BLACK SABBATH: CROSSROADS OF SABBATH
Crossroads of Sabbath, in partnership with Newtown Community Centre presents… Ozzy Zig, The Witch & The Warpig – a Black Sabbath vinyl playback event.
A vinyl playback event featuring Black Sabbath’s first LP and their number one LP Paranoid will be staged in a room where the band first starting playing together at Newtown Community Centre, Birmingham.
The first two Black Sabbath albums and some relevant supporting discs will be introduced by Rob Horrocks whose work on the Crossroads of Sabbath walking tour has brought to light many previously unpublished details about the band and their time growing up in Aston.
Rob Horrocks, Crossroads of Sabbath tour guide said: “With the 45th anniversary of Paranoid coming up I decided to do an event to raise the profile of the location as a site of relevance in the Black Sabbath story.
I love the idea that all those years ago the lads booked the room and what they did there ended up being relevant in the music scene for years to come. And to this day anyone can still book the room for similar pursuits. We need to value our community centres and the creative potential they hold. Who knows what global music sensation is taking tentative steps in a community facility near you.
I have called the event Ozzy Zig, the Witch & the Warpig to describe the three sections of the playback.”
The organisers think that this is the first time a public vinyl playback event has taken place in Birmingham and believe that this is the first time that such a historically significant venue has been used for a vinyl playback.
Date: Sunday 20th September 2015
Time: Doors open ay 3.30pm and the 2-hour playback begins at 4pm
Tickets: £6 available now from www.crossroadsofsabbath.com
The performance
Ozzy Zig, The Witch and The Warpig is a three-act vinyl playback performance.
Act One – Ozzy Zig
From the crossroads at Clarkesdale, Mississippi through the Blackboard Jungle and into Brum Beat, pantomime flower power and the rocky roads back to the Crossroads of Sabbath.
Act Two – The Witch
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, featuring Black Sabbath, in a room where Black Sabbath rehearsed and honed Black Sabbath and from which they sighted the location that inspired the name Black Sabbath.
Act Three – The Warpig
From the bringer of war via a ride with the Valkyries to the album that, 45 years ago became Black Sabbath’s first number one. War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man (and the rest) played loud from vinyl.
Costumed introductions, annotations and dramatizations will include material never before discussed in the documentation of Black Sabbath. There will be plentiful volume, a stage set and lighting.
Exhibition
A collection of objects telling the story of Black Sabbath, Newtown Community Centre and vinyl playback events will be on display in the community centre.
Publication
A 24 page two-colour, A5, riso printed booklet has been produced to accompany the event.
The booklet is two stories. First it is an in-depth analysis of Black Sabbath’s association with the building were they first rehearsed.
Its is also a history of the land on which Newtown Community Centre now stands and its immediate environs covering the period 1948 to the present day. Post war youth and community centre provisions in the area and the remodelling of Aston in the mid 1960s are discussed. The stories of the people who occupied the buildings that were demolished to make way for the community centre are used to discuss the case for the importance of community centres and the activity that takes place within their walls.
