Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was the official launch space for last night’s event and was opened by Black Sabbath’s own Tony Iommi.

You Should Be Living – The Visual Language of Heavy Metal
18 June-17 September
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 01902 552 055, wolverhamptonart.org.uk/wolves
Free, Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Thirty years after the band formed, French artist Damien Deroubaix and Napalm Death founder Nicholas Bullen present sculptural constructions containing text and abstractions, embedded video monitors, audio cables and microphones, referencing the work of both artists and Napalm Death’s Scum album. This exhibition investigates the relationship between fans and music by examining the work of artists inspired by Heavy Metal. Matius Faldbakken, Ben Venom and Amy Sarkisian are some of the artists taking part, using typography, vintage t-shirts, sculpture and sound to explore aesthetic features of Heavy Metal and its relationship to contemporary art. The artists take inspiration from the genre, while exploring fantasy, chaos, performance and musical devotion.

40 Years of Heavy Metal and Its Unique Birthplace
18 June-25 September
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 0121 303 1966, bmag.org.uk
Adults £6, families £14, Mon-Thur & Sat 10am-5pm, Fri 10.30am-5pm, Sun12.30pm-5pm
The exhibition brings together unseen memorabilia, sourced directly from fans themselves, and places them alongside iconic items such as Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules stage cross, Judas Priest costumes and hand-written Napalm Death lyrics. The ingredients that made Heavy Metal a new genre will be explored, offering an insight into the region’s industrial history. The early blues-rock sound, the changing music industry, DIY politics and Heavy Metal’s global impact will all be presented to the greater glory of Birmingham and the Black Country’s own innovative, barrier-breaking musical form.

Chris Coekin: Manufactory
18 June-22 September
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Free, Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Artist Chris Coekin presents his beautifully detailed photographs and recorded sounds from the shop floor of a heavy industrial factory. Inspired by 19^th-century trade union banners, Coekin collaborated with workers producing staged portraits showing an industrial environment, shaped by 175 years of heavy manufacturing and chemical processes, alongside disused manual tools. The rhythmic factory sounds and spoken-word performances have been recorded by Coekin and put onto vinyl record, capturing the intensity and psychological experiences of working within an industrial environment.

Be True to Your Oblivion
8 July – 10 September
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Free admission
Tuesday–Saturday, 10am – 5pm
A major solo exhibition by former Turner Prize nominee Mark Tichner, whose work is influenced by Heavy Metal. The exhibition features commissioned works such as a video portrait of Nicholas Bullen, founding member of Napalm Death, and a banner with the Judas Priest lyric“I’ll choose my fate” from the song, You Don’t Have to be Old to be Wise. Tichner’s piece Egro Ergot is also included, inspired by a variety of sources such as Vertigo records’ iconic logo, which launched Black Sabbath’s first album in 1970. This piece evokes a hallucinatory experience, with its dizzying optical illusions and hypnotic animations. Heavy Metal memorabilia will additionally be presented during the exhibition.

Hell Bent for Leather
8 July – 10 September
Walsall Leather Museum, Littleton Street West, Walsall, WS2 8EQ
Free admission
Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm
walsall.gov.uk/leathermuseum
Dressed top-to-toe in an awe-inspiring mixture of shining leather, gleaming studs and chains, Judas Priest moved the Heavy Metal scene into rebellious outlaw. Walsall’s historic home of leather-workings inspects ‘the look’ of Heavy Metal and its most famous sons, Judas Priest. Borrowing the  bands’ personal stage costumes from the Painkiller and Fuel for Life tours, with a wealth of fan’s memorabilia and photographs accompanying the collection.

Metal
16 July – 25 September
Dudley Museum & Art Gallery, James’s Road, Dudley, DY1 1HU
Free admission
Monday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm
dudley.gov.uk/musuems
Metal celebrates the links between Heavy Metal music and metal manufacturing in the Black Country, investigating the occurrence and science of metal with a diverse display of minerals and metal ores. From the Industrial Revolution to the present day, the uses and products of metal will be explored, as well as an insight into how metal makes Heavy Metal music.

Heavy Metal and Place Conference
1 – 4 September
University of Wolverhampton & Light House
Booking/details: homeofmetalconference.com
A celebration of Heavy Metal music, its origins, legacy and influence upon the world. Over four days, experts and academics including Professor of Sociology Deena Weinstein from Depaul University, Chicago and Professor in the School of Humanities Scott Wilson from Kingston University, London will share their knowledge in Heavy Metal and engage with the formation of the genre. The industrial areas of Birmingham and the Black Country in the late 1960’s will also be explored, in aid of expressing the origins of Heavy Metal music.

Words: Ross Cotton

NYC rockers Tragedy are a hip-shaking-heart-breaking all metal tribute to the Bee Gees. We caught up with lead singer Robin Gibbens on there recent UK tour to get the dirt!

Where are you at the moment? What’s the view from the window?
Riding in the bus from Manchester to Wales.  The view is beautiful Welsh countryside.  That might be an oxymoron to the English – but to an American with eyes wide open, it’s top notch terrain.  And the Welsh people are sweet as hell too.

What’s a typical day like for you at the moment?
We’re on tour in the UK as Im writing this so it typically goes:
Wake up in the hotel room and make sure that the bird asleep next to me is as pretty in the morning light as she was in the late night haze.  Currently on this tour I’m 5 for 6.  Suit up and hit the road for a 3 mile jog.  Back to the hotel for another quick workout with said lady friend.  Hit the shower and get back on the tour bus by noon.  Head to the next city – soundcheck – dinner – chin up contest with Gibbous Waning our bassist – shower – apply TONS of glitter – suit up for the gig – Rock Sweet Balls and Melt Faces – meet and greet fans and sign autographs and pose for pics.  Chat with chicks and do it ALL over AGAIN and AGAIN!

What’s the most exciting thing about NYC at the moment?
The fact that we’re in the UK.  Good for us – as it’s our home away from home and we’re always greeted so warmly here.  And exciting for those left behind in NYC as our absence makes their hearts grow fonder.

How do the NYC fans compare with there UK counterparts?
There were a lot more of them in NYC but that tide has been changing on this tour.  And the Brits are definitely more fashionable and physically expressive, if you know what I mean.

What song do you wish the Bee Gee’s had written, so you could then play it in your set?
Loveshit by the Wildhearts.  What’s New Pussycat by Tom Jones.  Believe by Cher

Whats your craziest post gig experience?
Playing the Norva Theater in Norfolk, Virginia over the summer.  Best backstage of any club we had ever played.  Huge hot tub, sauna, 5 private showers.  We had a friend give out 50 backstage passes to the hottest girls there.  Then announced from stage that hot chick, and ONLY hot chicks could come backstage to party in the hot tub.  We instructed security that NO dudes NO MATTER WHAT could come backstage.  Within 15 minutes of getting off the stage there were 15 girls naked in the hot tub – all of us running around like wildmen, all to a soundtrack of dirty south hip hop.  It took a few hours for the party to wind down – but all of our “guest” left completely, uh, satisfied.  My energy drained, I was quite thankful that the hotel was just a short walk down the street.  But when I got there it was obvious that this was the hotel that all the bands stayed in, because there were smokin’ hot twins waiting for me in the lobby.  It’s not very often I don’t get ANY sleep between gigs – but there was still plenty of work to be done, and I never leave a job half finished.

So I guess craziest post gig is a toss-up between that and the time I got a blowjob in the backstage stairwell of the Bowery Ballroom in NYC.  By a 400 pound self described “cock loving lesbian”.  While the rest of the band, venue staff and friends had to walk by to get in or out of the dressing room.

Have you ever thrown a TV out of a hotel window?
No, most hotel room windows don’t open, or if they do, they don’t open wide enough to get the TV out.  I did throw my own 27″ TV off the roof my my apartment building with my best friend Stitch a few years back.  Was so fun we took to picking up random discarded TVs on the streets of NYC on trash day and bringing them home and made it a regular occurrence.

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done?
Is that a trick question?  We may have played in a few shit holes in our time, but just the face that TRAGEDY was rocking sweet balls means it COULD NOT have been a bad gig.

If you were on the internet for 1 hour what sites would you look at?
I’d check google alerts for new information of how awesome I am.  That takes at least an hour every time Im online.

What have you regretted doing most whilst drunk?
Running out of drugs.

What has been your strangest brush with celebrity?
Me and Ginger Wildheart drinking in NYC in November 2007.  2AM in the morning and Dolly Parton comes on the Jukebox at the Rodeo Bar.  16 hours later we’re in Pigeon Forge, Tennesse at Dollywood – her own theme park – still shitfaced.  And not even sure how we got there.  Or back.  But when we came to in NYC we had matching Dollywood tattoos.  Next time you see either of us just ask to see.

Have you ever committed a fashion crime?
I create fashion laws.  Civilians commit the crimes.

www.letsmaketragedyhappen.com