Rob Halford visits Walsall Local History Centre

On Friday 6 February I had the great pleasure of meeting one of my greatest musical heroes ROB HALFORD of Judas Priest on my own turf as it were, when he visited Walsall Local History Centre where I work.

Rob had expressed an interest in visiting the Centre after I had made contact late last year with his sister Sue (Sue was formerly married to Priest's bass player Ian Hill)) who still lives locally, and fortunately Rob was able to spare an hour during a break from his pre-tour PRIEST FEAST schedule to drop by with Sue plus Thomas Pearce.

Naturally I was only too delighted to give them the grand tour and introduce them to my colleagues while showing Rob especially some of the remarkable local and family history facilities that his home town of Walsall makes available to the public.

Picture:  Stuart Williams.

Among many other things, I showed Rob a microfilm of the Walsall Observer newspaper from 1978 with a short piece on the return of Priest on tour and the entry in the 1970 Electoral Register for Walsall showing Rob, Sue and their parents for the first time at their then home in Kelvin Road, Beechdale, Bloxwich.  Also on visiting the air conditioned strongroom where the archives are securely stored he saw old Ordnance Survey maps as far back as 1886 showing that the area he had lived in during his youth was a real "heavy metal" hive of industry including some of the world's earliest industrial revolution blast furnaces.

The visitors also checked out old photographs of the town including author Jerome K. Jerome, the old town centre, and the town of Bloxwich in 1969 at the time Priest was being formed.  I introduced them to Walsall's oldest document, a parchment containing the charter granted to lord of the manor William Ruffus by King John of England around 1225 ad.

Needless to say the more recent items brought back family memories for Rob and Sue, and also for me because I was at school in Bloxwich not far from Rob's own school and home, and around the same time, though Rob left school a few years earlier than I did.  He went to R.C. Thomas Secondary Modern school in Field Road, Bloxwich while I was at Blakenall Heath Junior school; after he left school I went on to the late, great T.P. Riley Comprehensive School which that other local musical legend Slade star Noddy Holder attended some years before.

While touring the archives we also chatted about Rob's local connections, the history of Priest which is of great interest to me, his autobiography, and Priest's plans for a Nostradamus tour in the not too distant future, hopefully including the Royal Albert Hall - if that comes to pass, I shall certainly be there!

Last but not least we chatted about the Centre's 'Walsall Rocks!' project which I and colleagues had been working on since late last year but which has been set back a little by the departure of one colleague (Linda Coyne) and the recent illness of another.  But as I said to Rob and Paul Ford, the archivisit who is now helping me to set up the project, the show must go on!  It is very important that we make the effort to collect, preserve and make available the documentary and audio-visual evidence of musicians, singers and bands from the Walsall area, including those who have had such a remarkable influence on rock and metal music in particular, and most notably the Black Country's greatest band Judas Priest including our own local hero Rob himself.

Anyway, I was delighted to see Rob's keen interest both in the project and very much in the town's local history as well as the history of his family in the area, which I am sure will bring him back to his Walsall roots - and to Walsall Local History Centre - when time permits.

Thanks for dropping by, Rob!  I look forward to seeing you again before long.  Next stop - Priest Feast at the LG Arena :O)

METAL DOG

 

Special picture credit:  Unless otherwise indicated, all photos in this post were taken by LIBBY WARREN.