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Archive
Welcome to the Birmingham Music Museum Archive, your gateway to the rich sonic history of the city that shaped heavy metal, reggae, and worldwide pop culture. Explore our curated collection of historical treasures, featuring rare shellac and vinyl pressings to rare instruments. Here there should be something that will interest you!.
Patient Number 9 – Hobsons Brewery
Golden Ale · 4.3% ABV · 2026
Patient Number 9 is the official Ozzy Osbourne beer brewed by Shropshire’s Hobsons Brewery, created to celebrate the legacy of the legendary Black Sabbath frontman and Birmingham’s enduring connection with heavy metal. The beer takes its name from Ozzy’s 2022 solo album Patient Number 9.
A light-golden ale, it is balanced between bitterness and sweetness, with subtle citrus and floral notes. At 4.3% ABV, it was launched on 22 July 2026, marking the first official Ozzy Osbourne Day.
This bottle represents the meeting of Birmingham’s musical heritage and the brewing traditions of the West Midlands. Patient Number 9 is available at Merlin’s Café Bar in Birmingham, a venue closely associated with Ozzy Osbourne and the city’s Black Sabbath heritage.
In a particularly memorable connection, Sharon Osbourne herself visited Merlin’s, where she was served a bottle of Patient Number 9 behind the bar — adding another chapter to the story of Ozzy’s legacy and his hometown.
Phil Lynott’s Baptism Certificate
4 September 1949 · Selly Park, Birmingham
This original baptism certificate records the christening of Philip Parris Lynott, the future frontman, songwriter and bassist of Thin Lizzy, on 4 September 1949.
Born at Hallam Hospital, West Bromwich, on 20 August 1949, Phil was the son of Irish-born Philomena Lynott and Cecil Parris of British Guiana. Shortly after his birth, Philomena brought her newborn son to a home for unmarried mothers in Selly Park, Birmingham, where he was baptised.
Although Lynott would go on to be closely associated with Dublin and become one of Ireland’s most celebrated rock musicians, this document preserves an important part of his Birmingham story. It places the future Thin Lizzy legend in the city at the very beginning of his life and connects his personal history with the wider musical heritage of the West Midlands.
Today, Phil Lynott’s name is inseparable from rock history through Thin Lizzy classics including The Boys Are Back in Town, Jailbreak and Whiskey in the Jar. This humble document, created decades before those records, provides a rare and deeply personal link to the beginnings of a musician whose influence would reach far beyond Birmingham.
A small document marking the beginning of a remarkable musical life — and an important piece of Birmingham’s rock heritage.
Laney Amplifier Used and Signed by Tony Iommi
Black Sabbath | Heavy Metal
This Laney amplifier was used and signed by Tony Iommi, legendary guitarist and co-founder of Black Sabbath. Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of heavy metal, Iommi helped define the genre with his dark, powerful guitar riffs and distinctive sound.
Laney is a Birmingham company, founded in the city in 1967, making this amplifier an especially significant object within Birmingham’s musical heritage. Laney amplifiers played a central role in shaping Black Sabbath’s groundbreaking sound, providing the heavy distortion and rich tones that helped define the emerging heavy metal genre.
Bearing Iommi’s signature, this amplifier represents a tangible connection between two Birmingham stories: the musician who helped create heavy metal and the Birmingham amplifier company whose equipment helped bring that sound to the world.
Birmingham Music – Vinyl and CD Collection
Vinyl Records & Compact Discs · Birmingham Artists
This collection brings together a selection of vinyl releases and CDs by prominent artists and bands from Birmingham, reflecting the extraordinary breadth and influence of the city’s musical heritage.
From the pioneering sounds of Black Sabbath and the heavy metal tradition for which Birmingham became internationally renowned, to the many musicians and bands who came before and who followed, these recordings demonstrate the remarkable variety of music to emerge from the city.
Each release captures a different moment in Birmingham’s musical story — from groundbreaking recordings that changed popular music to albums and singles that became part of the everyday soundtrack of generations.
Together, these records and CDs form a snapshot of a city whose musicians have made an enduring contribution to British and international music history.
Wolfsbane – Dancin’ Dirty
Rare Demo Cassette · 1987 · Birmingham & West Midlands Heavy Metal
This rare 1987 demo by Wolfsbane captures the band during their formative years, before their breakthrough into the British heavy metal scene. Dancin’ Dirty was one of the group’s early self-released demos and features Blaze Bayley on vocals, alongside Jase Edwards, Jeff D’Brini and Steve Danger.
Born in Birmingham in 1963, Bayley would go on to become internationally known as the vocalist of Iron Maiden, but his musical career began with Wolfsbane. The band, formed in 1984, became an important part of the Midlands metal scene and later signed to Def American, releasing their debut album Live Fast, Die Fast in 1989.
As an early recording from the band’s career, this demo offers a fascinating glimpse into Blaze Bayley’s Birmingham beginnings and the grassroots heavy metal culture of the West Midlands during the 1980s.
Rare surviving demos such as this are particularly significant because they document the period before Wolfsbane achieved wider recognition — and before Bayley’s later international career with Iron Maiden.
An early piece of Birmingham heavy metal history, documenting the beginnings of one of the Midlands’ most distinctive metal voices.
Quartz – Nantucket Sleighride
Signed 7-inch Single | Reddingtons Rare Records | 1980
This original 1980 single by Birmingham heavy metal band Quartz features their powerful rendition of Nantucket Sleighride, originally recorded by American rock band Mountain. Released by Reddingtons Rare Records, it represents an important chapter in Birmingham's heavy metal history.
Best known as one of Birmingham's much-loved independent record shops, Reddingtons briefly ventured into releasing records under owner Dan Reddington, championing local talent at a time when British heavy metal was gaining international recognition.
This copy is signed by the band, including Geoff Nicholls, the Birmingham-born guitarist and keyboardist who also enjoyed a long career with Black Sabbath.
The record celebrates the close connections between Birmingham's musicians, independent record shops and the city's influential heavy metal scene.
The Streets – Utopia Map
Signed by Mike Skinner · The Streets · Birmingham
This Utopia Map, signed by Mike Skinner, is a promotional map created for The Streets’ 2004 album A Grand Don’t Come for Free. The map forms part of the visual world surrounding the album’s story, following the fictional character’s journey through Birmingham and the locations featured in the narrative.
Skinner, the creative force behind The Streets, was raised in West Heath, Birmingham, and his music drew heavily on everyday British life and experiences. A Grand Don’t Come for Free became one of his most successful works, reaching number one in the UK Albums Chart.
The Utopia Map is particularly significant because it provides a visual representation of the world created by Skinner for the album — a world rooted in recognisable places, characters and experiences. Signed by Skinner himself, this example connects the artwork directly to the artist behind one of Birmingham’s most distinctive musical exports.
The Streets’ music helped bring Birmingham voices, accents and everyday experiences into the mainstream of British popular music, making this signed map an unusual piece of the city’s modern musical history.
A signed piece of The Streets’ story, connecting Mike Skinner’s Birmingham roots with one of the defining albums of his career.
Olly Oakley – A Pioneer of Recorded Banjo Music
Edison Cylinder · Music Sheets · Early Shellac Records
This collection brings together a group of rare artefacts relating to Olly Oakley (1877–1943), the Birmingham-born banjoist whose remarkable playing made him one of the most successful British banjo performers of the early recording era.
At the heart of the collection is an Edison cylinder recording of Lancashire Clogs. Oakley recorded the piece as a banjo performance, and Lancashire Clogs was subsequently issued on Edison Blue Amberol cylinder No. 23036.
Alongside the cylinder are several pieces of sheet music, providing a glimpse into the repertoire associated with Oakley and the wider banjo culture of the period. These printed musical sources demonstrate how popular compositions travelled between live performance, printed music and the new world of recorded sound.
The collection also includes early shellac records, including an original His Master's Voice release. Oakley’s Oakley Quick-Step and Whistling Rufus appeared on HMV B.138 in September 1912, while Lancashire Clogs and A Black Coquette were issued on HMV C.286 in June 1913.
These early HMV records are particularly significant in the history of recorded music: they document Oakley at a time when the gramophone industry was rapidly developing and before recorded music had become a mass medium in the form we recognise today.
Taken together, the cylinder, sheet music and shellac records tell the story of a Birmingham musician whose career crossed the worlds of live performance, printed music and the earliest commercial recording industry.
A remarkable group of artefacts documenting Olly Oakley’s contribution to Birmingham’s musical heritage and to the early history of recorded banjo music.
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