A review by Martjin Louwes

This was the first big rock concert for me. I was 15 years old and i was very excited to go to one of the heaviest bands i knew of. And they were playing only 10 miles from my town ! And with Ronnie James Dio. This was an opportunity not to be missed ! The Evenementenhal is a place normally used by the local basketball-team, but sometimes it was used for rock concerts (later i also saw Jethro Tull and Brian May there). I think there was a crowd of 2.000 or 2.500 people. Opening act was Testament, a thrash band quite popular at the time. They got a few cheers, but it was quite obvious that everybody was waiting for Sabbath.

They kicked off i think with Mob Rules and i just blew me away. I was caught in a mosh pit right in front of the stage and I was really scared with all those sweaty, hairy guys around me. After 2 songs i managed to get to the back of the hall and enjoy the show from there. What really sticks to my memory is the extreme high volume they played with. And the never ending head banging of Geezer Butler. Tony Iommi was just doing his thing and Dio wasn't talking too much either. But what a great gig it was, it will always be in my memory, as the first but one of the best gigs i ever attended. Later i realised that the concert was very unique, because Dio left only two months later !