From: James R. Collins

Joe,

I have been reading concert reviews from your web-site with great interest. I notice they are all fairly recent. If you don't mind an older Sab fan going back in time for a minute, I'll tell you about my 1st Sabbath live expeience.

The time: late 1976
The place: Memorial Hall, Kansas City Ks.
The price: $6.00 !!!!!!!!!
Opening Act: Target (This was Jimi Jamisons band before he joined Survivor)

I had been in the service about a year and was home on leave. My buddies had scored us tickets before I got home and surprised me with them. We got to the hall at around 7:00 and stood outside with the crowd waiting for the doors to open. (I remember feeling out of place because of my haircut.)The place only holds around 1500-2000 people and when we got inside the place was packed. Target came on a little after 8:00 and the only thing I remember about their set was how boring it was. Luckily it didn't last too long and the Sabs were on by 9:30. I remember the lights going down and the roar of the crowd as the band came on stage. The intro music was playing Supertsar off Sabatoge and suddenly with a flash of light and sound the band launched into Symptom of the Universe. Amazing! It's been a lot of years since then and I don't recall the exact order or even all the songs they played, but some of the highlights were: Gypsy, All Moving Parts, Rock n Roll Doctor, Meglomania (even though Tony broke a string during the mellow beginning. Some idiots started booing while he changed guitars, so they skipped the 1st part of the song and went right into the heavy part of the song! Ozzy SCREAMED out the SUCK ME! part and pointed into the audience where the idiots were sitting.) Other highlights: Black Sabbath, War Pigs, Iron Man w/ Ozzy using the strobe light/gun and blasting the audience with it, Children of the Grave and Sweet Leaf. Low-lights? Nothing off of Vol.4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Not one song or even a reference to those two albums. Also missing was the legendary volume at a Sabbath show. An extremely low volume the entire set. Bill Ward did a monster drum solo though that showed him to be one of rocks great "unknown" drummers! The power of this man was amazing! Even with a substandard PA, the entire hall shook under his assault on the drumkit. It was an awsome display. Tony and Geezer each did solo spots that were inspiring, but couldn't compete with Bill's solo. All in all an excellent show that left me awestruck. If only the morons up front hadn't booed when Tony broke the string, they might have played..........???

Anyway, thats my battered memory doing the best it can to try and paint you a picture of what I saw and heard that night. A classic in every sense of the word. Stay tuned and if you want, I'll share the 2nd time I saw Sabbath. 1978, a fat Ozzy in a dress and a little band called Van Halen as the opening act. BIG MISTAKE boys!

Thats all for now. If you'd like that little story, let me know. Cheers Jim C.