Sep 7: Cities and Music #8: Birmingham

Birmingham is the home of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. The band was founded in the city, with the four original members: Terence "Geezer" Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward. Ozzy passed away in 2025.

The band were part of a wave of heavy metal bands at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Here's 'Paranoid'.

In June 2025, they were given the freedom of the city.

This was ahead of their last ever concert with lots of special guests in July 2025.

It was expected to give a boost of £20 million to the local economy and also raised millions for charity.

There are a number of murals and other shrines to Sabbath around the city. 

It includes a new one in Navigation Street and a bridge with bench for your selfie. There is also Ozzy the bull from the Commonwealth Games at New Street Station.

Black Sabbath Bridge, Birmingham - image copyright: Jon Hird

The band were closely linked with the origins of heavy metal, allegedly because of the noise of industry inspiring their music.

Birmingham is also the home of the NEC: a venue that I visited many times over the years, always with a bit of trepidation about the traffic and parking and route finding. This was a bit of a barn and filled by larger bands such as Genesis, Yes and Rush.

I haven't been back for some years.

I have a signed print of Birmingham which was printed by Cold War Steve.

It's called Benny's Babbies, and you can see a key on the link above. This shows some musicians and other cultural people associated with the city. 

How many can you recognise before you check the key?

Along with Sabbath, other bands associated with Birmingham include Judas Priest (another heavy metal band), UB40, the Moody Blues and Duran Duran, plus the Fine Young Cannibals.

Its culture of popular music started in the 1950s.

Ozzy died in July 2025, just a few weeks after the final reunion performance of the band at Aston Villa Football Club's stadium.

Other bands in what has been called the Iron Triangle include Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest.

Which bands have I missed?

Aug 22: Cold War Steve's latest work

Cold War Steve has produced a cultural collage representing the West Midlands. He has previously created work specific to Birmingham (I have a framed and signed copy of that one). This covers a broader area. Slade in pride of place at the top there.

A list of the artists featured is on the web page if you want to test how many you can identify.

On his website he says:

‘I’m a Brummie and I’ve created Birmingham works before (although not solely concentrating on music) and I was always a bit frustrated by the strict parameters I’d set myself. They had to be from Birmingham – even if they were just down the road in Walsall or Coventry they didn’t make the cut – which I was able to do, because Birmingham has been blessed with such a rich history of creative artists. However, I wondered how even more magnificent it would be if I just widened the net a little. The joy with my Manchester piece was the prefix of ‘Greater’ – with ‘Greater’ Manchester I wasn’t restricted to a self-imposed rigid geographical area. I could encompass not just the actual city of Manchester, but also Salford, Oldham, Stockport, Bury etc. So now I present to you my WEST MIDLANDS MAGNUS OPUS!"

You can buy a copy of this, or some of his other work from the website.

Check out his Manchester version here too, which I'd missed seeing.

From 808 State to Herman’s Hermits, via Georgie Fame, Marcus Intalex, Happy Mondays, DJ Paulette, Mark E Smith, Mr Scruff, Lonelady, Space Afrika, the Bee Gees, Demdike Stare and so many more.

He's also worked on a similar collage for Sheffield. I see John Shuttleworth there....

It's called 'Sheffield - it's alright'.

The name of the piece comes from the late Steve Mackey of Pulp, who once described how people in Sheffield downplay things compared to those in other cities. To describe something, you really love can simply be reflected as "alright".

Jun 18: Three years ago today...

I was watching Peter Gabriel's i/O tour at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham...  and the nearly 40 year old tour t-shirt I wore is also pictured....

Images: Alan Parkinson

Apr 30: Music Murals

Some cities are known for their street art. This can sometimes be based on local musical icons, including those who have passed away - acting as a memorial perhaps, or a reminder of their influence.

Image: Alan Parkinson - just off Brick Lane, shared on Flickr under CC license

There are several sites which post these, including on Instagram.

Birmingham has its fair share of murals linked with Black Sabbath.

Sheffield has Jarvis Cocker on the side of the Fat Cat in Kelham Island.

Please share any musical murals from your own home area.

Add them to the Google Form here.

Update

Thanks very much to Briley Habib for sending me the following image.

Image: Briley Habib

She says that the image can be found at Barranco, Lima, Peru. It is located at a bridge in an area popular with buskers, and the mural explores Afro-Peruano music.

Jan 16: Cities and Music: an introduction

There are many cities which have a particular connection with music, and led to the development of a particular 'sound', or had their moment when a whole range of bands emerged from their music scene. 

Some of the UK examples would include Liverpool (of course), Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol etc. The recent Oasis reunion was a reminder of their close connections to a particular city.

From the USA we would have to mention Seattle and Detroit as obvious examples too. Motown and Grunge....

"To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.” 

Marshall Berman

Cultural Landscapes are one aspect of cities which I've explored a lot, thanks to the influence of Simon Oakes, Jo Norcup, Alex Schafran and a whole range of other culturally-inclined geographers.

Also check out the excellent book: 'Hit Factories: a journey through the industrial cities of British pop' by Karl Whitney (which was published in 2019).

I will be revisiting this book this year and hope to work some ideas up into a unit of work on music and cities. This blog is part of that work, as it will gather further ideas from you, the readers and visitors.

I'm hoping to complete a curriculum resource on musical cities and the benefits to the economy, creative industries, soft power and the rest.

Thanks to Jo Norcup for the following link as well which was posted some years ago now, related to the links to music from Birmingham. 

Home of Metal in @guardian.

One hell of a city: how Birmingham embraced its heavy metal legacy https://t.co/c2FGDeqI98

— Home Of Metal (@homeofmetaluk) June 23, 2019

This became much more significant recently with the passing of Ozzy Osbourne and his funeral. Black Sabbath Bridge will certainly have a lot more visitors. Their appearance at the Commonwealth Games and the creation of Ozzy the bull have also added to cementing the legacy of this band within the city and beyond.

Carl Lee mentioned quite a few extra things in his book 'Home' on Sheffield. I shall be coming back to that as well and Carl will be contributing to the blog as the year progresses.

I will also revisit this Guardian piece.

What cities do you think are particularly influential in musical history? 

Not just in the UK (although I'll start with those in the blog...)

If you have any further ideas, fill in the Google Form here, and I'll follow up any interesting suggestions. 

We will come back to this at numerous times over the year ahead and visit these cities - I'll share my personal experiences of many of them over the year ahead too...