I had the good fortune to witness the Black Sabbath line-up that played at the Reading festival in 1983 - Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bev Bevan (formerly with The Move and Electric Light Orchestra) on drums and Ian Gillan on vocals.
If memory serves (it's a long time ago), the band on before them were Marillion, who were promoting their debut album 'Script for a Jester's Tear' and the weekend was a lovely, sunny affair.
I must admit that I had reservations regarding the whole 'Born Again' project. Being a fan of both Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, I was sceptical about how the band would sound as I was a bit of a purist and couldn't bear to listen to Sabbath without Ozzy (Ronnie James Dio? PAH!) but these fears were unfounded and I found myself marvelling at how well Gillan belted out favourites like Iron Man, War Pigs, Paranoid and Children of the Grave and being more than a little surprised when they played Smoke on the Water - those musicians and THAT voice more than made up for the lack of keyboards and, yes, the whole crowd was singing along.
Bev Bevan played the most amazing drum solo (eat your heart out, Lars Ulrich) and, of course, Iommi did his usual 'I don't think anyone's watching so I'll indulge myself with some noodling' solo that seemed to last for days. That' isn't a complaint, either.
I now consider the Born Again album to be a classic oddity in the long history of this fantastic band and still prefer this to anything they've made with Dio.
The headliners the following night were Thin Lizzy, playing one of, if not their very last ever show.
A fantastic weekend, I was 18 at the time and have such fond memories of it.
Thanks for letting me share this.
Apr 11, 2010 Rating
Earth to Black Sabbath by: Rockin Rodwell
Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham 1968 and
originally called themselves Earth. They were ranked by MTV as the Greatest Metal Band of all time and second to Led Zeppelin in VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
The Wizard is the second track on Black Sabbath's 1970 self titled debut album. Bassist Geezer Butler claims the character Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings as the inspiration not drugs as some have thought. The Wizard was a band favorite and was later included on other albums.
One of my favorite vocalists (Ian Gillan) has
even been involved with Sabbath from late 1982 to Feb. 1984. Now that position belongs to Ronnie James Dio; in all there's been around 30 band affiliates.
