Heavy metal drummer Bill Ward, one of the founder members of Black Sabbath, has created a poem to help celebrate the anniversary of the band’s first, ground-breaking album.
The poem will feature at The Birth of Metal event at the next Birmingham Rocks session held at Velvet Music Rooms on Westside from 5.30pm this Sunday 12 February.
The eponymously named Black Sabbath album was released 53 years ago to a barrage of bad media reviews.
But this was totally eclipsed by the response of music fans, who took it straight into the charts, and the album quickly soared to gold in the UK and Canada, and platinum in the USA.
Bill’s poem is called ‘Testing One Two Three, Test Test!’ and pays tribute to The Crown Hotel near New Street Station in Birmingham, the original home of Henry’s Blueshouse, where Sabbath first featured and became a leading attraction. Henry’s sessions are now held at Velvet Music Rooms every Tuesday.
‘Testing One Two Three, Test Test!’ will be read by Giovanni Esposito, the former Birmingham poet laureate. Giovanni, known as Spoz, is himself a renowned poet, and is currently poet-in-residence at Birmingham City FC, and an active musician with punk-outfit Vaseline.
The poem will be officially unveiled on the evening and released to the public after the event.
Live music at The Birth of Metal on Sunday will be provided by Black Sabbath tribute band Sabbra Cadabra.
The evening will also feature Jim Simpson, Black Sabbath’s original manager, who took the band to two hit albums and a hit single. He will talk about those early days and take a Q&A session.
Extremely rare memorabilia from that era will be available along with and the launch of a replica first Black Sabbath T-Shirt – from when they were still called Earth.
Mike Olley, general manager of Westside BID, said: “How thrilling that Bill has written a poem to celebrate Black Sabbath’s first album and early success.
“Black Sabbath have close links to Broad Street and Westside and we’re thrilled that they are being celebrated at Velvet’s Birmingham Rocks event.
“We are so lucky here on Westside to have such a great independent venue like Velvet which is so willing to host regular live music.”
Velvet Music Rooms is at 200 Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1SU and admission is free.
For further information, please contact Jim Simpson on jim@bigbearmusic.com or on 0121 454 7020.
