Black Sabbath named Britain's most important hard rock band

Music trade body the BPI names Brummie heavy metal gods the most important hard rock band of all time. Heavy metal legends have been named the most important British hard rock act of all time in a poll by record industry. The pioneers of heavy metal - Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward - who have sold more than 70 million records worldwide including the 1970 classic Paranoid, bagged almost half of the votes (45 per cent) in a poll of more than 3,600 fans.

Fellow West Midlanders Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden completed the trio.

The survey - carried out in conjunction with Kerrang! and Metal Hammer magazines - also found that aficionados of hard rock and metal get bitten by the bug early, with over 40 per cent discovering it before their teenage years.

Stacey Barnfield for Birmingham Mail, 18 January 2014