Another busy week ahead firstly we have Constellation Records latest signing Seattle-based group THE DEAD SCIENCE with support from the incredible one man guitar/drums band THEO (for fans of Battles, Oxes, Steve Reich) and Brummie post rock favs UNA CORDA – thats at the Hare & Hounds on this Wednesday.
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The Dead Science talk through some of their artwork.


Una Corda -‘Three’

Followed on Thursday by our next HOME OF METAL event at The New Art Gallery Walsall 6pm – 9pm FREE EVENT

With special live performance by Einstellung ‘… A Touch Of Sabbath’
Einstellung are proud to have the opportunity to pay homage to Sabbath and thank them for allowing four like minds to meet. For this special evening Einstellung will be performing a Sabbath inspired piece. If you listen carefully within the simplistic motorik beats and slabs of Sabbath inspired riffage you may well be raising those metal fists in the air to some monstrously well know Sabbath gems.

The evening will be hosted by Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom with special guest Nicholas Bullen (one of the founding members of Napalm Death – responsible for inventing Grindcore)

We have been lucky enough to be given a handful of ‘Halford Live at Rock In Rio III’ Promos to give away, so don’t forget to hunt out your old ticket stubs, programmes, photos and stories relating to the innovators of the genre – Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Napalm Death and Godflesh!

Last Saturday was an overwhelming success with Wolverhampton Art Gallery reporting over 970 people in attendance at our first Home Of Metal open day, we had everyone from small kids, to teenagers right through to the more distinguished older gentlemen. We all had a blast and are incredibly grateful to Kate Williams Pryror and her team at Wolverhampton for all their hard work, Johnny Doom from Kerrang! Radio for hosting the day and for his interviews with our special guests Jim Simpson and Digby Pearson.

The website has now been launched and over the next week or so we will be adding the digitised artefacts to the archive – check out www.homeofmetal.com

Here are a few photos taken by Naz, from the day to give you a feel for what happened;

Johnny Doom interviewing Jim Simpson

A selection of press clippings and photos on display

Adults and kids making badges & colouring in Black Sabbath picture by Aye Jaye

Godflesh  & Napalm Death related cabinet courtesy of Earache Records – included hand written lyrics, original art work mock ups (old school hand made cut n paste)

Judas Priest & Black Sabbath cabinet of treasures

Led Zeppelin cabinet with rare Russian release of Stairway To Heaven (Courtesy of Lisa Bardsley) and only known official 7″ release of Stairway To Heaven (Courtesy of Nigel Dodds)
Home Of Metal family tree created by Francesca Bunny Williams

Fascinating stuff!

A rare outing for this Robert Plant painting by John Judkins ‘Pop Star ’73’- part of Wolverhamptons permanent collection.

Stuart Williams from Walsall local history archive

Teenage kicks!

The pace is definitely quickening as Saturday approaches, we were at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery yesterday, dropping off the bits and pieces of memorabilia along with a variety of old press clippings to put on display, we also did a photo shoot for the Express & Star as well as a little practice run with our wonderful group of volunteers – here we all are in our HOME OF METAL T-shirts which were kindly sponsored by Fly53. Aren’t we a happy bunch!!! Now its heads down to add all the content to launch the archive.

Photo by Najma Hussain

Earlier in the week myself and two of our team Dunc and Bill went on Kerrang! Radio and did an interview with Johnny Doom, talked all about why Capsule had initiated the project and why Bill & Dunc wanted to get involved –  you can listen to here.

L-R : Johnny Dooms plastic bag(!!!!), Johnny Doom, Bill and Dunc.

Saturday 25th October : Wolverhampton Art Gallery 10am – 4.30pm
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
Lichfield Street
Wolverhampton, WV1
01902 552 055

We launch the first series of open days at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of Hello Digital Festival. Home of Metal is a brand new project aimed at creating the first digital archive of metal music, memorabilia and fans stories, to tell the story of this unique moment of Midlands’ musical heritage. Launching at Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Saturday 25 October, 10am – 4.30pm, the project coincides with the 40th anniversary of when the term ‘heavy metal’ was coined by music journalist Lester Bangs when describing Black Sabbath.

The launch event at the city centre Art Gallery encourages fans of Judas Priest, Napalm Death, Godflesh, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin to come along and share their experiences of their favourite band. Fans are encouraged to bring memorabilia along with their personal stories to the gallery to be recorded – all of which will go towards the new digital archive, which aims to tell the true story of the birth place of metal. – Think antiques roadshow for Metal fans!

Each open day will be hosted by Kerrang! Radio DJ – the legendary Johnny Doom, a stalwart of the Midlands Metal scene, accompanied by special guests from industry or genre. A selection of memorabilia will be on display as well as screenings of film documentation and interviews from the bands. Refreshments will also be provided. Dig out your old ticket stubs, T-shirts, fanzines and bring them along, its a FREE EVENT so everyone welcome, curious folks too!

Next open days: Thursday 6th November at New Art Gallery Walsall 6pm – 9pm (with special performance by Einstellung) and then Saturday 7th Feb at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.