Black Sabbath: Classic or Dud?

unbelievable

definitely sinking into "more ridiculous than spinal tap" territory.

not cropped out here
http://www.blacksabbath.com/history.html

kelly o's still growing out her mustache to shoot the new band photos

I'd rather see a reunion of the Tyr era band than this shit. this is not Black Sabbath by any stretch. They wont be getting any of my dough.

As for this weekend's warm-up show in Birmingham, the drummer only learned of the concert at the end of April, from an online advert. "I had no prior knowledge of the date and location, and I felt totally excluded." After about a week of back and forth, Ward claims he received the following offer: "Come to the UK, play for free and see how the first show goes."

"I was tempted," he said. "Playing for free would not have been a problem for me, but … I can't come to Birmingham and 'see what happens' knowing there is a risk of not being able to play Download or Lollapalooza … I had to say 'no' to Birmingham on the principle of wanting to play all the shows."

While Ward maintains an "open mind" about future work with Black Sabbath, the 2012 negotiations seem to have reached a dead end. "I hold no malice or resentment towards the other band members," he said. "My fight has never been with them. I'll love them forever. In my opinion, nobody wins this time; the band doesn't win; the fans for an original lineup don't win. Nobody wins, nobody. Even the ones who thought they did."

Arik 'Moonhawk' Roper talking about the Hipgnosis sleeve art to Technical Ecstasy in the current issue of WIRE = classic.

link?

Bill Ward seems like a guy with a pretty great attitude.

"Come to the UK, play for free and see how the first show goes."

This is unbelievable.

yeah. dude is putting on a brave front but I can't imagine wanting to play with those other assholes after this kind of treatment.

I hope he gets some good guest spots or something out of this. Like, if I had a famous band, I would be all like "Bill Ward, you want to play with us?" right now.

Can I play devil's advocaat for a mo?

This sounds like they have a problem with Bill's ability...

Maybe I could buy that if the Osbornes already didn't have an EXTENSIVE history of fucking people over and doing extremely childish things (like cropping people out of photos, erasing them from albums, throwing eggs at them onstage etc etc etc). As soon as I saw the images popped up in their website with Ward cropped out, it was confirmation enough for me.

When I saw Sabbath 13 years ago I had a major problem with Ozzy's ability, he still seems to be there though...

Although yes it wouldn't surprise me if Bill has trouble keeping up these days.

this is pitiful bush league fuckery that has the Osbournes' fingerprints all over it

This sounds like they have a problem with Bill's ability...

― Mark G, Friday, May 18, 2012 3:33 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Have you heard Ozzy recently?

And if that was the case, why not talk to Bill and reach some sort of detente behind closed doors. Give him a golden parachute or something in return for saying he's "retired". Dont tell the guy he can show up and play for free as a tryout-its Bill fucking Ward!

its Bill fucking Ward!

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill fucking Magill)

I mentioned upthread that when I saw Sabbath a decade ago, I thought Ward was having trouble keeping up. This was after his return from his heart attack. But then, he did keep up, so I'm not sure what the prob is. Maybe he got worse? But of course, if he couldn't do it, it's not a "I think I can, I think I can" situation. If he couldn't do it he couldn't fake it, so it seems unlikely that performance is an issue.

Geezer and Ozzy have it easy. All Geezer has to do is sleep through his rote-simple (but don't get me wrong, still awesome!) riffs, and Ozzy just has to be subtle about peeing his pants.

at least he's being subtle about something for once

By "subtle" I meant "subtly dumping buckets of water over himself to hide the fact that he is incontinent."

I don't think it's a secret I like these guys a little bit. This kind of stupidity really bothers me. But I'm an idiot for thinking it's not about money at this point.

this is fucking infuriating bullshit

I'd find some satisfaction, at least, in how hated Sharon Osbourne is in the metal community, if not for the fact that so many housewives love her now

Ever since the Iron Maiden debacle, Sharon has had no cred at all.

cause she had so much before?

for exasperating lols go find the few defenders of this move on Black Sabbath's Facebook page, including one especially aggro clueless dude who opines that "the drummer [is] the most expendable position in any band" - lol anyone who believes this knows literally nothing about bands

couldn't resist

http://whatdrummer.tumblr.com/

Geezer Butler sez...

Hmmmm...he sorta wins me over with the "stay frosty".

That Geezer bit is total bullshit. Key takeaway:

He hadn’t told any one of us he was having contractual problems, and frankly those things are worked out between our representatives, and never between the four of us let alone in public.

So basically the band, not surprisingly, is in Fleetwood Mac lockdown land, where the members don't talk to each other, and every member has its own manager, each looking out for their client's best interests. That's fine, but on that count Geezer's take is so disingenuous. He likely has no idea how much Bill may have been getting hosed, or maybe how much more he was slated to make than Bill. He has no idea what Bill's contract looked like, or exactly what Bill was offered. He says Bill was asking an "unreasonable" amount, but maybe that "unreasonable" amount was much less than his. Maybe the contract severely limited Bill's rights, or curtailed his potential participation, seeing how it seems the other three had been planning this "reunion" with either no or another drummer all along.

The good thing about being in the dark is that it allows you to write what Geezer wrote with this falsely objective tone. The fact that he plays Tony's condition and this "charity" show for sympathy is a further bullshit red flag.

via Alex in NYC

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4bpzukgJA1qaxybpo1_500.jpg

Yeah, the whole "We never talk to each other about these things; why didn't he talk to us about this?" angle gives it a distinct whiff of bullshit.

i've still only ever heard 'iron man' and 'paranoid'. and since it power gets on my tits when singers follow the guitar lines PRECISELY, without bothering to come up with a vocal melody, i've explored no further.

ignorance is never anything to crow about, y'know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zlAd_eXjM

yeah theres enough people with that shtick on ilm

As you may expect, a one off show at Donnington Festival (Download) costs an absolute fortune to stage, involving over 50 people, transport, air fares, hotels, meals, agents, promotors, accountants, lawyers etc,

pfffffffffbbbtt fuck off Geezer

I do like that lawyers are exempt from the category of 'people'

Geezer, doing it for the people.

Josh, I wanna know why Kot isn't writing about this. Since the C3 promoters made a very explicit point to state that the headliner would be "all four original members". like the guy, but he slobs at Lolla's knob every year.

I think it just happened a couple of days ago, right? I bet it shows up, but DeRo is a bigger bee on Perry's bonnet.

Wonder if E3 will do the right thing and offer refunds to the five people who would take them.

How was the Birmingham show, er, charity event received?

Answer: well-received. Setlist:

INTO THE VOID
UNDER THE SUN
SNOWBLIND
WAR PIGS
WHEELS OF CONFUSION
ELECTRIC FUNERAL
BLACK SABBATH
THE WIZARD
BEHIND THE WALL OF
SLEEP
NIB
FAIRIES WEAR BOOTS
LORD OF THIS WORLD
TOMORROW’S DREAM
SWEET LEAF
SYMPTOM OF THE
UNIVERSE
IRON MAN
DIRTY WOMEN
CHILDREN OF THE
GRAVE
SABBATH BLOODY
SABBATH
PARANOID

Damn good setlist.

Jesus. You sure can't fuck with that setlist. my god

"Wheels of Confusion" for fucks sake

A ridiculously great setlist...and no Bill Ward. So mind boggling.

any money this is how The Stone Roses gigs end up.