This
night was actually meant to be one of those sensational BLACK
SABBATH reunion shows. Man proposes, God disposes. It goes
to show you never can tell. Unfortunately guitar player Tony Iommi
was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy. Besides,
also drummer Bill Ward is out due to irreconcilable differences
when it came down to the green. Anyway, there is only one BLACK
SABBATH show with the original ¾ -line-up at Download
Festival, Donington UK, as Tony is doing better these days. Just
not to let the entire tour fall through most of the dates got
turned into an OZZY OSBOURNE & FRIENDS thing with Geezer
Butler and Zakk Wylde as “friends” during a handful
of BLACK SABBATH songs. First it was also rumored that
Slash would appear as he is actually in Germany right now, but
he was anywhere else for some other business.
::
pics ::
The day is
grey, very cold and very rainy. For some reason I’m out
of things, mess up with days and times and other stuff but manage
to be on time on the spot with Dani (Reflections Of Darkness)
just to face the one and the other surprise, which made this evening
to one of the oddest and most bizarre I experienced so far. To
begin with all attendees had to shell out 6 Euro for parking at
• Westfalenhalle
• Dortmund. Waylay that is. At least fans got money
back for their BLACK SABBATH tickets or could change them
into much cheaper OZZY OSBOURNE & FRIENDS tickets.
The main reason
to arrive that super early at the location was to see L.A. rockers
:: STEEL
PANTHER :: Yep, we urgently wanted to see and take
photos of them ;) But that wasn’t the easiest thing at all.
First, stage time was brought forward from 8pm to 7.30pm. Okay,
we got that on time. But STEEL PANTHER already kicked off
when security still led us towards the stage, what made us antsy.
After the usual 3 songs we were forced to leave the concert hall
*grmpf*. So what I can tell is what I got during the first 3 songs
only, and that isn’t that much. The stage was way too big
for a band like STEEL PANTHER. All their gimmicks and ironical
actions just went under. Besides, I expected live much more power
in their music. Great to look but lame to hear.
Setlist: Supersonic Sex Machine, Tomorrow Night, Fat
Girl (Thar She Blows), Asian Hooker, Just Like Tiger Woods, Community
Property, 17 Girls in a Row, Death To All but Metal
As Steel Panther
just played 20 or 30 minutes it wasn’t too bad to wait outside
in the lobby. As we just wanted to get in again we got surprised
with photo contracts for :: BLACK
LABEL SOCIETY :: with content not to agree to.
“Needless to say we declined” (Alter Bridge quote
*lol*), except for one journalistic freshman who signed and wanted
to take pics of a support band come hell or high water. In fact,
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY didn’t take place for us. That’s
it.
We give our
equipments away and have fun as well as enjoying the first part
of :: OZZY
OSBOURNE & FRIENDS :: Contrary to usual conventions
we don’t get the first 3 songs but 2 in the middle of the
set, the BLACK SABBATH part, to photograph the “friends”
as well. The show starts with a lengthy video intro showing live
cuts of a long OZZY OSBOURNE career on stage. Too bad the
curtain is still closed ;) (we can see because we stay at the
side). As the curtain falls Mr. Osbourne gets extremely lively
and agile into his set with Bark At The Moon and has a
lot of fun to pour water upon himself, even much more to wet the
fans with foam from 2 hoses. Gee, that's going to be fun. Not.
So we get first songs from Ozzy’s own repertoire, then the
BLACK SABBATH parts begins with Iron Man and Geezer
Butler on bass. Three songs later also Zakk Wylde joins in for
another two SABBATH songs. Oh, by the way, here we can
take photos of Zakky baby without a contract and without any restrictions.
Odd, isn’t it? Meanwhile OZZY loves to hunt us photographers
with his hose and what can I say. He caught us. One more, the
other less. Although most of us were well prepared with rain capes
and with trash bags wrapped cams. I actually thought that OZZY
would fall off stage laughing when he gotta see us like that.
One of my cams tanks but smells good now. Luckily it survived
the foam attack. After our 2-songs-photo-part we again have to
leave the hall. So we do, try to get foam and wet off the clothes
and hit the road again back home. As I said, a very strange concert
evening…
Setlist: Bark At The Moon, Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution,
I Don’t Know, Killer Of Giants, Shot In The Dark, Rat Salad
/ Iron Man, War Pigs, N.I.B., Fairies Wear Boots, Into The Void
/ Change The World, Crazy Train // Mama I’m Coming Home,
Paranoid