The story, if you’d like a read!

www.bigissue.com/culture/thea...

I’ve missed a few gigs in this thread… oops. But this weekend was a three-gigger. One surprisingly great show; one reliably spectacular; one depressingly awful mess that left me sad and worried. A very mixed bag.
The Sisters of Mercy 🖤
Tragedy 💖✨🪩
Lemonheads 🥺

All hail Black Sabbath! All hail Ozzy! Hail Satan!! 🤘🏻🥹🖤

🖤🖤 And huge love to my partner in crime, the glorious Vicky! 🖤🖤

Then there was the community… Birmingham was packed with my people! And they’d literally hung the bunting for us. Metal often doesn’t get the respect it’s due. It was really moving to see that happen too. Heavy music matters - and the community around it is the best music community I’ve ever known.

There were so many egos on that stage. I can’t imagine what Tom Morello and Sharon had to do to make it happen. But everyone (even Axl Rose, who had his own mini redemption on stage) put that to one side for one day, for a bigger goal.

And it was a moment in which we all confronted both human frailty and the power of the human spirit. Sitting on his throne rather than jumping off amplifiers, Ozzy is obviously not well. His tremors were visible. But he is emphatically still Ozzy. People are more than their medical conditions.

It was also honouring a fierce and complicated life that has given us so much. It was celebrating the metal community that I love. Mastodon, Papa V Perpetua, Gojira, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt… wow.

To say Ozzy’s final bow was emotional doesn’t quite do it justice. It was more than just the heartsoaring joy of hearing Paranoid and War Pigs among a huge crowd, every last one on their feet and in full voice. It was more than the tears coursing down thousands of faces during Mama, I’m Coming Home.

The Greatest Week of Metal (TM) kicked off last night with enormous riffs and gigantic smiles… I don’t know how it’s taken me this long to finally see Iron Maiden but, by hell, they did not disappoint!

It’s a true emotional rollercoaster!

If you have the chance to see Sparks, and I can’t say this enough, SEE SPARKS. Every time. Another glorious night. Exuberant and thoughtful, thinkable and danceable. Glorious.

A spooky, crisp autumn day is a thing of enormous beauty. 👻