The pace is definitely quickening as Saturday approaches, we were at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery yesterday, dropping off the bits and pieces of memorabilia along with a variety of old press clippings to put on display, we also did a photo shoot for the Express & Star as well as a little practice run with our wonderful group of volunteers – here we all are in our HOME OF METAL T-shirts which were kindly sponsored by Fly53. Aren’t we a happy bunch!!! Now its heads down to add all the content to launch the archive.

Photo by Najma Hussain

Earlier in the week myself and two of our team Dunc and Bill went on Kerrang! Radio and did an interview with Johnny Doom, talked all about why Capsule had initiated the project and why Bill & Dunc wanted to get involved –  you can listen to here.

L-R : Johnny Dooms plastic bag(!!!!), Johnny Doom, Bill and Dunc.

We have a couple of nice pieces of press out about Home Of Metal and of course you are also free to help us spread the word and get involved with this project. Read more about it on the Home Of Metal blog – the website itself launches on Saturday.

From the Birmingham Post – today article by Andrew Cowan

Document +1 magazine

Nice write ups on the Plan B Magazine blog, BBC Black Country and the Kerrang! radio website

A selection of portraits taken by photographer Steve Gerrard as part of Home Of Metal.

To keep you up to date with what we’re doing with the Home Of Metal project we have set up a blog, this will hopfully fill you in until the archive gets launched towards the end of October. The blog will have contributions from our volunteers as well as news on what we are starting to collect for the digital archive, and who we encounter along the journey with related news for our events too.

Photographer Steve Gerrard, who is working with us on the Home Of Metal project to capture fans portraits has taken some amazing images of Capsule favourite band of all time, the wonderful Melvins. We were gutted to have missed them just recently when they played in Nottingham, and to make life worse we heard they put on a show to remember, now joined but another of our fav bands the mighty duo that is Big Business….these photos go some way to easying the pain of missing them and we’re really excited about ATP’s Nightmare Before Xmas, where they’ll be curating the weekend alongside Mike Patton. (The Capsule Grannies will also be DJing).

Go and check out Steves photos – he’s a star!!!

On Saturday 25th of October at our Open day at Wolverhampton Art Gallery we have some special guests in conversation with Kerrang! Radio DJ – the legendary Johnny Doom, a stalwart of the Midlands Metal scene.

Jim Simpson 12am – 1pm in conversation with Johnny Doom

Jim Simpson
Birmingham-based Big Bear, so called after the nickname given to Simpson by legendary DJ, John Peel, runs one of the oldest independent labels in the UK, specialising in jazz, blues and swing artists, although it has also been successful in other music genres.
Jim is the unsung hero of Heavy Metal, he ran the progressive club, Henry’s Blueshouse where he inspired Robert Plant, Jon Bonham, Judas Priest and a plethora of others all of whom came see the legendary American Blues artists Simpson programmed back in the day.
He managed Sabbath for their first three albums, which included the seminal ‘Black Sabbath’ album, then Paranoid and Master of Reality.

Digby Pearson, Earache Records founder 2pm – 3pm in conversation with Johnny Doom

The label has made its name releasing some of the most brutal albums of the past two decades. Earache has been home to such outfits as the legendary Napalm Death and Godflesh as well as a host of other extreme bands. Earache’s artists have set the standard for cutting-edge, uncompromising music.
But just as inspiring is the story of how it came to be. Nowadays, internet wizardry or a truckload of cash can be a band’s best friend, but in the early days, Earache had neither. All it had was one man; founder, patriarch and self-confessed obsessive, Digby ‘Dig’ Pearson.

Dig built Earache the old-fashioned way – through word-of-mouth, determination and an unswerving belief in his bands, though his outlook on the last two decades is a tad modest under the circumstances.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery – Open Day Saturday 25th October 10am – 4.30pm
Free Event – refreshments provided – all welcome

Tickets are now on sale for a host of new and exciting shows we have coming up at Capsule.
Just confirmed a new signing to Constellation Records ( home to GYBE! and A Silver Mnt Zion) are Seattle based The Dead Science with support from Worcester based Theo who will be performing at the Hare & Hounds on the 5th of Nov.

Another treat on the horizon is Racebannon, a genre-defying avant hardcore punk band from Indianapolis who formed in 1996. They begun as a screamo band on Witching Hour Records and have now evolved to produce bone crushing riffs and manic vocals, a kin to Melt Banana. Support for this comes from Dream Dreams The Dreamer (aka Matt from Esquilax who we should add is a wonderful illustrator and has designed covers for Gallows to name but a few) and the infamous casio-grind trio, Trencher. It should be noted that Lyam from Trencher is himself a talented artist and a member of Drumize along with DJ Scotch Egg, who performed at Supersonic 08.
Check out this amazing video by Trencher, it will melt your mind!

“As Birmingham’s creative revival gathers pace, look out for events run by DIY promoters Jenny Moore and Lisa Meyer, aka Capsule. Champions of all things avant garde, they’ve hosted events at SXSW in Texas and Sonar in Barcelona as well as the annual Supersonic Festival nearer to home at the Custard Factory . Meanwhile their latest project Home Of Metal at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery , celebrates the West Midlands as the birth place of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppellin and Judas Priest. ” People will bring collections of memorabelia relating to the bands,” says Jenny Moore, “like the Antiques Roadshow of Rock.” Artefacts and stories will be recorded and uploaded onto permanent online archive. Capsule also take an original approach to hospitality – rather then snakebite ‘n’ black, they serve tea and cakes at their events.”

Last week we were at The Joyful Bewilderment exhibition opening at Rough Trade East in London, it was like Birmingham on sea, well not quite but a good percentage of Birminghams’ creative community were either exhibiting their work or had just come down for support – safety in numbers as it were!!! The event was a total success with absolutely loads of folks in attendance, at one point they had to stop the crowds coming in.

Our contribution to this shindig was Einstellung performing in the later part of the evening, the band played a storming set which was well received by all. As you can see from the photo the band had a hoot.

Here is Log, one of the Out Crowd founders and co-curator of the show looking slightly fearful, which is either due to being surrounded by so many ladies or the free dodgy Lidl beer.

French, Marcus, Peplow and Ben, perhaps slightly concerned that the dodgy Lidl beer may run out at some point.

Jenny and I on the other hand were fine, enjoying seeing friends including the lovely Fuck Buttons boys who made a special trip to pop in and see us, surrounded by great art work and the bright lights of London.

And most importantly the art work, which you can read all about on The Joyful Bewilderment blog, and I believe many of the pieces are for sale, so go and check them out.

Some of the brummies exhibiting were Lucy McLauchlan , Rik Cooper, Lee Basford, Stef Grindley, Ben Javens Tsz and Log Roper.

Photos by our very own Jenny Moore