Decoding Birmingham
Birmingham. The industrial and musical city of the United Kingdom, where the first fire of the Industrial Revolution burned, where the Watt Steam Engine was invented, where many fields of science such as physics, chemistry and biology flourished and where many genres of music emerged including heavy metal. It is a city to which I feel an unusual feeling of belonging, where I followed the footsteps of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the greatest storyteller of all time, linguist and literary figure, creator of the legendary Lord of the Rings myth, who grew up in Birmingham and created an entire mythology.
In October, I have met with Birmingham Music Archive Founder and Director Jez Collins in Birmingham. We have spoken about music which characterizes the city, another important factor that defines Birmingham, apart from industry,
Jez Collins does a huge work in order to preserve and highlight Birmingham’s rich and diverse musical culture, which has been overlooked for years and is unfairly overshadowed by the cities Liverpool and Manchester. Now, let’s start this article by taking a look at the history of the city from past to present, and hear Jez Collins on the musical heritage of Birmingham:
(Jez Collins – Founder and Director of Birmingham Music Archive)
Birmingham and The Spark of the Industrial Revolution
England is an island and the city of Birmingham is located in the West Midlands region, almost in the heart of this island. The UK’s second largest city is not as dazzling as the over-populated metropolis of London. It is not easy to understand Birmingham and in order to understand the city and to unlock the secrets lying beneath its pale and gloomy appearance, it is necessary to learn about its history. To be able to fully understand Birmingham’s vast musical identity, which also includes heavy metal (which is only one of the musical genres that define Birmingham), one should first understand its demography, and the sociocultural structure that mark the city. Birmingham has many different faces, just like our mega-city Istanbul, only smaller with a population – slightly over one million-, and is a city whose demographic and socio-economic texture can change dramatically within very short distances (just like the quickly shifting scapes of İstanbul with its slums located in the back streets of radiant business centers and skyscrapers). Many residential areas of the city are characterized by industry and the working class constitute the backbone of Birmingham. The city’s unique location in the West Midlands region makes it advantageous in terms of easy access to other major cities such as London, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool.
(UK Map & the location of Birmingham)
Now, let’s take a closer look at Birmingham, one of the most important music centers of the United Kingdom: it is a unique yet and understated city, overshadowed by other British musical cities, but richly diversified and culturally abundant.
The settlement in Birmingham, which takes its name from the Old English Beormingahām (Beorma people), goes back to 8000 BC. The development of the city as a trade and attraction center began in 1166, when Lord Peter de Bermingham was granted a permission to establish a market place around his castle. Today, where the castle used to be, there is Bull Ring, the most important attraction place of Birmingham. The Bull Ring with the award-winninng Selfridges building, its restaurants, its shops and a market place, is crowded and lively day and night.
(The Bull Ring – Birmingham)
The Bull Ring took its name from the bulls who were forced to fight with dogs for entertainment (bull-baiting) before heading to the slaughterhouse. Old English Bulldog breeds were specially trained for this cruel entertainment, which lasted from the 1500s until early 19th century. The bull is the the protector of Birmingham and is a symbol of patience, fertility and sacrifice. Today, the mechanical steampunk bull statue erected for the Commonwealth Games in 2022, is located at the New Street Station. After the games, the residents of the city wanted to keep the statue instead of sending it to scrapyard and it was named Ozzy (after Ozzy Osbourne) in 2023 by public vote.
(Ozzy The Bull – New Street Station cr: @metaloda)
Birmingham, The Center of The Metal Industry
As time went by, Birmingham gradually strengthened its reputation as a commercial city. In the 1500s and 1600s, it has become the most important center of the metal industry, with foundry furnaces, a thriving cast-iron industry, iron merchants, blacksmiths and a trade network that could market its end products as far as the West Indies (The Caribbean, Antilles, etc.).
The enrichment of the city and its rapid rising economic prosperity made the city a center of attraction, increasing its population, while also increasing the social mobility of its residents. While the cosmopolitan and secular life in the city provided an environment for different ideas to flourish freely, it would also pave the way for the West Midlands Enlightment or the Birmingham Enlightment in the 18th century, and Birmingham would also become a cultural center of literature, music, art and theatre. Overshadowed by the European Enlightenment (Rousseau / Voltaire), the West Midlands Enlightenment (which has not caught too much attention beyond England), would be the start of the Industrial Revolution.
(Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution Matthew Boulton, James Watt ve William Murdoch – Statue by William Boyle-Birmingham)
The invention of the Watt Steam Engine is also the turning point in the Industrial Revolution.
The Secret of the Industrial Boom
The secret of the industrial boom that ignited in Birmingham laid in the adaptation and creativity of highly paid and expert employees, as well as the ability of different units to perform different manufacturing processes simultaneously in the production process of quality end products. The work done together by these small but expert workshops would form the basis of today’s modern factories. Thus, a very different and dynamic manufacturing process emerged in Birmingham, very different from the cumbersome structures that processed a single product (such as textiles) in different regions of England. This also opened the door to different inventions, and during the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham broke the record by receiving three times more patents than other cities of the United Kingdom. In the city, where innovations and inventions in science and technology found their immediate field of application, there was a naturally functioning industrial chain reaction. The most important invention to come out of Birmingham, where the foundations of the modern chemical industry were also laid, would be the Watt Steam Engine (1776) and it would make the manufacturing process independent of the limited power of man, animal or water. The invention of the Watt Steam Engine is also the turning point of the Industrial Revolution.
(Father of the Watt Steam Engine – James Watt)
Birmingham continued to shine with its inventions and economic development in the 19th century: the construction of railway networks connecting major cities, the construction of the city’s canal system, and exciting innovations such as development of the world’s first modern postal system. In the Jewelry Quarter, where jewellery has traditionally been made in the heart of the city since the 1500s, the first man-made plastic was produced in 1855. Birmingham was also home to world’s first nuclear weapon manual, radar and microwave technologies, and the cradle of Frank Whittle’s jet engine.
(The Boulton-Watt Steam Engine started the Industrial Revolution)
World War II, Birmingham Blitz and the Rebuilding of the City
Every rise has its fall and unfortunately,Birmingham’s decline would start with World War II and would be deliberately accelerated by the government in the 1970s and the 1980s. The British government, pursued a very faulty economic strategy believing that “Birmingham has become too rich and that time has come to distribute its resources and wealth to the lesser-developed parts of the country”. This strategy would completely damage and irreversibly break the naturally functioning and self-sufficient wheels of development, innovation and industrial breakthrough in Birmingham.
During the World War II, the Nazi Germany Air Force, the Luftwaffe, targeted Birmingham, this center of wealth and industry, and heavily bombed the city and its surroundings – including Black County where the coal mines were located. (Birmingham Blitz) Between 1940 and 1943, Birmingham was the city most bombed by the Germans after London and Liverpool (approximately 1852 tons of bombs were dropped!). Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, born in 1949, recalls in his childhood memories that the ruins of buildings destroyed by air raids were his favourite playground in Aston and that undetonated bombs were still present then in the gardens of the neighbours. (Into The Void-Geezer Butler).
(Bull Ring has been destroyed in Birmingham Blitz)
Now before moving on to the story of the formation of diversity in Birmingham, let me say once again that in order to understand the development of heavy metal music and other musical genres arising from Birmingham, understanding the city’s past is essential.
In order to rebuild the city, which was severely damaged in World War II, cheap labor from Commonwealth countries, especially from Jamaica, the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia, flocked to the city with the encouragement of the British government. In 1948, the Jamaican group that would be known as the first generation Windrush arrived in the city. Settling in the poor neighborhoods of Birmingham where the blue-collar white Brummies lived, these black and Asian groups would start to painfully coexist with the Irish and British residents of these neighborhoods, and the people who brought their own culture and music from their islands would clash with the culture of the whites, creating a brand new demographic tissue in Birmingham and producing brand new music.
(The first group of British Caribbbeans arriving to the city in HMT Empire Windrush motor ship)
“It is crucial to understand the proximity of the communities with different origins living together in Birmingham, in the workplace, at school and on the streets, and how they live side by side, this proximity shaping our culture and our music.” Jez Collins
Birmingham and Detroit
Motor Cities
Rock music icon Alice Cooper once said that his city Detroit (US) and the UK’s Birmingham were very similar. As someone who has seen both cities, I truly regretted this remark until my last trip to Birmingham (that is perhaps because I very much prefer Birmingham over Detroit) which made me see the city in a new light. During this last trip to Birmingham (among many), the districts we have seen with Jez and the city’s prominence based on its automotive industry changed my mind. Like famous car brands such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler that have left their mark on the city of Detroit, Birmingham is famous for its automotive sector and brands. However, while Detroit brands target average-income families, Birmingham stands out with high-end car brands such as the hand-made Aston Martin (produced in Black Sabbath’s neighborhood), Range Rover, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mini Cooper (pre-BMW 1994) etc. Now I can relate with Alice Cooper when he compares “Motor City” Detroit to Birmingham, both music and industrywise.
(Deep purple- colored special edition Aston Martin car with a price tag of 2 Million USD)
When I asked Jez Collins abouth his thoughts on Alice Cooper’s opinion he said:
“Yes Güzin. In fact, it was the black people who came to the city of Detroit from the south of the USA to work in industry escaping slavery and they had a very important role in the building and development of the city (i.e. Great Migration 1916-1970). Black people in Birmingham, on the other hand, came mostly from Africa and the Islands (The Caribbean, The Antilles etc.) and brought their own culture and music with them: when they started living with the local-white people of the city, all this culture and music fused together. It is crucial to understand the proximity of the communities with different origins living together in Birmingham, in the workplace, at school and on the streets, and how they live side by side, this proximity shaping our culture and our music. I think a similar observation can be made for Detroit and Chicago. However, Detroit is more successful than us, the British, in terms of attracting tourists and investment to the city, because the USA is a much younger country than the UK, about 200 years old, and a country that has a very good understanding of the power of popular culture, music (pop) and the film industry as in the case of Disney. For people like you and I who come from Europe, we are fighting thousands of years of history, of kings and queens and empires and rulers, of buildings who have stood the test of time, so popular music and popular culture is a recently new phenomenon in our history.”
“On Record album is a sonic love letter to the city of Birmingham.” Jez Collins
A Celebration of Birmingham’s Diversity : On Record 2022 album
Birmingham Music Archive’s On Record album, released in 2022, is a celebration of the city’s music culture, featuring artists from different ethnic groups and genders, such as reggae, jazz, and ska, these musical genres and artists reflecting the city’s diversity. One of the massive music bands originating from Birmingham, UB40, feature in this album with their original song Champion, the official anthem of the Commonwealth Games.
I asked Jez why metal music was not included in this album:
“Yes, that’s a good question. We wanted the album to reflect the city of Birmingham and the different communities of the city. We have created a compilation album which is like a jigsaw puzzle, maintaining a balance of , black and white, female and male, genders, ethnicity, sexuality and even the balance of artists with disability. We wanted the listener to get a taste of the diversity in the city. Yes, we couldn’t include heavy metal, in fact there are other genres that we couldn’t include, like pop. Essentially, we wanted the album to be musically fluid and continuous, and to make one feel the cultural mosaic in the city. Therefore, some genres, including metal music, were left out because they didn’t fit with the flow, and also because of the physical limitation of a vinyl album. This album is a sonic love letter to the city of Birmingham.”
(On Record 2022 is a sonic love letter to Birmingham)
The Quest for Heavy Metal Yielded in The Finding of Reggae Music!
As a metalhead, I have started this journey with the prejudice that the most important music genre in Birmingham was no doubt heavy metal and the city’s major musical asset was Black Sabbath. I was so wrong! I was amazed to find out that the most important music in Birmingham was Reggae. Reggae music, Jamaica’s biggest cultural export, has its roots in ska and rocksteady genres and is a blend of Jamaican musics such as the calypso and the mento. Reggae music also influenced many rock bands such as The Beatles and The Police, which have written songs in reggae style.
(Jamaica’s biggest cultural export product: Reggae music)
In 2018, UNESCO has designated Jamaica’s reggae music as” intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”Another music that defines Birmingham is Bhangra, a lively music of Punjabi/Indian origin. We will go deeper into rock and metal music in Birmingham in the following sections of this three volume article, but first, let’s take a closer look at the history of UB40, as it reflects Birmingham very well:
Founded in Birmingham in 1978 by British guitarist Ali Campbell, the Grammy Award-winning band UB40 completely reflects the diversity of the city with its members’ different ethnic backgrounds.
The Music of Birmingham: Reggae and UB40
Founded in Birmingham in 1978 by British guitarist Ali (Alistair Ian) Campbell, the Grammy Award-winning band UB40 reflects the diversity of the city with its members’ different ethnic backgrounds. UB40’s original lineup includes members of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Jamaican and Yemeni origins. Let’s hear the story of UB40 from Ali Campbell, the band taking its meaningful name from the Unemployment Benefit Form no: 40:
“I lived in Balsall Heath in South Birmingham which was a predominantly immigrant area. The first generation of Windrush kids were all my friends, and I grew up with Indian and Jamaican friends. So the music of the streets was Indian music, which I love—Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle and all that—and reggae.” BBC in 2018.
(Ali Campbell of UB40)
Just like Elvis, the King of Rock’N’Roll, who grew up in a low-income black neighborhood because of his family’s limited financials and whose musical taste was shaped by the music of the black community that surrounded him (blues and gospel), Ali was surrounded by the reggae music and culture while growing up. His father, Ian Campbell, a renown folk revival singer and musician (who also worked as an engraver in the famous Jewelry Quarter while a teenager) will also appear in a different section of this article.
There is a similar story in Aston, where the members of the Black Sabbath spent their childhood and youth. Geezer Butler tells us how influenced he was by an Indian family who moved into their neighborhood after the World War II: he was mesmerized by their music, culture, food and mysticism. Unfortunately the clash of these different cultures and ethnic communities has not been easy and rosy, as violence and high crime rates still prevail in those highly diversed and low-income districts of Birmingham.
NEXT : ASTON THE NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE BLACK SABBATH IS BORN
Güzin Paksoylu
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