Birmingham's shrines to Black Sabbath and where to find them
More than 40,000 Black Sabbath fans will be making their way to Birmingham in July for what is being described as "the greatest heavy metal show ever", marking the last ever performance of the band. The gig will be the first time that the original line-up - Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - have played together in 20 years. The day of metal will also see performances from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Halestorm, Anthrax and more.Thousands of people without tickets to the Villa Park event are expected to be in the city to soak up the atmosphere.Here are some of the sights and sounds visitors can enjoy.
Ozzy the very heavy metal bull
Fans entering Birmingham via New Street Station will get an indication of the city's links to the musical legend in the form of what started life as a huge piece of metal. The giant mechanical bull, which was the much-loved centrepiece to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, was officially named Ozzy and endorsed by the frontman himself. The 10m (33ft) high beast on the Grand Central concourse is a draw for selfies, and was unveiled in its home by Ozzy's wife Sharon in 2023.He was originally made of aluminium but rebuilt using fire-retardant plastic and foam to ensure longevity in his prominent home. A real treat is when Ozzy also moves his head and swishes his tail every hour, from 08:15 to 19:15.
Bostin' Black Sabbath murals
A few metres away from the station, Navigation Street is home to the latest piece of street art dedicated to the Prince of Darkness.Created by artist Mr Murals, the 40m (130ft) work depicts Ozzy and the band throughout the past seven decades. While creating the artwork, he was even caught off guard when he received a surprise visit from Sharon Osbourne during a trip to the city.
Another mural, dating further back, can be found in the Digbeth area of the city. Head for the short stay car park at the city's coach station on Rea Street to take in this view.
Visit the birthplace of heavy metal
The next unmissable spot on the Black Sabbath tour is The Crown pub on Hill Street.It was here in1968 that the band, then named Earth, played their first gig. Visitors are unable to enter the building, which the owners say they plan to restore, but images of the band have been displayed on the pub's exterior. "I don't think there's any doubt that Birmingham can lay claim to being the birthplace of heavy metal," said Jez Collins, founder of the Birmingham Music Archive.Other artists to play at the venue have included Robert Plant, John Bonham, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzie, he said."It has an incredible story and heritage to tell."Free exhibitions will also be on show at the city's Museum and Art Gallery as well as Victoria Square. Fans can also visit Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens where a microphone and recording equipment used to make Sabbath's first studio recordings will be on show.
Trace the musical history
From The Crown you can trace the rise of Black Sabbath by walking past other venues they played, including "one of the great buildings of Birmingham", the Town Hall, added Mr Collins. "They'd have played at the Odeon, which is now just a cinema, and ended up at the Town Hall, which is two minutes from The Crown," he explained. "So you can plot their journey from a very, very small, intimate gig with 120 people into a bigger hall of a thousand, into a bigger hall where Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan played."
Pilgrimage to the bench
Carrying on to Broad Street you'll find another picture opportunity at the Black Sabbath bridge and bench."The really cool thing about the bridge for me is that most of the bands that you love and have played in Birmingham in recent years have made a special pilgrimage to it," said Birmingham journalist and metal fan Kirsty Bosley. Pantera, who are playing the Villa Park show dubbed "Back To The Beginning", are among artists to have posted images recently of themselves at the landmark. "It's a lovely photo opportunity and you'll be able to see all the tagged photos that other bands and artists, which is really cool," she added.
Take the Ozzy tram
In 2016 the frontman graced his home city to name a Midland Metro tram Ozzy, with thousands turning out to welcome the star. It is still running in the city, but West Midlands Metro said it was unable to give an exact timetable of where it was running during the weekend, but advised fans to look out on its social media channels for information nearer the time.
Get up the Villa
With or without a ticket, taking a trip to Aston itself would be valuable for fans wanting to soak up the atmosphere.The football club's shop would be among those helping "dress the city" in Sabbath colours for the weekend. During a walk around the area fans could also visit the schools band members attended.Young Ozzy was a pupil Prince Albert Junior School while Geezer went to Holte Grammar, Mr Collins said."And if you want to have a bit to eat you can stop at the Barton Arms which is opposite what was called Newtown Leisure Centre," he added. "That's where they rehearsed the first two albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid, but they would leave their rehearsals and go into the Barton Arms, and sit and have a pint."
See 'amazing little music venues'
Ms Bosley urged visitors not to forget "amazing little venues" across the city that have supported the heavy metal scene and will be putting on events. The Flapper on Cambrian Wharf and Scruffy Murphy's on Dale End are among those worth a visit."Spend a bit of time there, spend a bit of money there and get a real feel for the very thing that connects us, which is in this case heavy metal," she added. Sabbath's original manager, Jim Simpson, has also programmed performances dubbed the Visit of Oz across the city in pubs, bars and even a canal boat. "The eyes of the whole world are going to be upon us," added Ms Boswell, "and it's going to be really special".She said the city's heavy metal community normally "operates in dark spaces" but the weekend was an opportunity to "come into the light and be championed". "The vibe is just going to be impeccable, I know it."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
37 minutes ago
- Sky News
From niche to a billion pound industry: How immersive events have taken over
While cinemas are struggling and London's West End has witnessed a significant escalation in ticket prices, creatives behind immersive experiences say their sector is experiencing "a gold rush moment". From shows built around obvious fan bases - such as Mamma Mia! The Party - to those working with established intellectual property, including Squid Game: The Experience, the UK has proven to be a world leader when it comes shows that make audiences feel part of the action, rather than just observers. Little Lion Entertainment are the team behind two shows currently running in the UK: Pac-Man Live in Manchester and the Crystal Maze Live in London. Its CEO Tom Lionetti told Sky News: "There has been a real boom in the experience economy… It kind of feels like a bit of a gold rush moment in this industry. "It's not nascent anymore, it really is a big industry and it's getting bigger. "West End theatre is incredibly expensive at the moment and even cinema can be expensive for what it is, so I think it's about caring about the experience … you've got to consider value for money these days." Their Crystal Maze show challenges ticketholders to climb through tunnels and collect crystals just like contestants on the '90s programme. And it's one of the longest-running immersive shows in the world, still going strong in London 15 years after the concept was first staged. "The genesis really was this idea of breaking the fourth wall," Lionetti says. "I was an actor and I come from a theatre background, but what we were really intrigued with was giving people agency so you become the star of the show." Last year, according to the Gensler Research Institute's 2025 Immersive Entertainment & Culture Industry Report, the global market for immersive entertainment was valued at £98bn - and it's projected to reach £351bn by 2030. Despite times being financially tough post-pandemic, while cinemas have been struggling to put bums on seats, the continued popularity of experience events could indicate consumers are being a little more choosy about what they spend their hard-earned wages on. Our eagerness to show off on social media could also account for some of what's driving the boom, as well as the isolating nature of how technology-dependant we've become. As Secret Cinema's senior creative director, Matt Costain, explains: "Whether it's competitive socialising or immersive experiences, people are look for something that offers them more… and this is an example of an activity where people can come together and have a sense of community." Secret Cinema - which combines live performance and film screenings - has been staging events for 15 years now. In that time, they've partnered with major studios from Marvel to Netflix. Their latest offering will run from August see them bring Grease's Rydell High to life. Costain says: "When we first started this was niche, film fans who wanted to dress up and keep a secret… but immersive has moved mainstream and we've found ourselves one of two or three companies who've been in it since the beginning. "Part of our job as artists is to help people remember that they really love to play." He jokes that those "who find it the most difficult to get started" are invariably the ones "at 11pm with their tie tied around their head and dancing on a table". While there are many shows working with established intellectual property (IP), there are also some hugely creative original works also being produced - Storehouse being one of those. For 16 weeks, attendees at Staged in Deptford, which was once the archival store for Rupert Murdoch's News International, will be guided through a story that takes place inside a 'digital memory palace' that supposedly houses every story, message, memory, and meme since the dawn of the internet. Produced by Sage & Jester, its lead producer Rosalyn Newbery explains: "You're not moving into a theatre with infrastructure, put it this way, we literally had to bring electricity to the venue, bring power to the venue, bring water to the venue, none of that was there for us… it's a big old job and there's a lot of detail that you can't take for granted." Over 7,000 crew worked more than 57,000 hours to build the set. Getting a show of this size and scale off the ground is a feat in itself. As creative director Sophie Larsmon says: "There are a lot of people trying to get these projects off the ground and there are a lot of projects that never see the light of day…because of the hoops that have to be jumped through for licensing and financing. "It takes huge amounts of creative effort, I've seen a lot of projects where quite late in the process the green light is taken away." While some creators might struggle to access support because the work doesn't fit into traditional cultural boxes, it is certainly an industry that's worth shining a spotlight on. As Larsom says: "The UK has always led the way in developing this form… I think people are cottoning on to the fact that this is a sector [that's] going to be a big revenue earner for the UK."
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Dua Lipa review — playing it safe at sold-out Wembley
Playing her largest ever headline concert at the first of two back-to-back hometown mega-shows, Dua Lipa strutted through a two-hour maximalist spectacular of costume changes, confetti blizzards and weapons-grade pyrotechnics as 90,000 screaming fans packed into a sold-out Wembley Stadium. This show boasted more sequins than stars in the Milky Way, a glittery catwalk parade of precisely engineered corsets, and the hardest working hair in showbusiness. Just enough glamazon razzle-dazzle, in fact, to elevate Lipa's oddly anodyne music, which remained in generic dance-pop mode for most of the evening. Plenty of killer outfits, too few killer tunes. Falling a year after the 29-year-old British-Albanian diva topped Glastonbury's main stage, these Wembley performances mark the British launch of Lipa's year-long Radical Optimism world tour, which kicked off in Australia last November. Divided into four acts, the set was sprinkled with tracks from the 2024 chart-topping album of the same name, which in fairness sounded more sparkly and dynamic than their studio versions, especially the opening stomper Training Season and the warmly melodic Falling Forever. In Taylor Swift fashion, Lipa has been punctuating this tour with bespoke cover versions that change every night, including a few guest duets featuring the original artists themselves. Having previously tackled classic crowd-pleasers by AC/DC, Kylie, Daft Punk and more, she called on Jay Kay of Jamiroquai for her Wembley debut. Now grey of stubble but still reliably goofy of headgear, Kay shared vocals on his vintage 1996 funk-pop hit Virtual Insanity. Anyone under the age of 40, which was most of the audience, appeared slightly baffled but cheered politely anyway. For a mainstream star with multiple global chart-toppers, three Grammy awards and billions in streaming sales, Lipa has an impressively rich cultural hinterland. Alongside the usual catalogue of luxury brand endorsements and charitable causes she also hosts a respected podcast interviewing authors, politicians, business leaders and fellow stars. She is commendably outspoken on politics, even contentious issues such as Israel and Palestine. Patti Smith recently endorsed Lipa as a feminist trailblazer, which is both surreal and sweet. The pity is that very little of this extra-curricular depth filtered through to her carefully polished stage persona in Wembley. Instead, Lipa peppered the set with bland boy-meets-girl lyrics, beaming selfies with fans and obligatory humble expressions of gratitude to the audience for making her teenage pop-star dreams come true. Which was charmingly soppy but, for such an obviously bright and engaged artist, dull to an almost calculated degree. After a dazzling, gravity-defying interlude on an elevated podium stage ringed by fire, Lipa galvanised herself for the finale with a disco-tastic medley of stronger tracks including her breakthrough hit New Rules, her Grammy-winning Barbie soundtrack contribution Dance the Night, and her almost-anthemic recent smash Houdini. In high-energy performance terms, she gave us everything. But in the confessional, funny, emotionally vulnerable terms that make good pop stars truly great, she gave us almost nothing. Businesslike to the last note, with an almost Tom Cruise-level of steely professionalism, the sense she left behind was a laser-focused star who knows how to work a room brilliantly, even when it's the biggest room in Britain.★★★☆☆Dua Lipa plays Wembley Stadium on Saturday, June 21, and Anfield Stadium in Liverpool on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24 and 25. Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Dua Lipa brings out Jamiroquai at emotional Wembley debut
Dua Lipa treated fans to a surprise appearance by Jamiroquai, as she played her first ever show at Wembley Stadium. Bringing out the band's frontman Jay Kay for a one-off performance of his 1996 hit Virtual Insanity, the star said he was 'a massive trailblazer for British music".Their performance came half-way through a stunning two-hour show, that saw Lipa tear through hits like Physical, One Kiss, New Rules and Levitating. 'This is such a massive, massive milestone for me,' she told her 70,000 fans. 'I've had a lump in my throat from the moment this show started.' Some dedicated fans had camped out since Thursday to see the singer's UK stadium debut, braving temperatures that exceeded 31C. 'It means the absolute world to me that you're here tonight,' she told them during the show. 'It feels like I've waited my whole life for this moment.' Reflecting on her ascent to the top tier of pop music, the 29-year-old added: 'It's been 10 years since our first ever London show, which happened to be about 350 people, and I dreamt of a night like this.''To be in front of 70,000 people. I'm so, so blown away." She then introduced one of her earliest singles, Hotter Than Hell, telling fans it was the track that had earned her a recording contract. Since then, she has stockpiled an enviable selection of armour-played hits, most of which got an airing on Friday night. The show began with a new-agey wash of ocean sounds, that segued seamlessly into her 2024 single, Training Season. Lipa sang the first verse slowly, over a sultry orchestral backing. But before long, the band kicked into gear, and the disco pulse barely let up for the next two hours. In many respects, the set played like an extended remix of her triumphant Glastonbury performance last year - full of pin-sharp choreography and fiercely futuristic pop. Her voice remains a strong point - resonant and flexible, with a hint of the rasp she inherited from her father, Albanian rock singer Dukajin Lipa. It was particularly effective on the cascading vocal runs of Falling Forever, and the Flamenco-flavoured Maria. Somehow, Lipa managed not to lose her breath, despite demanding, body-rolling dance routines that only occasionally recalled Jane Fonda's 1980s keep fit videos. She leaned into the schtick with an interlude instructing her fans to "move those hips" over the intro to Physical. Jay Kay arrived to a scream of recognition from older members of the audience, suited up in a tasseled white cowboy jacket and pink jeans. "What a privilege and an honour to be on stage with you," said the singer, before launching into Virtual Insanity - a song that became a hit when Dua was just one year songs, the star spent time getting personal with fans in the front row - borrowing their phones to pose for selfies, signing records (side note: who on earth brings a vinyl record to the front row of a stadium concert?) and even appropriating one person's scarf to accentuate her own stage outfit. It was a simple, but personal, touch that helped to illustrate why the star has become only the second British woman after Adele to headline Wembley Stadium. Watched from the stands by her family, including fiancé Callum Turner, she wrapped up the show with a flawless four-song encore that included some of her biggest hits: New Rules, Don't Start Now and Dance The finished with the psychedelic pop smash Houdini, ratcheting up the tension with a flurry of fireworks as she head-banged to a shredding guitar solo. Then the music suddenly stopped and she vanished in a cloud of smoke. A powerhouse performance from a star at the top of their game, it was proof that you don't need giant mechanical props or cutting edge video technology to pull off a compelling stadium show. Sometimes, the right songs, the right choreography and a generous helping of feel-good energy are enough. As an added bonus, that keeps the tickets affordable: The most expensive seats cost £155, compared to some stadium shows this summer, where prices have topped £900. Lipa continues her Radical Optimism tour with a second night at Wembley on Saturday, followed by dates in Liverpool and London before the North American leg kicks off in September. Dua Lipa's Wembley stadium setlist Training SeasonEnd of an EraBreak My HeartOne KissWhatcha DoingLevitatingThese WallsHotter Than HellVirtual Insanity (with Jamiroquai)MariaPhysicalElectricityHallucinateIllusionFalling ForeverHappy for YouLove AgainAnything For LoveBe the OneEncore:New RulesDance the NightDon't Start NowHoudini
