'Home Of Metal' Exhibit Celebrating 40 Years Of Heavy Metal; Video Footage Available

July 2, 2011

I Am Birmingham has uploaded a nine-minute video report on "Home Of Metal - Celebrating Music From Birmingham And The Black Country", a one-of-a-kind exhibit celebrating 40 years of heavy metal and its unique birthplace. The exhibition runs until September 25 at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in Birmingham, England. Check it out below.

Over the past four years, "Home Of Metal" has scoured the U.K. and beyond for relics, artefacts, memorabilia and interesting stories. The show will offer an insight into the region's industrial history, the early blues-rocks sound, the changing music industry, DIY politics and the global impact of the sound as well as a chance to hear stories from both the fans and the artists.

"Perhaps it's been a little backwards about coming forwards," Nic Bullen, founder of Birmingham-based grindcore band NAPALM DEATH, told CNN.com.

"Birmingham has to some extent always been insular, not by some sort of elitist philosophy, simply because it exists within itself, so why reach out? But this musical heritage is important to people across the world, so it's worth celebrating," he continued.

"Since we were so-called inventors of this music, and coming from Birmingham and all the surrounding things that are going on, it's really great for Birmingham and it's really great for us all," BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi who has been involved with the project told the BBC.

He added, "I wasn't familiar with [the term 'heavy metal'] for quite a few years. I mean, I always looked at what we did as heavy rock. And when that term was first mentioned to me Somebody said, 'Oh, you play heavy metal.' And I said, 'What? What's that?' And this was a journalist from a well-known magazine. He said, 'Well, that's what you play it's heavy metal.' And I'd been in America for quite awhile, so when I came back and I heard this term, I'd never heard it. And, of course, ever since that, that's been non-stop. I still think we're heavy rock, but you are put into a bag, and I'm quite proud of it now."

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).