'My name is Rob Horrocks. I have lived close to Aston for nearly 20 years. I developed Crossroads of Sabbath over two years by testing it on friends when they visited me from other cities. I recently teamed up with Ben Waddington who has been running walking tours of Birmingham for many years to fine tune my efforts.
'The Crossroads of Sabbath walking tour is an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Ozzy, Geezer, Tony and Bill and learn about the environment that shaped them. The tour lasts approximately 90 minutes. The route has been programmed to finish at one of the finest pubs in the country where excellent ales and Thai food might tempt you.
'Black Sabbath are unique. No other Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductee can make the claim that all its original members grew up is such close proximity to each other. And no other Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductee is as widely acknowledged by peers, critics and fans as having given birth to a genre that is still as relevant, vibrant and global in its reach as Heavy Metal is to this day.
'The route stops at 15 locations. You will pass the schools, homes, rehearsal spaces and hangouts of band members and hear stories associated with them. The commentary at each location recounts some of the popular tales about the band and their time growing up in the area. The narration has been developed using local history sources with the intention of presenting a fuller picture of life in the area during the period when our heroes roamed its streets.
'Much has been made of the influence of the band’s environment on the sounds they made when they first entered a rehearsal room together. On the Crossroads of Sabbath tour you see this environment and learn about it during the period when the Sabbs called it home. The tour ends at a pub they frequented which is just across the road from the room where they first played together.' -- RH
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'The Crossroads of Sabbath booklet is an A5, 20 page, two colour publication produced to accompany the tour. It includes a map of the route and summarises the commentaries from the tour locations. A copy of the booklet is given to everyone who takes part in the tour. The text has been written assuming that readers have a background knowledge of the Black Sabbath story as it has been told in the various biographies, autobiographies and documentary films. Primary sources such as old maps and newspaper clippings are reproduced to present a history of the area as well as of the band. The booklet may be of interest to people who grew up in the area it focuses on.mThe booklet will not be made available to download. The first edition is of 200 copies. You may buy a copy of the booklet on this page.' -- RH
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CROSSROADS OF SABBATH IS NOT…
'About the music heritage attractions of Birmingham city centre or the areas of the city not mentioned in the tour description.
'An opportunity to spend time inside Ozzy Osbourne’s childhood home or inside any of the other locations visited… except the pub! And what a fine pub it is!
'Available in any language other than English unless by prior arrangement. Contact me before you make a booking and we’ll work something out!
'Formally: aligned with, authorised by, a partner of, endorsed by, funded or approved by any other organisation, public or private company, group or charity – yet.
'Conceived with toddlers in mind. One five year old boy did enjoy it recently but I think his dad wished he'd brought a push chair.' -- RH
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Crossroads of Sabbath Website
Video coverage of the tour @ Vice
Crossroads of Sabbath @ Supersonic Festival
Crossroads of Sabbath Facebook page
Crossroads of Sabbath @ Google Maps
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p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, No, thank you. Yeah, happiness is precious and amazing, and I'm, uh, very happy that I'm happy too. So, how many downtime hours did you add tonight or last night, I guess, depending on how many hours you added, I guess? ** Grant Scicluna, Hi, Grant. Aw, thank you so much for saying that in general, man, and especially about that thing in 'MLT' 'cos that's second favorite novel of mine. That's great, great news that the financing on feature is going so well! That's no small thing at all, as you more than well know. Consider this your first reminder to tell me about the weird writing thing. I'm all ears. Love, me. ** 5STRINGS, Hey. Oh, man, I'm so sorry to hear that you're feeling bad. Smoking again ... yeah, I won't say welcome back. Having lots of sex when you're heartbroken never seems to be the magic answer. I think it can make the solidity and distance of other bodies seem even more apparent or something, but I don't know. Yeah, I say get yourself geared up to write while your parents are away. That kind of psyching up can help as long as you don't set quotas for how much you write or how good it has to be straight off. Things are good with me. If I can figure out a way to make some of that rub off on you through the net, I will. I'll get on that. ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you ever so much again, David! ** Scunnard, That is such a good, smarter, beautifully tinier than it seems gif. Thanks a bunch! ** Cobaltfram, So, I guess the proposal is finally out of your hands and tinkering by now, assuming the few hours passed as planned. Fingers extremely crossed, and probably unnecessarily. God, no, I'm not finished with my novel. Got a ways to go, and I'm just trying to get my speed and productivity up because I'm back to working but still trying to unlock whatever it was that was fueling my great momentum for a while. A friend and I are planning an isolated getaway somewhere so I can try to finish my thing and he can try to finish some things he's working on. If nothing else, that'll get me into the home stretch, I think for sure. Thank you, John! ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! Good morning! I hope all is really well! ** David J. White, Hi, David! Oh, goody, it's finished, wow, I'm excited! I'll go watch it when I'm out of this p.s. realm. Yay! Thank you so much in advance, and of course I'll let you know what I think. Everyone, the honorable filmmaker David J. White has just finished a short film based on my story 'The Boy on the Far Left' (from 'Ugly Man') if you want to go watch it. I'll be seeing it for the first time this afternoon, and, yeah, want to join me? If so, click this. Yeah, thank you so much! And it would be wonderful to have you around more. More soon! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. No, sadly, the MK retro @ the Pompidou really is cancelled. That's why I'm making the trek to Amsterdam. Grr. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Your novel is a serious kindness magnet, man. I'm just an early bird. In essence, the way it worked with the text re: the direction in 'The Pyre' isn't so different than our usual way of working. Basically, as I think I've explained, she and I talk for months off and on about what she's thinking of doing, and then there's a point where it's clear enough, and I start working on the text, and she starts working on the choreography and direction. I use what I know she intends to do as my guide, and she uses my ideas of how I think the text is going to work in theory as her guide. So, in the case of 'The Pyre', she developed some early choreography while I was working on the text, and we would check in during that time to see where we both were. Then I gave her the text, and she then fleshed out and refined and changed the direction/ choreography based on the actual text. This case is different than before because the text predates the live performance part but isn't read until after the performance part is over. So, the text is much, much more detailed and info-heavy and character-based and specific and stuff than the choreography, and I guess she needs to find a way to make sure the two elements are deeply connected. They're separate, but they have to seem very united, or the piece isn't going to work. Thank you for asking, Jeff. ** Billy Lloyd, Hi, Billy. I sometimes wonder if living in some huge mansion with giant grounds and a tall fence around the property is like a way to have the nature/isolation thing and the city thing too. I alway love how when you're in Disneyland, you completely forget that all around Disneyland is city. It just disappears. I'd like to have a cabin in the woods in the middle of a city, I think, and, well, good luck on that dream, I guess. Nice about the effect of that book on you. Yeah, I know what you mean. Such a good effect. That clarinet thing you want to make makes me happy, wow. I used to play clarinet when I was a kid. It has a really particular sound, warm and medium and ... I don't know, and I agree that it's vastly under-used, so that really does sound like an inspired idea. Cool. California, yes! ** Steevee, I can imagine that being difficult, but it's so easy to imagine that you're going to ace that dilemma like crazy. ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, Grant! Oh, great, thank you a lot. That's a total boon. I'll bookmark that and read it in just a while. Yeah, thanks a lot! Everyone, d.l. and multi-faceted scribe Grant Maierhofer has uploaded a collaborative eBook/chapbook called POOR ME I HATE ME PUNISH ME COME TO MY FUNERAL that he made with the tightly monikered Kil, and I highly recommend that you go up the ante on your literature-intake side by reading it by clicking this. ** Rewritedept, Hey. Maybe you can figure out a way to get more into what happens when you stare at them and decide that the things you want to do would never happen in the tactile world where those whom you desire have content and specific tastes and needs just like you do and that probably conflict with your wishes. The imagination can be a great brothel if you can stop thinking of it as a waiting room. Or something. Having spent a bunch of time in Hawaii, both when growing up and because my dad lived there, I can tell you that the surfer beach bum lifestyle exists only in fiction movies and maybe in surfing documentaries circa the 60s. But Hawaii is nice anyway. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. Sure, holding a mirror up to yourself, yeah. But looking into a mirror without a trace of self-consciousness or neuroses, which is the magic part, and I guess some kind of magic mirror with x-raying capabilities. The soul thing is interesting. I don't believe in the soul in the Christian/ religious sense at all, but I guess I think of it as maybe the thing that lets you transcend intellect and emotion sometimes, on rare occasion. I think of it as maybe this thing in you that knows more than you know. I really like the idea of soulmates. Like you know someone is your soulmate. I made this really great new friend not so long ago, and I totally feel like he and I are soulmates, so that's been on my mind. You have this amazing connection with someone, and it's not something that can basically be explained, and you end up with the idea that you're soulmates, and somehow that seems to answer it, as inexplicable as the idea and word soulmate are. The human body absolutely for sure is huge in my work. I mean, one of the overall structures of the George Miles Cycle is a human body being gradually dismembered, and, yeah, the body and the discrepancy between what a body means to the person inside it and what it means to people for whom the person's body is a major component of knowing and understanding that person, and the disconnect there, and, particularly, the horror that can result when people prioritize how someone looks and becomes too blinded and compelled by that, in the case of lust, to really know who they are or even care in the worst cases, is a constant, central thing of study or whatever in my work. You weren't rambling, what you were saying us very interesting. Great about your story in Everyday Genius. Yeah, I've been keeping up with STD's guest-editorship. Everyone, new story by the always fantastic Chris Dankland is newly up at the Everyday Genius site, and here's where you can check it out. Have a superb day, Chris. ** Right. Please consider spending a bit of day thinking about walking in the footsteps of Black Sabbath, and I'll see you tomorrow.