Shihad Tour Diary: Part One

In the early hours of July 13th, 1985, I was lying down on the floor taking in the wonder that was Live-Aid beaming into my parents living room from across the globe by virtue of our wonderful Pye colour TV. At thirteen years-old I was excited at being allowed to stay up to watch the Live Feed and eagerly anticipated the performances by The Who, Queen and to witness the magic trick Phil Collins performed when he played in London and then by virtue of, Concorde turned up in Philadelphia manning the drums behind the remainder of Led Zeppelin.  

I was armed with a Mono cassette recorder and a large collection of blank cassettes - whenever anything of note came on I would dutifully press record and catalogue the performance for future playback and review.

There were many surprises that day - Mainstream radio and television provided a pitifully small window into what was going on musically in other countries and although I had digested and loved punk rock staples The Sex Pistols and The Clash and had had also been introduced to AC/DC, I had yet to come face to face with the burgeoning heavy metal that was now a staple of the American festival circuit in the Mid 1980's

Two bands came up out of nowhere that day for me. Firstly, Judas Priest. Leather bound, gleaming with studs and bleached hair, Rob Halford screaming like a deranged parrot 'You've got another thing coming' compelled me to add it to my rapidly growing tape stack of bands to pursue and discover after the show was over.

But it was Black Sabbath - re-united with Ozzy Osbourne for the occasion - who opened with Children of the Grave and opened up a musical path for me that changed the course of my life forever.

It was dark, uncompromising and spoke of worlds and moods I had not yet conceived of. Ozzy crossing the stage and inciting the audience with the enthusiasm of a 4 year old on Christmas morning. Tony Iommi smoothly gunning his black SG and channelling a satanic Burt Reynolds. Geezer Butler furiously plucking and sweeping across his Bass and finally Bill Ward's monolithic war drums.

This was not just angry like the Pistols or tough like 'Dacca, it was the musical equivalent of the colour black and I… fucking….loved it. 

Fast forward twenty-eight years and I have found myself sharing the stage, accommodation, food and toilets with those very same characters and will continue to do so for the next 2 weeks.

That can't be your best Ozzy impersonation, surely?

So what's it like?

Well for us starting on home turf is good - Vector Arena in Auckland is a familiar stomping ground and NZ audiences are warm and very supportive. You take the stage to many familiar faces and a shared bond that what we are all here to be part of something fucking important.

To that end - all of us are massive fans. Sabbath has been pivotal to our career and a real soundtrack to our lives from our early teens (For Karl, his mum was serving up Sabbath listening sessions since he was in the womb) and the fact that Ozzy is blasting the soundtrack to Monty Python's Life Of Brian'through the walls of our dressing room and Iommi can be heard warming up for three hours before showtime makes the experience both familiar, normal and yet surreal.

The extent to which Sabbath are a phenomenon is well documented but to see them in full flight is something else - age has reduced little in terms of their impact.

Osbourne is slower but in his enthusiasm he is as much of the candy-store kid frontman as ever. Geezer wrestles his bass like it's a live eel and new drummer Tommy Clufetos swings around the groove far more than your average American schooled metal drummer. Of course Tony Iommi just quietly fucking kills it through sheer metallic weight and a relentless collection of some the greatest riffs written. 

From here there's much more to go, but to just witness one night of this is a circle completed - continuing to do so for another two weeks? Well that's a little bit beyond what one expects in their lifetime really. 

Gearin' the kids up for Sabbath...

Written by Tom Larkin.