Boozers were decked with purple balloons and flags; murals were everywhere you looked; people donned Ozzy outfits, flooding the streets with battered T-shirts and denim jackets. It felt like a World Cup final for the metal fans who flooded in from every corner of the planet .

The epic 'Back to the Beginning' send-off was held at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, and streamed live globally.

It was the heavy metal gig to, for many fans, end all heavy metal gigs as Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath bade farewell to live performing supported by a host of legendary music acts in front of 40,000 fans. The group, formed in Birmingham in 1968, rocked out Villa Park in a homecoming gig that had created a huge buzz in the city in recent weeks.