Today I attended the opening, by the Mayor of Walsall, of a new permanent exhibition at Walsall Museum, which is housed in the Walsall Central Library in Lichfield Street.
The exhibition, which fills the Local History Gallery there, is entitled 'The Changing Face of Walsall' and celebrates, in artefacts, words and pictures, the history of the town and Borough of Walsall, England, from the 1200s to the present day. As part of my work at Walsall Local History Centre I had provided the Museum with many of the photographs used in the excellent new displays, but a great additional pleasure for me was seeing that my suggestion of including Judas Priest's Rob Halford, a local lad, in the Walsall Wall of Fame section of the exhibition had been taken up! Well done, Walsall Museum :O)
Rob of course spent his youth in Walsall, on the Beechdale Estate, part of Bloxwich, and still owns a house in the town. In fact most of the current classic line-up of the band came from nearby and in other Black Country towns (not to be confused with Birmingham; it is often said that Priest is a Birmingham band but that's not actually the case, despite the fact that Walsall is only about ten miles from Birmingham).
Anyway, Rob well deserves his place in the Walsall Wall of Fame, and I'm pleased to have had the opportunity to encourage the inclusion of the Metal God - a real local hero!
METAL DOG
I've just uploaded 150 photos to Flickr, most of the pix which I took at the Walsall 'Home of Metal' event on 6 November.
Hopefully these will be of use to the organisers and participants, as well as the many metalheads who attended and enjoyed a great evening! The pix uploaded are downsized to 2048 across, mediumj peg, big enough for most people and small enough to not take too long downloading in various sizes available via Flickr. Enjoy!
The Flickr URL is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swilliams2001/sets/72157609296133772/
METAL DOG
A follow-up to my last post, some may like to know that BBC Midlands Today finally broadcast their 'edited highlights' news item on the Home of Metal event at Walsall last night (Tuesday), and have also placed it on their website as a video clip:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7722704.stm
METAL DOG
WALSALL reclaimed its musical heritage on Thursday evening ( 6 Nov) when Home of Metal rolled into town and took over the New Art Gallery, who hosted and co-organised the event. Home of Metal is a cultural project organised by Capsule with the help of numerous volunteers, and the support of three local art galleries (Wolverhampton, Walsall and Birmingham) and the Birmingham and Black Country archive services. Funding is provided by various agencies (see: www.homeofmetal.com)
Home of Metal's 'cunning plan' is to put Birmingham and The Black Country area of England on the musical map where it deserves to be - at the heart of the origins of heavy metal music, effectively founded by Black Sabbath (from Birmingham) and rejuvenated by Judas Priest (all Black Country lads apart from the present drummer, who hails from the US of A). From these origins and others follow the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands of the late 1970s and 80s, and all the multifarious genres of heavy metal music are descended, in essence, from their influence.
This project is proceeding with a series of events where the public is invited to bring in their memorabilia and memories of heavy metal, primarily relating to the bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Godflesh and Napalm Death. Staff and volunteers of Home of Metal then document, copy, photograph, interview (audio and video) and later on prepare all these materials for uploading into an online database which will eventually be the digital 'home of metal' online.
Walsall was the second stop on a roller-coaster ride which began a little over a week before in Wolverhampton - but what a stop! The ground and library floors of the New Art Gallery were soon packed out with a heaving throng from teenagers to retired folks, something which obviously reflects the enduring popularity of this kind of music.
Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom interviewed various people from the band Einstellung and others, including Sue Halford. A BBC reporter spent much time filming stuff and interviewing people, and there was a lot to see and do, especially getting memorabilia photographed and interviews done by the friendly and capable project volunteers. Birmingham band Einstellung provided some suitably loud entertainment towards the end of the evening, and there was no shortage of refreshments.
My colleagues from Walsall Local History Centre, Linda and Vicky, were kept busy talking to people about a display I had prepared of local NWOBHM era newscuttings etc, and I had much fun photographing the whole event for posterity. (In the photo below, Linda is being pictured by Home of Metal volunteer Naz, an excellent photographer in her own right).
There's no doubt that a great night was had by all, thanks to the hard work of Capsule, their volunteers, the New Art Gallery, Kerrang! Radio, Einstellung, my colleagues and others. But the real highlight for me was meeting Sue Halford, the sister of a real 'Metal God' - the legendary Rob Halford, lead singer of Judas Priest, who had brought several of Rob's early costumes and jackets to be photographed (yes that is the original 'Ram it Down' jacket below, being held by one of the Home of Metal organisers!).
What an incredible occasion - and what a lovely lady Sue is! We hope to do some more work with her for our local 'Walsall Rocks!' project, and I definitely need to have a chat with her about Rob and Priest. Meanwhile Sue (pictured with me, below) was kind enough to let me have some details of Rob's youth in Bloxwich, Walsall, which have corrected some common mistakes on the internet and elsewhere.
Watch out for leg 3 of the Home of Metal tour, in February, at Birmingham Art Gallery - see www.homeofmetal.com for details.
Of this, and much else - more anon! METAL DOG
