Brum is the home of hell - so Gerrard best give that to Everton

"Turn around quick, and start to run. Find out I'm the chosen one. Oh no." - Black Sabbath

So the Commonwealth Games are over, and sadly - the attention on our city, our home, of Birmingham will probably fade.

Attention on Villa, however, will very much increase.

You can't make excuses for that Bournemouth game - but you can go forward and take it out on the next team.

That's exactly what Gerrard needs to do. Everton have got hell to pay on the weekend and it's not even their fault.

They are just in the way.

From hell's heart Stevie G stabs at thee

I love heavy metal. I love Aston Villa. I love Birmingham (but not Blues).

All of these things came together at around the same time for me. I was 12 when my family could just about afford a season ticket for me (that I actually had to share sometimes) down the Villa. I was 14 when metal blew my socks off. I was also 14 when I was finally allowed to go into Birmingham all by myself.

That all came together for me at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.

Black Sabbath! In Perry Barr! Seconds from the Villa. All of it, right there, screaming bloody hellfire about our city.

That's the thing, right? Birmingham - the city - wasn't founded or built, it was forged. Industrial revolution, burning furnaces, hands and lives and limbs and eyes lost to the demand of a world that wanted coal, steel, iron and steam. Brum met a demand and paid deep costs to become the world's workshop. I don't imagine many people putting fist to steel in the second city benefited greatly from it, but they tore out the centre of the country to make their own great home.

So it makes sense that heavy metal comes from Birmingham because of A) the above, and B) the continuation of the above.

I get the Screamin' Jay Hawkins influences - but Helter Skelter by The Beatles being classed as 'the first' metal song is bollocks because it could only come from Brum. Sabbath put doom on the map for a generation that grew up covered in soot and shite working in those 'dark satanic mills' of Blake's that are as much part of England's heritage as those rolling green pastures.

Black Sabbath, by Black Sabbath, on the album Black Sabbath, has been called the most 'evil song of ever written' by the lead of Judas Priest, no less. Slow pounding drums, melancholic moaned storytelling from Ozzy Osbourne and a tortured guitar line running through. It's doom!

Imagine hearing that on release and thinking anything other than a new hole had been torn in the magical tapestry that is England.

Damn right it's from Birmingham.

I meet a lot of non-Villa fans who I want to convert, and the first thing I usually tell them is about Geezer Butler's claret-and-blue striped instruments, and then about Sabbath, and then about Brum.

That's a trifecta I'm proud of. How could you not be? The unique Aston Villa, the unique Black Sabbath, the unique Birmingham.

Brum should be what the people say it is. Burned resources in factories and broken landscapes crammed into a ring road. A shithole. It should be that, but it's not. When you find yourself in Brindley Place, or Sarehole Mill, or Lickey Hills, or Sutton Park - even on bloody New Street at Christmas, you can't help but think something beautiful has been forged here against all odds.

And then Villa? With the majestic redbrick of Villa Park rising out of  Ozzy's neigbourhood? A good team previously blighted with mismanagement and the very real possibility of actual doom that now has a chance to forge something beautiful of it's own.

With heavy metal and the agony of industry, hell was born in Birmingham and I find that beautiful. Stunning, almost.

Now, the city has had it's moment in the sun, and I hope that lasts for eternity, in a way. I still kind of want Birmingham to be a secret - known only to us.

That's not what I want for Villa though.

We're not walkovers, us Brummies - so that's why results like Saturday's sicken me. It's pointless for mainstream media to even discuss, it's that bad. It's Villa just being Villa. Birmingham just being Birmingham. The fucking sickening narrative continuing over and over and over.

What I wouldn't give for Villa to give a bit of that back to Everton? Liverpool has had it's troubles, and disrespect for sure - but they're up against US on Saturday. Their narrative, sadly, doesn't matter to me anymore because they are in Villa's way right now.

There should be enough frustration in this Villa side to give the Toffees a good hiding on Saturday. I'm not sure how Gerrard, after the game he had and the press/reaction he faced, could take Everton lying down. The players as well? They should be well up for changing the headlines. Whatever is coming down the tracks should fear them, in a perfect world. In that same perfect world, Villa Park would be a fortress of brick and iron, rising with menace to meet any opponent.

Poor Frank Lampard's men must be met with strength and a balled fist, and they can only be the first. 18 other teams will visit after, and they too must be met with that same viciousness. Anything else at this point would be disrespectful to paying fans.

So please, Stevie - give Everton the type of hell that they could only get by visiting Villa Park. Give them fire and anger of the Brummie sort tinged with Scouse angst. Take that frustration out on them. Get Villa firing, because we all want to back you. We know you've got that same anxiety that we do, and there'd be nothing better right now for you and for us than a strong home win. Followed by some progress, of course.

If you can't do that in the long run, then I guess it's goodbye, bab?

Football players are temporary, football managers even more so, but things like heavy metal, Birmingham and Aston Villa?

They are forever, as Ozzy Osbourne said.

Odds and Holte Ends

Hope the above was to your liking, but I guess I just want to write whatever I want? I had to delete 1000s of words about Mastodon and Rage Against The Machine, so you need to appreciate that I managed to get to Villa in the end.

I just love them, like I love my city and like I love my music.

Anyway, thank you for your support. There's been a few words behind the scenes of how I can expand this, but that's for way down the line (but I did want to get a Black Sabbath football kit made for House of V). The goal for now is simply to get Geezer Butler on board as a subscriber, because he loves the Villa and I love him. I've met every other target I could've dreamed of. There's nearly 430 of us here! It's not even September! Wild.

Douglas Luiz also seems on the verge of signing a new contract. No matter what you think of him, it's way better than losing him on a free. Either use, or cash in - and I'm in the former camp. He may be able to pair well with Kamara and he's got plenty of room left to grow.

Here's a few more things.

Under a Gaslit Lamp kindly invited me on to review Bournemouth and preview Everton - you can listen to that HERE.

My friends at Claret and Blue are also running the Great Birmingham Run in May 2023 to raise funds for the AVFC foundation and Acorns hospice. You can sponsor them/donate HERE.

See you after Everton on Saturday. UTFV.