Flowers, beer bottles and an orchestra

Just two-and-a-half weeks ago, disciples of the “prince of darkness” flocked to Birmingham for Ozzy Osbourne’s final gig. Now they have come back to mourn following his death – placing pint glasses and whisky bottles among the flowers and candles.

Messages at the impromptu shrines to Ozzy Osbourne in Birmingham tell the story of how deeply his impact was felt, and how far it spread.

Some conveyed the pride of his home city (“Birmingham forever Ozzy – you rock!”), while others came from further afield (“Gracias Ozzy!”; “Thank you for the music – from me and all your fans in Bulgaria.”)

Others were personal messages about how much his music meant.

“You have touched millions, my whole life your music has played almost as if raising me,” another read.

Fans congregated at locations including the Black Sabbath bench – which features cut-out figures of the four band members. Ozzy’s was given a Sabbath hat and a scarf of Aston Villa FC.

The bench itself was covered with flowers – interspersed with some beer bottles, empty glasses and a Jack Daniels bottle, in honour of his famously hard-drinking lifestyle.

“It’s just amazing to see the big community come together and support everyone,” said one fan, 20-year-old Nate Baker from Redditch in Worcestershire.

Baker wore a special Aston Villa shirt that was sold to mark Ozzy and Sabbath’s huge concert at Villa Park less than three weeks ago.

That gig was billed as their farewell show. Ozzy suffered long-running health problems and performed seated – but appeared in good spirits, and no-one expected the end to come for him so soon after that last hurrah.

Other landmarks were created before that event to celebrate the show – and have now been turned into makeshift memorials.

A row of bunches of flowers lines a mural depicting the faces of the band’s four members on a bridge near New Street station.

“To be honest, it hadn’t really sunk in when I heard the news last night, and I thought that coming here and seeing all the tributes and all the love being expressed would really start to make it feel real, and it has,” said Paul Williams, from Stafford.

“It feels comforting to be part of the community here, where we’ve all come to the same place to express our grief and our love and our thankfulness for what he gave the world.”

Mr Williams added a sheet of paper to the memorial with his own portrait of Ozzy.

“I’m a comic artist, and so the way that came most naturally to me to express my thankfulness was to do a quick doodle before I came down on the train this morning. It’s not necessarily my best work, but I’m happy to see it there amongst all the flowers, being blown askew by the wind.”

Those laying flowers included Paul Allen, a classical musician from Walsall. His brother loved Sabbath – but Mr Allen said he has only recently been catching up on the appeal of the founding fathers of heavy metal.

“I’m only just starting to grasp their place in musical history, and I have a lot of respect for that,” he said.

“They took their industrial background and heritage, and somehow managed to expose that in the music, along with a strange mixture of Lord of the Rings ideas and Dennis Wheatley witchcraft, devil worshipping, science-fictiony stuff.

“They had this melting pot of new ideas. They weren’t part of a hippy movement. They weren’t part of a prog rock thing. They just were doing their own thing.”

Elsewhere, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gave Ozzy a symphonic send-off by recreating Black Sabbath – the doom-laden self-titled opening track from the band’s debut album – as part of a performance under the departure boards at New Street station.

An exhibition about Ozzy’s life in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery – which opened to coincide with the farewell gig – has now also become another destination for fans to remember him.

A queue soon formed for a book of condolence – watched over by a black-and-white photo of Ozzy clutching a cross, which the museum hastily put up on Wednesday morning.

“I just wrote, ‘Condolences to the family, and Ozzy’s making his way through the Hole in the Sky’,” said Steve Bennett, from Liverpool – referring to the title of a song from Sabbath’s 1975 album Sabotage.

“I’ve got every one of their albums, and a lot of his solo stuff as well.”

Ozzy was “one of rock’s great frontmen, in a great band, who changed the way music was perceived”, he explained.

Another signatory to the book of condolence was 32-year-old Tamara Jenna. “I said, ‘Rest in peace, Ozzy. You made Birmingham proud’.”

She added: “I heard the news last night and it’s such a sad loss to Birmingham. He did so much for the city and for heavy metal, and I think it’s definitely worth paying respects to what he’s done for the city, let alone the genre.”

The age range of the visitors to the exhibition proved Ozzy’s cross-generational appeal.

Jonty Carter, a volunteer at the museum, was there at the very start of Sabbath’s journey – after being taken to see them play at a pub in Birmingham in their early days by fellow members of his Boys’ Brigade.

“They sneaked me in the entrance, and Black Sabbath were on. So I saw them when I was 12, which is just unbelievable,” he recalled.

“And some of the music has just lived for me forever. I don’t think it’s ever going to be surpassed. It was game-changing at the time.”

Kelly Pearce went to pay her respects at the exhibition with her two children.

“He never changed – even when he went to America, he was still always a Brummie, which we love,” she said.

“What makes me laugh is that the way he speaks, with all these swear words, is so natural to normal Brummies. My father grew up in Aston as well, and he’s exactly the same.

“So to me, he could have just been one of your uncles. He was just so down to earth with no airs and graces. I just love him.

“It was lovely that he got his final wish as well – to come back to England and do his last gig here, which was just unforgettable.”