{"id":231692,"date":"2025-07-02T09:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231692\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:54:10","slug":"black-sabbath-farewell-to-give-big-boost-birmingham-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231692\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Sabbath farewell to give big boost Birmingham economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Ozzy-Osbourne-2021-Solo-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ozzy Osbourne - 2021 - Solo\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 50%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Credits: Sony Music UK)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/black-sabbath\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Black Sabbath<\/a>\u2018s Back to the Beginning farewell concert on July 5th at Villa Park is predicted to boost the local Birmingham economy by up to \u00a320 million.<\/p>\n<p>According to West Midlands Growth Company, the weekend, which will also see Jeff Lynne play at the Utilita for ELO\u2019s The Over And Out Tour, will attract up to 300,000 fans to the West Midlands, giving the county\u2019s hospitality businesses and venues a significant boost.<\/p>\n<p>The influx of visitors means that caf\u00e9s, pubs, restaurants, and other hospitality venues in Birmingham and other areas in the West Midlands will benefit significantly, with hotels in Birmingham at 89 per cent capacity in anticipation of Osbourne\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Sharon Osbourne said that the city \u201cmeans so much to Ozzy\u201d, and that \u201cwhen it comes to heavy metal music, Black Sabbath forming and his love of Aston Villa \u2013 it all started here.\u201d Other events taking place at the same time include a food festival and a cricket match, marking one of its busiest weekends in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the four members of Black Sabbath were given the freedom of the city and presented with medals and scrolls by the Lord Mayor to recognise and celebrate their significance in Birmingham and globally. \u201cBirmingham has always been behind us,\u201d Geezer Butler said, while Osbourne recalled how the band were first put together, saying, \u201cI\u2019m a Brummie and I will always be a Brummie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Osbourne is set to perform <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wolfgang-van-halen-pulls-out-of-black-sabbath-farewell-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">a short solo set<\/a> alongside the Black Sabbath performance, with additional names including the likes of Metallica, Guns N\u2019 Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Mastodon, Tool as well as members of Limp Bizkit, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Ghost, and Faith No More.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview, the singer explained <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/ozzy-osbourne-done-following-black-sabbath-farewell-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">why he\u2019s ready to say goodby<\/a>e: \u201cEven if it was a regular gig, I would be a nervous wreck. I was born nervous. Right now, I\u2019m feeling grateful and proud and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be feeling dozens more emotions on the day of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAfter this show, I\u2019m going home, closing the door and will look back upon the great career I\u2019ve had. But I\u2019m done, done, done! You gotta know when to call it quits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back to the Beginning takes place on July 5th.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Related Topics<\/p>\n<p>The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.<br \/>Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Sony Music UK) Black Sabbath\u2018s Back to the Beginning farewell concert on July 5th at Villa Park&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,19160,748,393,4884,29260,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-231692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-black-sabbath","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-ozzy-osbourne","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114783037989483598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}