People who discover a city with a satanic guide

BarcelonaA few months ago I visited Birmingham and was surprised by the number of people boasting about being the city where heavy metal was born. And they kept recommending that I take a picture on a bench located in a canal area, where a few years earlier the City Council had held a tribute to the band Black Sabbath. It was full of people of all ages taking pictures. I did it too, amazed at how the city, with a reputation for being gray and tough, was reclaiming that group of fat young men who scandalized everyone in the late 60s and early 70s. Little did I imagine then that a few months later the band's singer, Ozzy Osbourne would die just a few weeks after giving his last concert at Villa Park, Aston Villa's home.

Ozzy's death filled the streets of Birmingham with thousands of people who wanted to say goodbye to the man who never stopped wearing dark clothes, wearing eye makeup, and using satanic symbols. But he wasn't scary anymore: he was still a grandfather who had opened the doors of his house for a famous television show, where they were seen playing father and grandfather.

The Black Sabbath bridge is the center of the routes that follow the birth of heavy metal in Birmingham, a city often ignored by tourists but with much to offer. A key city in the Industrial Revolution, as is clear from the docks, canals, and old buildings in the area where the famous bridge is located. Once a polluted area full of workers, it's now filled with restaurants and trendy businesses.

Birmingham was a tough place to live in the 1970s. And music was the outlet for the four young men who created the group, named after a Mario Bava film starring Boris Karloff. Taking the rock and blues that were arriving from the United States, they revolutionized it with a metal rhythm ideal for that working-class city. Their first concert, in 1969, was at The Crown, a 19th-century pub where some young people were seduced and veteran workers heckled the musicians. The pub has been closed for years, but it's protected as a building of cultural interest because it's where "heavy metal was born," as a plaque says. Bands such as The Who, Status Quo, UB40, Duran Duran, Thin Lizzy, Supertramp, and Judas Priest have played here.

A closed temple waiting to see if it will be turned into a museum or reopen its doors. For now, Black Sabbath fans are passing by, on their route through the streets where a musical style that has outlived its creators was born. Surely, in 1969, few people believed in them. They were considered lost youths who read books on the occult and admired Tolkien, mixing things, as young people do, to create their own world. And they succeeded. Many people continued to criticize them, especially when Ozzy bit a bat during a concert. But time proved them right: who can boast of having a bank in their hometown that is still approached by people with Satanic symbols?

Recommendation for traveling to Birmingham

Song: Paranoid

Author: Black Sabbath

Year: 1970