Whether you know it or not, Birmingham and the Black Country are quietly responsible for belching out some of the best musicians of the last few decades.

For now let’s just concentrate on the heavy metal – Black Sabbath were famously from Aston, Judas Priest were Walsall born and bred, Napalm Death were formed in Meriden, and cut their teeth playing at Birmingham’s notorious Mermaid pub, and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant was from West Bromwich. It’s really that simple.

Brummies and yam yams find it hard to claim pride in their post-industrial sprawl – the tried-and-tested way is to laugh it off with some kind of self-deprecating (and probably sweary) joke. You see then why it’s bloody important work that local promoters Capsule (who you might know from running the killer Supersonic Festival) have been doing in establishing the city, quite rightly, as the worldwide centre of heavy metal.

Just as Seattle managed to claim grunge as its own and build up tourism around that fact, Birmingham can easily do the same, and Capsule want to expand on their excellent 2011 exhibition – where they recreated a 1960s factory and filled it with film footage and memorabilia – and make it a permanent fixture in the city.

Incredibly the Home of Metal exhibit managed to attract 200,000 people to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and local legend (and Black Sabbath axeman) Tommy Iommi was there to kick things off, offering a key anecdote about how an industrial accident (he injured his hand at a sheet metal factory) was responsible for his influential guitar technique.

The Home of Metal is now up for some very crucial National Lottery funding to help them achieve their goal, and it’s up to us to make sure they get it. You can vote on the National Lottery funding site, and secure Birmingham and the Black Country’s place as the Home of Metal for good. Rock on.