A decade ago Capsule embarked on a mission to officially recognise the West Midlands as the birthplace of heavy metal music. Home of Metal became a series of exhibitions, events and a permanent digital archive, securing the region as the music genre’s rightful home.
Ten years later, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath can be heard on the soundtrack of Birmingham’s latest export, Peaky Blinders.
In March 2009, Capsule arranged a walking tour of Birmingham by the late historian, music producer and heavy metal expert, Chris Phipps. The walk was recorded; the audio became part of my Silver Skins podcast and my work on geolocation stories for my MA in Online Journalism.
Home of Metal is back at Birmingham Town Hall with a tribute to the mighty Sabbath. To celebrate Home of Metal’s huge achievement and in timely tribute to Chris Phipps who passed away this year I’m reproducing the walk here.
When I first discussed the project with Chris he was a little hesitant of me using the material for my MA project – but he changed his mind once he’d seen and heard it. “PLEASE RETAIN THIS AFTER YOUR MARK AND KEEP IT ONLINE”.
So here is the tour which is designed to be listened to in real time as you walk around Birmingham, UK.
The map and the tour
Place yourself in Victoria Square, Birmingham next to Anthony Gormley’s Iron:Man. Press play on the podcast below and follow the Google map from top to bottom. Apart from the Town Hall, all of the musical landmarks have been demolished or renamed but the audio will help identify their locations for you.
Swipe left below to reveal the starting point.
A decade ago I was pretty impressed with iTunes’ chapter function. I created an MP4 and used thumbnails to effectively create an audio slideshow to illustrate the walk. This no functionality no longer seems to work on Apple Music but any of you can get it working feel free to download the enhanced podcast from my old Wordpress or directly from my Dropbox.
And if you do please let me know what media / podcast player you used!