Home of Metal

It always piddles me off a little that Birmingham’s contribution to the musical world rarely gets the respect it deserves. After all there aren’t many cities that can truly claim to have spawned an entire genre of music, but Birmingham (and the Black Country) can. Yep, dear old Brum is the home of metal, which is quite handy really as that’s the title of a major retrospective that looks at the history of a sound that continues (in one form or another) to be hugely popular across the world...and quite possibly a little further afield too. The centrepiece of the whole thing is an impressive exhibition of memorabilia culled from under the beds of fans and the body strewn tour buses of legendary bands. It all kicks off at the Gas Hall (part of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) on June 18th and tickets are just £6...why they didn’t make ‘em £6.66 I’ll never know...missed a trick there...albeit an unfunny trick but then again I’ve got a pretty simple sense of humour. On top of the main exhibition there’s a whole bunch of other cool stuff going on throughout the summer too. For the low down head over to the Home of Metal website.