UKC

> As startling changes in tack go, it is surely up there with St Paul on the road to Damascus. Tony Iommi, founder and lead guitarist of Black Sabbath – the man credited with inventing heavy metal – has switched his one-time bat-biting bandmates for a group of choirboys and taken up church music.

> The 68-year-old musician has recorded a remarkable new choral work with the choir of Birmingham Cathedral and the cellist George Shilling. The piece, entitled How Good It Is, is inspired by the words of Psalm 133 which speaks about “brethren dwelling together in unity”. It was premiered at the cathedral on Thursday.

> It developed out a friendship between the musician and the cathedral’s Dean, the Very Rev Catherine Ogle, which grew up while he was being treated for cancer.