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

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.

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.

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!

On display at Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Saturday, then The New Art Gallery Walsall on the 6th Nov.

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.

On Saturday 25th of October at our Open day at Wolverhampton Art Gallery we have some special guests in conversation with Kerrang! Radio DJ – the legendary Johnny Doom, a stalwart of the Midlands Metal scene.

Jim Simpson 12am – 1pm in conversation with Johnny Doom

Jim Simpson
Birmingham-based Big Bear, so called after the nickname given to Simpson by legendary DJ, John Peel, runs one of the oldest independent labels in the UK, specialising in jazz, blues and swing artists, although it has also been successful in other music genres.
Jim is the unsung hero of Heavy Metal, he ran the progressive club, Henry’s Blueshouse where he inspired Robert Plant, Jon Bonham, Judas Priest and a plethora of others all of whom came see the legendary American Blues artists Simpson programmed back in the day.
He managed Sabbath for their first three albums, which included the seminal ‘Black Sabbath’ album, then Paranoid and Master of Reality.

Digby Pearson, Earache Records founder 2pm – 3pm in conversation with Johnny Doom

The label has made its name releasing some of the most brutal albums of the past two decades. Earache has been home to such outfits as the legendary Napalm Death and Godflesh as well as a host of other extreme bands. Earache’s artists have set the standard for cutting-edge, uncompromising music.
But just as inspiring is the story of how it came to be. Nowadays, internet wizardry or a truckload of cash can be a band’s best friend, but in the early days, Earache had neither. All it had was one man; founder, patriarch and self-confessed obsessive, Digby ‘Dig’ Pearson.

Dig built Earache the old-fashioned way – through word-of-mouth, determination and an unswerving belief in his bands, though his outlook on the last two decades is a tad modest under the circumstances.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery – Open Day Saturday 25th October 10am – 4.30pm
Free Event – refreshments provided – all welcome

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.