The Home of Metal exhibition has done a brilliant job in helping improve people’s perceptions of Birmingham. Running since June the exhibition has been reported everywhere from The Sun to the FT, broadcast on Sky, CNN and everywhere in between.

I can’t remember a museum exhibition that’s been the subject of so much diverse media coverage.

And it’s firmly cemented our reputation as a city with a rich musical heritage.

One of the best articles was in The Sunday Times. Despairing at our previous failure to shout about the role we played in creating heavy metal the journalist summed it up thus:

‘This is Birmingham. They do things indifferently here’.

There’s a lot of truth in that. We’re far too humble about our history, far too reticent in shouting about what makes this city great. The people behind the Home of Metal exhibition have made significant progress in helping us shake off that indifference.

Sadly in ten days time the exhibition comes to an end. It would be fantastic if it had a permanent home, somewhere in the city centre. We don’t stop being the ‘home of metal’ at the end of September and we shouldn’t stop shouting about it then, either.