04-07-2025
The era that never evolved: Pete Waterman gives his verdict on Black Sabbath and E.L.O's legacy
As rock giants Black Sabbath and E.L.O prepare for their last ever concerts, Pete Waterman wonders why Birmingham didn't become a major music hub.
The two bands will both perform for one last time in the city this weekend.
Some of their biggest fans won't have witnessed the rise of their bands more closely than the vastly-successful record producer and TV personality, Pete Waterman.
The former Pop Idol judge knew members from both bands since the 1970s, when he bumped into them regularly doing gigs around the West Midlands.
Black Sabbath are led by their frontman Ozzy Osbourne, and E.L.O are headed by Jeff Lynne, but it was actually the latter who wowed Waterman first.
He said: "I always knew Jeff was an exceptional talent. I was there at the Locarno Ballroom in Coventry that night when Roy Wood turned up to form E.L.O. I was there at the very beginning.
"Everybody knew Ozzy, I used to do the Robin Hood club in Brierley Hill and he was a legend in that part of the world as well.
"It's hard to put into perspective what they've both achieved in the last 50 years, but it's amazing."
Despite the band's distinctive tones, neither band's success translated into a definitive sound for the bands that followed, according to Waterman.
He said: "It's funny, but it [their success] never spurred the rush that Liverpool or Manchester had.
"There was never that urgency for groups in the West Midlands to emulate the success those cities had.
"There was obviously Boy George. There were lots of great bands and if you add in Led Zeppellin (Robert Plant), the success the Midlands had individually outweighed other areas, there was never the collective movement.
"You don't hear people talk about 'the Birmingham sound'."
Their final gigs taking place this weekend and are a testament to the band's longevity, but also their success.
He said: "Two individuals who are absolutely brilliant and unique at their job. Time doesn't change that. People who are brilliant at something don't just not become brilliant at something.
"The E.L.O situation. Out of the Blue is one of the outstanding albums of all time. Jeff Lynne could've been in The Beatles any time he would have wanted to have been."
The lack of a "Birmingham sound" could be made-up for by the two bands. As Pete puts it, their upbringing in the West Midlands was prominent throughout their music.
He said: "Jeff Lynne, you can see my childhood, our working class families, how they were brought up, what they listened to on the radio. It was a unique place to be born.
"The West Midlands is quite unique, it was at the end of the war.
"We saw it [West Midlands] at the end of the war when it was pretty run down. People were working Saturday mornings.
"Music was part of our lives, it was the one thing that was important to us."
