Last night was the “Bonzo Bash” Jam at the NAMM show in Santa Ana, California. It’s a collection of drummers who get together for a theme – that being to celebrate the late John Bonham. However, that’s not all that happened. They also gave Bill Ward a “Legend Award” at the show, too.
I wasn’t there, so I didn’t witness it, but I was sent these couple of pictures both of the award Bill received, and this candid photo of Bill speaking. Was anyone reading this in attendance and witnessed this – can you send in some details? I just found out about this a matter of minutes before I posted about it, and I didn’t want to wait on getting the news out, but I don’t have a lot of details here. Will update if I get some. UPDATE: There’s video of Bill talking – that’s below. No video of him playing yet, if anyone has some, let me know. Danke.
Check out the pics:
Amazing @BonzoBash..thank u @BrianTichy for putting on another great show..congrats to @billwarddrums 2014's winner! pic.twitter.com/EjUXaxLcUz
— William Keim (@William_Keim) January 24, 2014
Just can’t wait to see the video of Bill drumming the night away.
Apparently Bill did not play. good for bill anyways.
Good for Bill. He’s a legend indeed.
The fallout from seeing Sabbath last month has seen me revisiting all the old albums and hearing them fresh again. There’s been a few surprises like enjoying Devil You Know which I didn’t when it came out, I just can’t listen to anything from Eternal Idol to Forbidden anymore with exception of a handful of track where I loved those albums and followed the band around on tour at the time. But most important of all is hearing Bills drumming on earphones. The man is simply incredible. The feel and the groove, the patterns, the work he put into every song, listen to his playing on the Never Say Die! album, it’s stunning.
He really is, was, the core of the band. They should have found a way to work.
PS I wonder if Bill and Geezer caught up with each others news at NAMM? Geezer’s there launching his new signature Lakland bass and EMG pickups.
Plenty to talk about…
He is such a nice guy. He did such a stunning job during the 70s. But why is he wearing these outworn looking gloves. By the way…for those of you who have not found out already…somebody posted videos on youtube with the single drum-, guitar- or basstrack to some songs of the seventies material. I have no clue where the guy got it from. But it really sounds autentic to me and it is something I’ve been waiting for decades. The guy’s missfitting channelname is “sabbathfuckingsucks”. Could he be some kind of record label stuff member? Is this something you can easily do nowadays just by using the right software?
Good to see Bill Ward not forgotten thru all success of 13,even recent Black Sabbath band photos of one missing and three remain seems sad ,so congratulations on your legends award that truly makes me happy again.Bill Ward and John Bonham are truly two of our great drummers that supported two great bands thru the years
PTC – i couldn’t agree more. Bills drumming through earphones,close up and personal,is amazing. Especially on Sabotage, Technical Ecstacy (his best studio drum sound i think) and Never say Die. Intricate,groovy,jazzy,powerful. Listening to NSD via earphones takes me somewhere else, the superb drums on tracks like Johnny Blade,Juniors Eyes,Hard Road,Air Dance and even Breakout just excell. There are few drummers around these days who reach that level exept maybe Jean Paul Gastor and Neil Peart, unfortunately these albums seem to be dismissed by many “fans” which is WRONG.