Dalibor Lanik Home Page - Concerts: Black Sabbath

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Info on concert in Prague...

Ozzy's and Tony Iommy's autographs.

AUTOGRAPH: IOMMY

In case You haven't read my Scrapbook-page, I will repeat here how I got at all to B.S. concert. On the day of the concert, a collegue of my girlfriend calls me on the phone. Now lemme explain - the guy's from Valjevo, Serbia and he listens Heavy Metal and Hard Rock (as any real Serb does). He works with (actually my girlfriend is his boss) Natasha at the Bohemia-Glass (Crystal) shop. Guess who came to the shop today and bought glass for more than 20K crowns (cca 1000DEM)? Who, I ask? Well... he says... who's playing in Prague Tonight? Black... Black Sabbath?!?? Yes he answers. Big man, Tony Iommi was here a second ago and we spoke to him. But that's not all. After a couple of hours, my girlfrend calls me all excited and asks me if I know who was in their store, and I say I know - Goran told me: Tony Iommy and she says: No, I mean a second ago? That junkie that you like to listen, Ozzy Osbourne... and Tony Iommy, and even Ozzy's hairdresser... She got Ozzy's and Iommy's autographs and Goran even managed to take a picture with Tony Iommy! She said Ozzy is great, totaly out of this world (and my girlfriend HATES heavy metal) and looks like he's going to croak any moment :))) She said she recognized him by the tatoo on his fingers saying O Z Z Y. :) Ozzy (J. Osborne (John?) as she found out on his credit card) bought some presents and wanted to pay with his credit card but - imagine - authorisation couldn't confirm that his card is good, so he had to pay in cash... :)))) Anyway - we got 2 free (guest) tickets to their concert and Goran and I went to the concert around seven p.m.

When we got there, Pantera was just starting (unfortunately we missed Helloween). The stadium was pretty crowded, there must have been between 10 and 20.000 people in the audience, which is something I didn't quite expect. Last time I saw Sabbath, they played in standard indoors hall with no more than 7000-8000 people in the audience. I guess this concert brought together more people because two newer bands, Pantera and Helloween played as well, both fans of 70's-like hard rock and more modern Heavy Metal were happy. And ofcourse, the fact that Sabbath's were in original line-up with Ozzy. Pantera was a good warm-up, but audience didn't react much to their music. Everybody was happy and liking their music but they didn't stir masses :) They even played an Iron Maiden song, but I think vast majority of Czech audience didn't recognize it. But once Sabbath got on stage, things were different! They started all of a sudden, Goran and I were in line for beer, I guess nobody expected 'em to start playing so soon after Pantera. Now, I think I wouldn't be wrong if I said that Black Sabbath is really Ozzy. Mr. Iommi is great, but simply Ozzy is what makes Sabbath such a great concerts band. He was constantly running, jumping, kicking and is totaly different from what my girlfriend described him from their brief encounter - very quiet and timid. Well, I suppose it's all an act once he's on stage. Anyway, this time, Ozzy's peocupation was to make as many of the audience wet as possible. First of all, on the top of the stage, there were several pipes that made virtual waterfall several times during the concert.

TONY IOMMY IN CELETNA

Tony Iommy with Goran in Celetna 2 glass shop (Blue Praha), Prague, Czech Republic.

Ozzy Osbourne in Celetna street, next to famous "Old Town Square" in Prague, Czech Republic.

Next, Ozzy seemed to play fireman and take the fire-hose and spray the public with water several times during the concert. after the concert I saw a couple of guys that were in the front and they were completely wet (luckily Goran and I couldn't get much closer to the stage because we came late - concert actually started at 4pm!). But the weirdest thing that made Goran and me laugh each and every time Ozzy did it was when he "went for the bucket". Every once in a while, he would go off-stage and return with a bucket full of water, and spill it either on the stage or on the audience - just as if fire-hose wasn't enough! Music-wise, Sabbath's were great, You could tell that they are playing for so many years and that they are real pros. Real stir in the audience started after they played "Iron Man" and from that point on, concert was one great jumping-and-screaming spectacle (at about that time we managed to move a bit to the front to get a better view of them). They played for hour and a half, and then returned only once and played only one song - famous "Paranoid" and that was it. We were so impressed with them that after the concert we had to buy Black Sabbath t-shirts, though we normally don't do such things because t-shirts are always overpriced on concerts (at least by Czech standards). All in all, I must say Sabbaths were great and that this concert was much, much, much better then the previous one in Prague I saw (without Ozzy, I dont know who sang then).