on the way. The section between the M40 and M6 road forms...
, and is adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and
Birmingham International railway stationBirmingham International railway station is located in the borough of Solihull, just east of the city of Birmingham in England.The station is on the West Coast Main Line 14 km east of Birmingham New Street and serves both Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. The...
. It has 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 628 acres (2.54 km
2). It is the busiest and seventh largest exhibition centre in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
Opened by the Queen in February 1976, the first event to be staged at the venue was International Spring Fair and has returned every year since.
The
National Exhibition Centre (
NEC) is an exhibition centre in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is near junction 6 of the
M42 motorwayThe M42 motorway is a major road in England. The motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre and Tamworth on the way. The section between the M40 and M6 road forms...
, and is adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and
Birmingham International railway stationBirmingham International railway station is located in the borough of Solihull, just east of the city of Birmingham in England.The station is on the West Coast Main Line 14 km east of Birmingham New Street and serves both Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. The...
. It has 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 628 acres (2.54 km
2). It is the busiest and seventh largest exhibition centre in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
Opened by the Queen in February 1976, the first event to be staged at the venue was International Spring Fair and has returned every year since. Growing annually, the event now occupies all of The NEC's 20 halls, the LG Arena (formerly The NEC Arena) and is the largest single exhibition staged at the venue.
History
The NEC was originally going to be built adjacent to the M1 junction 21 near Leicester but it was turned down by Leicestershire County Council with claims that "The big shows won't move away from London".
In November 1971, the
Secretary of State for the EnvironmentThe Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
granted outline planning approval for the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The NEC, originally comprising 89,000 m
2 of exhibition space, was opened by
the QueenElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
in February 1976. The building was designed by Edward Mills.
In 1989, the Queen opened three further halls, increasing the space to 125,000 m
2. Four more halls were added in 1993, the total exhibition space increasing to 158,000 m
2. Another four new halls, opened in September 1998 by
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
,
European CommissionerA European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each Commissioner within the college holds a specific portfolio and are led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent of national ministers....
for Transport, took the total space to 190,000 m
2 (2,045,142 square feet). These buildings were designed by Seymour Harris.
As of 2009, The NEC is nearing completion of a five-year, £40 million venue improvement programme which has seen improvements made to everything from the car parking to signage, seating and catering. The most obvious result of this development has been the redesign of the Piazza - the central space around Halls 1 to 5, which has received a contemporary update.
Music
Since the 1980s, The NEC has hosted performances by many international musicians and music groups, several of which have played at The NEC Arena on more than one occasion. Canadian rock band
RushRush is a Canadian rock band originally formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
filmed their VHS and DVD release entitled
A Show of HandsA Show of Hands is a live album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1989. The band released a video of the same name, originally on VHS and laserdisc in 1989. A DVD version was released as part of a box set in 2006, and as an individual DVD in 2007...
at The NEC Arena in 1988. Some of this recording featured in the
the audio album of the same nameA Show of Hands is a live album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1989. The band released a video of the same name, originally on VHS and laserdisc in 1989. A DVD version was released as part of a box set in 2006, and as an individual DVD in 2007...
.
Status QuoStatus Quo, also known as The Quo or just Quo, are an English rock band whose music is characterized by their distinctive brand of boogie rock....
recorded the Live at the N.E.C. album (CD) there.
The
GenesisGenesis are a Grammy Award-winning English rock band formed in 1967, and are among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists of all time with approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, including 21.5 million albums sold in the United States. In 1988, the band won the Grammy Award for Best...
The Mama Tourright|thumb|300pxGenesis Live - The Mama Tour is a 1985 home video featuring footage from a Genesis concert in February 1984. It was filmed at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, and directed by Jim Yukich....
video was filmed there.
Tina TurnerTina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
recorded the
VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
for her 1985
Private Dancer TourThe Private Dancer Tour was the first solo concert tour by music legend Tina Turner.-Set List:# Let's Pretend We're Married
1# Show Some Respect# I Might Have Been Queen# River Deep Mountain High# What's Love Got To Do With It...
there. She is also the female artist with the most shows at the N.E.C., with 18 shows.
Iron Maiden recorded
Maiden EnglandMaiden England is a live video by the band Iron Maiden during their Seventh Son of a Seventh Son world tour, which was dubbed Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour....
at the NEC, during their
Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour in 1988.
The video for AC/DC song,
That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll"That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll" is a song and a single by Australian Hard rock band AC/DC. The song appeared on their 1988 album Blow Up Your Video as the second track...
was also recorded there, during their
Blow up your video tour in 1988.
In 1997 The NEC Arena hosted the
WWF One Night OnlyWWF One Night Only was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It was broadcast on September 20, 1997 on Sky Box Office from the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England....
PPV, as well as annually on UK Tours.
The Original Black Sabbath officially reunited at The NEC to record their live
ReunionReunion is a live album by heavy metal band Black Sabbath.After the departure of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Black Sabbath's line-up slowly lost stability in late 1983 and never quite recovered...
album on December 4 and 5, 1997.
LG Arena
The
LG Arena (formally The NEC Arena), host to large music concerts, is part of the complex. The 13,000 capacity NEC Arena was the largest multi-purpose arena in the UK when opening in the mid-1980s and although no longer the largest it is still a popular venue for touring acts. Together, The NEC and the LG Arena host over 3 million visitors each year.
From 1 September 2008, The NEC Arena was officially renamed as the LG Arena, following a naming-rights sponsorship deal with global electronics company LG. The Arena is currently undergoing a £29 million overhaul of its facilities, paid for by loans from Birmingham City Council and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
Set to be completed in November 2009, the work will include the installation of 2,000 new seats, hospitality, bars, restaurants and other customer facilities.
Shows
The NEC was home to the British International Motorshow from 1978 to 2004.
The NEC also hosts the
Clothes Show LiveThe Clothes Show Live is a consumer exhibition brand comprising of two shows held annually each May in ExCeL, London and December in Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre. The events showcase latest fashion, beauty and music trends on large and often interactive features and stands...
each year, with high street fashions, Model Scouts and Runway Shows. Major sporting events are also held at the venue including
Horse of the Year ShowThe Horse of the Year Show - also known as HOYS - was founded to be a culmination of the British equestrian events year. Because of this, the show needed to be held indoors, making it a unique event....
and the
British Open Show Jumping ChampionshipsThe British Open Show Jumping Championships were launched in 2003 and have been held indoors during April of every year since.For the first four years they were held at Sheffield Arena before moving to the NEC Arena, Birmingham in 2007....
.
Since 1991, the NEC has been the venue for the international dog show
CruftsCrufts is an annual international Championship conformation show for dogs organised and hosted by the Kennel Club, currently held every March at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England. It is the largest annual dog show in the world, as declared by Guinness World Records, and lasts...
. Held over four days and using five halls and the LG Arena,
Crufts attracts an estimated 160,000 visitors annually. The 1991 show was also
Crufts centenary year and as part of the celebrations to mark the occasion, the Guiness Book of Records gave official recognition of the events status as the worlds largest dog show, with 22,973 dogs being exhibited that year.
Euro Bus Expo
Euro Bus Expo is held annually at the UK's
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
National Exhibition Centre (NEC).
Car parks
The NEC offers 29,000 car parking spaces spread around the site, with a shuttle bus service operating to-and-from the car parks for the convenience of visitors.
In 2008 the all-day parking fee for public exhibitions was £8.00, which contributes directly to the upkeep of the car parks, running of the shuttle bus service, maintenance of road surfaces and lighting, and manning of the areas with traffic stewards.
NEC Group
Parent company The NEC Group also owns and operates The
National Indoor ArenaThe National Indoor Arena or The NIA is a large indoor arena and is owned by the NEC Group. It is situated in central Birmingham, England and was opened in 1991, as the largest indoor arena at the time in the UK...
(NIA) and
International Convention CentreThe International Convention Centre is a major conference venue in central Birmingham, England. The centre includes Symphony Hall and it faces Centenary Square. The building has another entrance leading to the canals of Birmingham...
(ICC), both in central Birmingham, and the LG Arena, based on The NEC site.
External links