University of Wolverhampton at The Halls: Civic Hall

Wolverhampton Civic Hall is one of the most important live music venues in the county, and has been for several decades. The hall was built in the late 1938 following a design competition in 1934 won by Lyons and Israel to build a large concert hall and a smaller hall (the Wulfrun Hall), for theatre and chamber performances. Construction commenced in April 1936 and the Halls were officially opened on 12 May 1938. The first concert was performed on the evening of May 16, 1938 by the Old Royals Association with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth and several other soloists.

The hall has continually run various entertainment events since its opening, although the events are now mostly popular music based. In recent years the venue has been in competition for many of the bigger names with Birmingham's O2 Academy, among others. Despite this the venue has attracted popular musicians including bands such as Blur and Radiohead. Many mid-sized acts have stopped at the venue on UK tours.

Comedians, such as Ken Dodd, Peter Kay and Jim Davidson, have appeared at the hall, which has also staged darts tournaments shown on Sky Sports and the Grand Slam of Darts shown on ITV4 and ITV1. Friday and Saturday nights are now dedicated to two long running club nights, 'Cheeky Monkey' and 'Blast Off' respectively. 'Blast Off' in particular has a large local following, with many regulars.