World's eyes on Birmingham for Black Sabbath gig

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's choice to play a final reunion gig in Birmingham has been described as a "homecoming" that recognises the city's status in music culture.

The music icons will headline a one-day festival at Villa Park on 5 July dubbed "the greatest heavy metal show ever".

The charity fundraiser will also feature dozens of other heavy metal legends, including Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax.

"It feels like the acknowledgement that this city's important," said local writer Kirsty Bosley. "We deserve this moment, and it deserves to be us."

The performance will mark the first time Black Sabbath's original line-up has played together in 20 years.

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward all grew up within a few streets of each other a stone's throw from the Aston stadium.

"It's a great honour," Iommi said. "It'll be really a homecoming."

"It was the only choice; it could only have been done here, nowhere else," Sharon Osbourne told BBC Radio WM.

"This is the home of metal. It started down the road with Sabbath. Ozzy's house is less than a mile away."

The Back To The Beginning show would definitely be 76-year-old Osbourne's last, his wife said.

The singer has Parkinson's disease and proceeds from the concert will be going to the Cure Parkinson's charity, as well as local organisations Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice.

Ms Bosley admitted she cried when she heard the concert announced.

"I've been going to heavy metal gigs in Brum for more than 20 years, and I felt like finally it's our time to host this amazing best-ever gig," she said.

"Metallica are arguably the biggest heavy metal band in the world, and I can't imagine for anyone else they would be a supporting act."

Osbourne and his bandmates' relevance to the city's cultural heritage was recently recognised with them being awarded the Freedom of Birmingham.

In 2023, a public vote saw the large mechanical bull used in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony named Ozzy, and a bridge over Birmingham Canal has also been renamed Black Sabbath Bridge.

Darren John, who has campaigned to save the Birmingham street where Black Sabbath performed their first gig at The Crown pub, predicted an influx to the city in July.

"You're talking about hundreds of thousands of people making a pilgrimage to Birmingham that weekend to see places like Ozzy's house or The Crown," he said.

"People will be flying in from all over the world for this," agreed Jez Collins from Birmingham Music Archive.

"The prodigal sons are returning to their physical, spiritual home of Aston Villa Park for what is undoubtedly one of, if not the greatest rock heavy-metal line-up I have seen.

"The world's eyes will be on our city."

Black Sabbath fan and musician Andy Edwards, from Kidderminster, remembered "a tear in his eye" when he watched Osbourne last perform, during the closing ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

He described news of the farewell gig as "incredible for music".

"They started it and they're going to finish it," he said. "There's something about Black Sabbath that I think represents the Midlands so well.

"They're not artsy-fartsy but they're very creative, and I think that's what we are up here in the Midlands."

Matt Lewis from Coventry recalled meeting Osbourne a decade ago when asked to provide a balloon drop for a concert.

He overheard a conversation in which Sharon was trying to convince Ozzy to have millions of bubbles blown across the stage.

"Ozzy just turned around and said to Sharon, 'Sharon, I'm the Prince of Darkness, I don't do bubbles'."

Mr Lewis went on to manage balloon drops during The End tour, which culminated at Birmingham's NEC in 2017.

After a show in Dublin, Sharon demanded the number of balloons be increased from 200 to 1,000 for London and Birmingham.

"[It] was just spectacular," he said.

"There was a blind panic to try and find 5,000 three-footers overnight, and we got them."

Huge demand is predicted when tickets go on sale from 10:00 GMT on 14 February.

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