Black Sabbath Concert Reviews August 12, 1999 Hershey Stadium Hershey, PA

THE BAND

• Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
• Tony Iommi - Guitar
• Geezer Butler - Bass
• Bill Ward - Drums
• Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards

CONCERT PHOTOS

None available - if you have any, let me know.

TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS

From: Frédéric Régent <nc-alexangr@netcologne.de> 
To: <siegler@black-sabbath.com> 
Subject: black sabbaths concert 12/8/99 
Date sent: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 16:45:15 +0200

Originally scheduled in August, this show was postponed because of the incredible demand in the USA at the time. I was pretty frustrated to learn that but I found the patience to wait until december. After all, I had then been waiting for more than two years to see the original Sabbath live, since I had learnt that the classic line-up was back... Two days before the Sabbath show, I had the opportunity to see Glenn Hugues live in Cologne, where he played with the Michael Schenker Group and Thin Lizzy sharing a triple package bill. During his show, he remembered his (short) time in Sabbath with a version of "No Stranger To Love". I actually dig the "Seventh Star" album and I was really pleased that he added this song to his set-list, alongside Purple classics. 48 hours later, the great day had finally arrived and I took the train from Cologne to Oberhausen. After my arrival, I stood in a giant queue in front of the arena in the cold winter night. I remember seeing a guy dressed like a member of the disco band Village People entering the hall as a V.I.P. He may have been the real Mc Coy, after all... Drain played at first, in front of a full arena, which received them well, which was not the case for Godsmack, who were booed, some people even throwing beer cans at them. The Sabbath show began with a taped intro of a medley, which I found rather disturbing. Then I could see all the band members (or at least four of them, as Geoff Nicholls was as usual hidden) and I was surprised to see Ozzy jumping and smiling. He wore a black "Clockwork Orange" t-shirt and shorts and seemed in a really good shape. His voice was clear and strong, but I kept looking at the side of the stage to see if Geoff Nichols wasn`t singing on his behalf, but the keyboard player was really well hidden. After "War Pigs", I literally received a slap from Geezer`s bass at the beginning of "N.I.B." And I stood in front of the soundboard, meters away from the stage, right in the middle of the Arena! It was the first time that I received such a schock during a concert. I always knew that the guy is an incredible bass player, but I couldn`t imagine a better proof of it. The set comprised the following songs: Intro/War Pigs N.I.B. Fairies Wear Boots After Forever Electric Funeral Sweet Leaf Into The Void Guitar Solo/Snowblind Dirty Women Tomorrow`s Dream Black Sabbath Children Of The Grave Paranoid/Outro (Changes) The two surprises (for me) were "After Forever" and "Tomorrow's Dream", but I felt a little disappointed because of the absence of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (one of their best tracks ever), the only encore with "Paranoid", the shortness of the show (less than two hours) and another tape at the end of the concert, the complete "Changes". After "Into The Void", Ozzy introduced the band (forgetting Geoff Nichols, by the way), asking the audience for a warm for Bill Ward ("You're not gonna die tonight, Bill! You're not gonna die!", he kept saying) and Bill deserved it (the applause, I mean). His playing was as good as ever; as a drummer, he is really the equal of the likes of John Bonham or Ian Paice and I think he might have been the best musician on stage during this show. Tony Iommi - also a perfect player, as ever - was left alone for a few minutes for his solo - which I didn't know -, underlined by Geoff Nichols's strong synth lines. At the end of the show, I saw a guy coming from the front row. His hair was completely wet, because he had received an entire bucket of water from Ozzy and he seemed rather proud of it! They finished on a rather humourous note, throwing black confettis in the arena with two big guns standing on each side of the soundboard. Maybe a pun on the Rolling Stones, who used this gimmick for their shows of the "Bridges To Babylon" tour? As I left the arena, I was at least satisfied to have seen them, but I wasn't enthusiastic, mainly because they had played less than two hours. A few weeks later, I read a review of the show in a German Hard-Rock magazine (Hammer, I think), where the reporter wrote he stood at the first row and clearly saw Geoff Nichols singing simultaneously with Ozzy. But the other reviews were good, so I hope that the guy was just pissed off that Ozzy threw water on him! Anyway, all I can tell now is that I hope that Black Sabbath will be induced at the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame one day. If Ozzy forgets what he said about the institution, it will be too great to see him shouting "Paranoid" at the members of this f... jury! Congratulations for your home page and... "Never say die"!

Frédéric Régent, June 2000. (I will send you in the near future a review of the Brussels show in 1995, I was also there!

From: "Stacy J. Dunkle" <sdunkle@bedford.net>
Subject: Sabbath in Hershey, PA
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 13:07:57 -0400

Seen the Sabs at Hershey, Pennsylvania, at the HersheyPark Stadium last
night (8/12).

Overall, Great show! I had low expectations of Drain STH, as I've never
heard them before, but was really surprised; They were great, and they
gained a new fan! Godsmack, however, was the opposite. I thought I liked
them from the one or two songs I heard on the radio, but after hearing more
of their songs, they all sounded the same. The singer did do a good job of
getting the crowd going during their last song.

Then there was Sabbath. Awesome! Ozzy screwed up the lyrics near the
beginning of Iron Man, and his voice cracked a few times, but hey, he's
older, and human! I also must say, as have countless others, Ozzy does look
rough. If he does plan to do more tours, I hope he takes a long, long rest,
and does some stuff to stay in shape, health-wise.

One thing that did bug me though, was the rudeness of some of the younger
concert-goers, who were screaming "F**K YOU!" at Ozzy at certain times, and
some yelling comments about being a bunch of old f**ks. There was even
someone who yelled an obscenity at Tony Iommi when Ozzy was introducing the
band. Man, I don't care how much you might hate one particular band member
for one reason or another, this is Black Sabbath you're seeing here, metal
GODS, of whom it's amazing that they're here playing for you still after 
all these years; You don't disrespect them! And believe me when I say that 
I'm not stereotyping all young people when I say "young concert-goers", I'm 
just pointing out the ones that were being a**holes, and when I looked 
around, they all just happened to be in the 18-22 age group.

Another minor gripe I have, is that people were chanting "OZ-ZY" at times;
You should have been chanting "SAB-BATH"!

One last thing; If anyone has one of the Sabbath shirts from the tour with
the Never Say Die heads on the front and back, in a Large, and would like 
to sell it reasonably (assuming you got it for cheaper than the $30 they 
were asking inside the concert), or knows where I can get one, let me know. 
I have the white one, with the red, white, and black pictures on it, which 
I'm not totally satisfied with. Not even sure if it's authentic; got it off 
a dude in the parking lot...

Rock On!

Stacy J. Dunkle
http://www.bedford.net/sdunkle