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THE BAND
SET LIST
CONCERT PHOTO GALLERY Click here to see the photo gallery for this gig. FAN SUBMITTED TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS From: Joe Siegler <siegler@black-sabbath.com> Well, this review is going to be a little different than your standard Black Sabbath concert review. I've been a Black Sabbath fan since 1981. I've seen them now 11 times over the years - that's every time they've come to down where I've lived since 1983 (with the exception of 1989 when I couldn't go, and 2001 when I skipped it). The 2005 time I saw Sabbath live was one I'll never forget. This is because I spent all my time backstage. I had to work, and didn't get down to the show until around 6:45PM. That doesn't bother me in the least, because quite honestly, there were NO bands at all I was interested in seeing except for Sabbath. I would have wanted to see Maiden, but they had left the tour (and no, I don't feel like saying anything about the Maiden/Sharon/egg throwing/power cut fiasco, what more needs to be said?). I almost didn't want to go because of a few other attempts at getting backstage failed - I am 40 now, and I most definitely did NOT want to hang around where any old concert goer could stand waiting to get backstage and have to deal with Mr. Overzealous security guard - I don't need that scene.
So we stood there for awhile talking, and I decided to give a few people a call on my cell phone. First one I called was Pedro Howse, who is Geezer's guitarist (and nephew). Pedro travels with Geezer, and did the record signings with Geez, and is also onstage too (more on that later). What was funny (to me anyway) is that when I called Pedro he was talking towards me, and I told him to look up when we were about 10 feet away from each other. I have to say what a nice bloke Pedro was. He obviously wasn't walking back to the trailers to talk to me, but spent a lot of time talking to me and Steve about music, tours, and just a bunch of general stuff. I did ask Pedro if he was on anything other than the GZR records, and he said that he did some studio work back in Birmingham, but nothing I'd probably be aware of. Anyway, at one point Pedro asked us if we wanted something to drink, and I said yeah since it was around 100 degrees out. He went into Geezer's trailer, and came back out with some water and Gatorade. While he was away, I found this thought amusing.. "I just sent Geezer's guitarist off on an errand to get me water!". :) So Pedro went off to do whatever, and we wandered around a little bit - but not too far. I did find where the backstage food spread was, but decided not to partake, since we didn't look like we really belonged there - we were far more pedestrian looking than most of the crew / band members were who were back there, but we did make use of the drinks area. Went back to the trailers, and a few minutes after that Eddie came back, only with Tony Iommi. Eddie introduced Steve and myself to Tony. We shook hands, and exchanged pleasantries. When I mentioned I was Joe Siegler, the guy with the Black Sabbath website, Tony's eyes lit up a bit, so he had heard of me, which was a hell of an ego stroke. Tony seemed fairly busy, and we didn't get to talk to him terribly long, but I did tell him I really loved Fused, and was hoping that when he gets to touring with it that he comes to Dallas, as I definitely wanted to see it. I also told him that I was a big fan of the Born Again and Forbidden albums, ones that don't get a lot of notice. He seemed very nice with his time, and I had a few moments of "Oh my god, it's Tony Iommi". I did manage to get past that and actually talk to the man, but I saw him about 2 minutes before I managed to say anything, and my entire time being a Sabbath fan flashed through my head. All these years I always wondered what I'd say if I actually met Tony. Well, there he was about 20 feet away from me. I thought "Great, all these years to plan, and I still don't know what the hell I'm going to say to him". But it worked out well. Thanked him for all the music, and said I hoped there was more to come (but I didn't want to directly go "Where's the new Sabbath record?" as I know he's heard that far more times that he probably wants to. And after that, he was off to his trailer to presumably get showered and changed and all that. One interesting thing, about a week later I got an email from one of Tony Iommi's people about something else, and this little tidbit was tacked on there.. "Tony did mention that he had met you and he was sorry he didn't have a chance to talk to you for longer. He also said he was sorry that he didn't congratulate you properly on your site." Tony was sorry he didn't talk to ME longer? Holy shit. That was badass. Was a hell of an ego stroke, that's for sure. After Tony had gone into his trailer, Steve and I had a moment of "Holy shit that was cool". So we stood talking about what happened, and then Pedro came back a little bit later than that and had Geezer with him. After introductions, we got to talking about a whole bunch of stuff, and we talked with Pedro & Geezer for a good long time (upwards about 20 minutes). Spoke about football, beer, GZR records, Black Sabbath, Doctor Who, all kinds of shit. As I do Geezer's site now I obviously wanted to meet him. Something Geezer said to me surprised me, and that was he liked American beer - although he said not stuff like Budweiser and Coors - he loves microbreweries, which was right up my friend Steve's alley, as he makes his own beer, so they went off for awhile on talking about various kinds of beer. One of my favorite moments was when I got a bit hearty belly laugh out of both Geezer and Pedro when I relayed an old Monty Python joke that seemed to fit the discussion which was "Why is American beer like making love in a canoe? Because it's fucking close to water". That was a great personal moment for me, so thank you Eric Idle for that. Steve and I had a great time talking to these guys. Really made me feel like Geezer is a guy you could sit in a pub with, have a few pints, and just shoot the shit - he really seemed personable to me. Geez disappeared into his trailer after we were done talking to him, and we heard him in there playing bass, either practicing, tuning or whatever. At this point we were talking with Eddie N again, and I was lamenting that the two Brian May studio albums from the 90's didn't sell over here in the US. I basically said our country sucks in terms of accepting this kind of music anymore, and ragged on the music industry here for promoting bullshit like Britney Spears, 50 cent, and crap like that. We also spoke a bit about Cozy Powell, and Eddie still seemed genuinely sad that he's gone - now seven years later. Eddie showed me something cool back in the equipment room after that, and that was a large equipment case that Tony Iommi uses on tour. Eddie said it used to belong to Cozy Powell, in fact, it still has a picture of Cozy taped to the inside. Eddie said that when Cozy died, he gave it to Tony and Tony continues to use it to this day - I felt that was a nice touch, I'm glad I got to see that. Steve and I got a moment of quiet after that, and both of us kind of decided that we were going to just take off when Sabbath's show started, as we didn't technically have seats, and since we were really nobodies backstage, neither of us felt comfortable pushing our way around, even with the crew passes we had. Plus as we'd seen Sabbath already several times, including with the relatively unimaginative set list they've had with the reunion shows since they got back together, we figured we'd bail out and head home. Shortly after this Pedro showed up again (with more Gatorade). While drinking, he asked us where we were sitting for the show, and we told him nowhere actually, since we don't actually have tickets. Pedro then asked us if we wanted to watch the show from the stage. HOLY SHIT. Uh, YEAH! We jumped at that pretty quickly - so much so I hope I didn't look like a complete nerd fan in my reaction. :) So Pedro said to hang around where we were and then he'd come back for us when it was time. I called my wife at home after that, and told her what had transpired. I wasn't actually going to come tonight, and she sort of pushed me into it, so I called to thank for making me go. We hung out some more, and then Walter Earl showed up with Bill Ward. I've dealt with Walter several times before, but he seemed to be jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean, so I didn't get to talk to him more than "Oh hey, hi". Bill on the other hand I got to talk to for a bit. I've been doing Bill's website since 1997, and have never met him face to face until this night. What was cool is that Bill asked me how my baby was doing, which was a cool thing of him to do. We talked about his website, his diaries, and I asked where Beyond Aston was. :) It was cool being able to chat with him after all this time. I got to thank him personally for a few things he's done for me over the years, and it was a moment I treasured finally getting to say thanks. A nice chap, too. Far more humble and quiet than you'd expect him to be, or at least than I expected anyway. After talking with Bill for awhile, he headed into his trailer, and then came back out for exercises outside his trailer. Somewhere around now Pedro came back for us, and led us up behind the trailers, across where the crew had their equipment, and into the back, and led us to the left side of the stage (facing the stage from the audience), and we were standing behind where Adam Wakeman's equipment was. I don't know what Steve was feeling then, but I was just so f'in amazed I was on stage that I wasn't about to cause any trouble - I got told to stand "there", and I never moved. It was totally badass. We got to see the last two songs of Velvet Revolver's set. When it was over, the band walked offstage right past us - I didn't say anything, just watched 'em walk by - Slash is still a mass of hair, sweat, and a hat. We were told by one stagehand that we had to evacuate the area during the equipment change, so we hung out next to where the trucks where for the band equipment. While we were there, Adam Wakeman walked by us - I called his name and he remembered me, which was cool, so we chatted a bit until Pedro showed up again and led us back to same spot. So here we are. Standing onstage after having talked to 4 fifths of Black Sabbath (never met Oz or saw him other than onstage). I'm watching Adam Wakeman tune up his guitar, and get his keyboard equipment ready. Then the show starts. It's quite a different feeling getting to experience a Black Sabbath concert from this particular vantage point. I have to say it was the coolest Sabbath concert in terms of that kind of thing I can recall. As I said above, I've seen Sabbath many times with almost every major singer they've had live, but this show was the most unique. As if Pedro didn't do enough for me while I was there fetching water and getting us onstage, he kept making sure we had water/Gatorade during the gig, too (as there was a cooler of drinks behind Adam Wakeman's stuff). If you were at Ozzfest and saw someone towel off Geezer and give him a drink or something between songs, that was Pedro. What was cool is that Pedro also would spray Steve and myself with the squirt bottle he used on Geezer. I can't say enough about how welcome Pedro made me feel, and how nicely he treated us. It would have been cool enough just being backstage to meet the guys, but because of Pedro, we got to see the gig from onstage. Pedro didn't have to spend any time with us, but he did, made us feel comfortable, and was a really nice chap to talk to. During Paranoid, Adam Wakeman most definitely was playing rhythm guitar with Tony. I spent the entire gig standing about 6 feet behind him, I could see everything he was doing. During Sabbath's final song, Pedro came over to us, asked if we had a good time, handed us a Geezer Butler guitar pick, and we shook hands. While he never explicitly said goodnight, that was the vibe of the chat. When Sabbath was taking their bow, Steve and I decided to bail out to try and get a jump on the traffic. The way out from where we were standing was on stage, so we got to walk not behind the band members, but onstage enough where we could obviously be seen. I took that moment to turn around, face the crowd and give 'em the horns salute. I'm sure no one saw me, but fuck it, I WAS ONSTAGE WITH BLACK SABBATH - I had to do something. :) An extremely memorable night. If I had known what was going to transpire, I would have brought a good digital camera with me. As it was, I had just the camera in my cel phone, which is a crappy camera. It kept getting washed out due to the stage lights, but at least I managed to get a few acceptable (if not great) pictures. They're online here if you want to check 'em out. Thanks again to Ralph, Lisa, Eddie, Liese, Walter, Gloria, Amanda, and Pedro - all of which had something to do with my getting here and getting backstage. Don't know if you'll ever see this or not Pedro, but thanks for taking care of us - I had a fucking blast. Joe Siegler - Webmaster
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So
when I arrived, I called Eddie N, one of Tony Iommi's people, and he told
me to hit will call for my tickets, so I did. Turns out it wasn't
tickets, it was a couple of crew passes, which meant I could go (almost)
anywhere backstage. So I hooked up with Eddie, and he led me and my
friend backstage to where the trailers were. So we hung
outside the three trailers for Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, & Tony Iommi.
As neither Steve (my friend) or myself were interested in causing any
trouble, we just hung out there. Never found out where Ozzy's
trailer was, or even if he had one, but it definitely wasn't where the
trailers for the other three Sab members were. What's amusing is
that when we first got there, we were told that Tony, Geezer, & Bill were
all sleeping in their tour busses. Apparently, they take naps for a few
hours before having to go on.