We are delighted to say that after 4 years of research, fund raising and general blood sweat & tears Home Of Metal has finally opened. Here are some photos and we would encourage you to go and check out the exhibitions for yourself. Both the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery show (18th June – 25th Sept) and Wolverhampton Art Gallery exhibition (18th June – 17th Sept) opened this weekend in perfect time for Fathers Day. I was honoured to have spent the afternoon on Wednesday with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath doing a number of interviews, you can catch them on BBC Front Row and on 6 Music, there is a BBC Radio 2 dedicated programme being made too, I’ll post up details when aired.

The exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery explores the industrial backdrop of the region and how that impacted on bands like Black Sabbath & Judas Priest.

There are a selection of Judas Priest stage costumes as well as some examples of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbaths jackets on display – looking at the theatrics of Heavy Metal.

In our resource section you can have a go yourselves playing a selection of Gibson guitars – including Flying V’s

In this section see early Napalm Death flyers, fanzines, hand written lyrics and set lists

The exhibition is on till the 25th September – Tickets: Book online or ring 0121 303 1966, for further information and access details see HERE

Photos by Katja Ogrin

At Wolverhampton Art Gallery we have an exhibition entitled ‘You Should be Living’. Featured artists, include Matius Faldbakken, Ben Venom, Harminder Judge, Banks Violette, Amy Sarkisian, Seldon Hunt and Mark Titchner who use typography, vintage t-shirts, sculpture and sound to explore the varying aesthetics of Heavy Metal and its relationship to contemporary art. The artists, both national and international, take inspiration from the genre, whilst exploring notions of fantasy, chaos, performance and musical devotion.

Pictured the work of Amy Sarkisian + Jim Faure

In the Focus gallery there are a selection of images depicting the Black Country and it’s industry backdrop.

With a new commission by Damien Deroubaix & Nic Bullen referencing 30 years of Napalm Death.

The show at Wolverhampton is free – more information HERE

For the full Home Of Metal season of events & exhibitions see www.homeofmetal.com

“I’m really proud to be a Brummie and to call Birmingham my home, that’s why I’m supporting the Home of Metal events and message. Your surroundings and experiences influence your music so it’s important for people to know where that music came from!”  – Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath

Four decades since heavy metal was unleashed onto the world, Home of Metal arrives this summer, presenting a series of ambitious exhibitions and associated cultural programme which explore the foundations, social context and heritage of heavy metal culture, which has gone on to be a global phenomenon.

Tickets for our huge Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery exhibition are now on sale! Book them here.

18th June – 25 September 2011
Home of Metal: 40 years of Heavy Metal and its unique birthplace
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
http://www.homeofmetal.com
http://www.bmag.org.uk/

A selection of photos of fans from our last Home Of Metal open day at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery were featured in last weekends Guardian Magazine. The photos were taken by photographer Barry Lewis. As you can see there was a real cross section of fans in attendance old and young, Sabbath to Napalm fans coming together to share their passion for Birmingham & The Black Country.
As a result of the last open day Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery have committed to a large scale exhibition in Gas Hall for 2011, as have Wolverhampton Art Gallery and New Art Gallery Walsall – keep watching this space for further news.

Saturday 7th of Feb
Waterhall Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
11am – 4pm
Free event

11am – Doors open
Kerrang! Radio DJ in conversation with:
11.30 am –  Pete Turvey
http://www.rockinamoeba.co.uk/
Grew up in the mid/late seventies Birmingham metal scene. Lots of memories and memorabilia.

12.30 – Mike Clement
Mike Clement – “fell” into the rock and roll industry in the mid seventies whilst still at college in Manchester. Mike became a lighting designer working with a diverse range of artists in the late 70’s including Roy Harper, UK Subs, Wah Heat.
After a drunken encounter with an old friend, Ian Wilson from Sad Café, at local watering hole Mulberries, he was persuaded to take a new career direction looking after backline, taking up the challenge he spent the next 4 years working with Motorhead, looking after Lemmy and Wurzel for his sins! Early 1990 he got a call to be guitar tech for Sabbath and has been there ever since…”

1.00pm Chris Phipps – Music Archivist
Chris Phipps is a Birmingham born documentary maker, archivist and music historian. His credits include  ‘Motor City Music Years’, profiling the rock history of the West Midlands, the definitive ‘Bob Marley – Time Will Tell’ biopic, an award winning history of North England rock ‘North Stars’ and countless Top 100 TV formats.  As journalist, radio and TV producer he has tracked the evolution of blues-rock, metal and the NWOBHM for over 3 decades.

As an archivist he has worked closely with director Dick Carruthers on ‘Metal–Louder Than Life’ DVD and sell out  ‘Zeppelin at 40’ shows all over the UK.
He was also the assistant producer of Channel 4’s controversial music show The Tube. Enabling TV debuts to bands ranging from Fine Young Cannibals to Twisted Sister.

Followed by a screening of Motor City Music Years
4pm Museum closes
6pm – till late Drinks at Scruffy Murphys

Just in time for our next Home Of Metal event which is due to take place in the Waterhall Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday 7th of Feb 11am – 4pm, a short taster film put together from our previous open days at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of Hello Digital (1000 in attendance) followed by an evening event at New Art Gallery Walsall  with a special live performance by Einstellung.
Special guests for Saturday 7th will include music archivist Chris Phipps, producer of the documentary Motor City Music Years, and assistant producer of The Tube. He will be in conversation with Johnny Doom at 1pm, followed by a screening of his documentary which profiled the rock history of the West Midlands.

Photographer Barry Lewis will also be at the museum taking photographs of Metal fans for the Guardian Saturday Magazine – some of you may remember him from his White Tent project which he set up  with Rhubarb Rhubarb in the Bull Ring.

The film was created by Ella Turner, Matt Taylor and Martin Poyntz-Roberts and of course the project could not happen with out the hard work of the our volunteers.

Our next Home Of Metal open day (think antiques roadshow for fans of Metal) takes place in Waterhall at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday 7th of Feb, from 11am to 4pm.

Bring along your memorabilia, photos, old tickets, T-shirts, patches fanzines etc as well as your personal stories to be recorded and added to the Home Of Metal archive.
The event will be hosted by none other than Brummie of the year, Kerrang! Radio presenter Johnny Doom, with a host of guests, as well as a selection of memorabilia which will be on display.

The event is free – all welcome.

The BBC Midlands Today featured The Home Of Metal Open Day which took place last Thursday at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Watch here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7722704.stm

Next open day at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday 7th of Feb – plenty of time for you to hunt out your photos, programmes, ticket stubs and stories. Or you can upload your own images to the archive and contribute to this project, which aims to celebrate Birmingham & The Black Country as the birth place of Heavy Metal.