Lighthouse Family to bring Ocean Drive tour to Symphony Hall in April, with tickets on sale Friday

Lighthouse Family, the pop-soul duo behind some of the most played songs of the 1990s, are bringing their new UK tour to Symphony Hall next spring, with tickets going on sale on Friday 13 November.

The duo will play the Birmingham venue on Friday 9 April 2027. The tour revisits their debut album, Ocean Drive, alongside fan favourites from across their catalogue.

Ocean Drive, more than 30 years on

Lighthouse Family were formed in Newcastle in the early 1990s by vocalist Tunde Baiyewu and songwriter, keyboard player and producer Paul Tucker. They went on to become one of Britain's most successful musical partnerships, selling more than 15 million albums worldwide.

Ocean Drive, released in 1995, introduced a sound built around Baiyewu's warm, distinctive voice and Tucker's gift for melodic, emotionally direct songs. Featuring Lifted, Ocean Drive and Goodbye Heartbreak, it was a breakthrough success and went six times platinum in the UK.

The 1997 follow-up, Postcards from Heaven, matched that achievement, with more favourites including High, Raincloud and Lost in Space.

A return after 18 years

Their third album, Whatever Gets You Through the Day, followed in 2001, before a long break. In 2019 they came back with Blue Sky in Your Head, their first studio album in 18 years, which reached number three in the UK album chart and showed how much affection audiences still had for them.

The new tour gives fans the chance to hear the songs that made their name, in a hall famous for its acoustics.

A busy year ahead at Symphony Hall

The announcement adds to a strong run of bookings for Birmingham's concert halls. Symphony Hall, which opened in 1991 and is run by the charity B:Music alongside Town Hall, is widely regarded as one of the finest concert halls in the world for sound, and is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Before then, both venues have a packed festive season, with live orchestral screenings of Christmas films, carols and seasonal shows running through December.

How to get tickets

Tickets for Lighthouse Family at Symphony Hall go on sale at 9.30am on Friday 13 November through the venue's website, bmusic.co.uk. Popular dates on anniversary tours tend to sell quickly, so fans should be ready when sales open, and should buy only from the venue or its official ticket partners to avoid inflated resale prices.

For many in Birmingham who grew up with Lifted and High on the radio, it is a chance to hear the songs that soundtracked the 1990s, live, in one of the city's best rooms.