Black Sabbath

Stood in a relatively little queue for what was to be one of the biggest gigs of the year, me and my whole family clutched our tickets, praying that the dodgy ones off eBay would work! Entrance granted, me and my Dad squeezed through as many hairy old rockers as we could get away with to get nearer to the stage.

After waiting for two hours, with no support act and watching a DJ drink himself to a stupor you would expect an average crowd to be bored and flagging, but everyone in the building was buzzing in anticipation of Black Sabbath’s homecoming show.

Ozzy and the gang rushed onto the stage producing without a doubt a louder applause than all the Chelsea fans in the country that night. A surge of people crushed my seventeen-year-old body into a crowd of sweaty blokes but I really didn’t care! Into the Void was an appropriate starting number as I literal was sucked into some unholy pit of sweatiness.

Ozzy’s vocals were outstanding, he maintained a rich, inviting tone all evening. Tommy Clufetos, who replaced Ward for the night injected a youthful energy into the set and was a powerful and competent replacement. Iommi was, for me the real stand out. The most exceptionally talented guitarist I have ever seen, his soloing absolutely blew me (and I think everyone else) away. An amazing feat for someone so ill,

Geezer Butler released a statement after the gig stating that that evening was ‘the best medicine.....???’.
By The Wizzard, the eighth song on that evening’s set, an elbow in the nose was about the only thing that night that could have made me leave the sticky mass of bodies; who all fought and pressed as far forward as they could to become a part of the Ozzy-action. I ran so quickly into the loos to clean my bloody face because there was a kind of black magic about Ozzy that prevented me from averting my eyes away for more than a few seconds. Still standing, mesmerised at the bar, Paranoid closed the set in a fantastic finale, the whole room dripping with sweat and abundant applause.

No lightshows, smoke, and no ‘f*cking bubble machines’, the music was the focus of the night. Doing what they did best, Sabbath reminded us what live music is about, creating intimacy and re-creating the past. A night that will go down eternally in Rock history, I was so lucky to witness.

Set List:
• Into the Void
• Under the Sun
• Snowblind
• War Pigs
• Wheels of Confusion
• Electric Funeral
• Black Sabbath
• The Wizzard
• Behind the Wall of Sleep
• N.I.B.
• Fairies Wear Boots
• Tomorrow's Dream
• Sweet Leaf
• Symptom of the Universe
(instrumental)
• Drum Solo
• Iron Man
• Dirty Women
• Children of the Grave

• Encore:
• Paranoid