The Fans Have Their Say #3 Black Sabbath

When bands change their lead singers sometimes the whole direction and focal point of the group changes. Fans will become attached to the band at the time and see the current lead singer as 'their singer', the same process happened with me. Growing up in the late '60s and into the '70s, I was always aware of Black Sabbath with Ozzy, but by the time I had become a huge fan of 'Heavy Metal', Ozzy had already departed and Dio was on the new vocalist on the scene. 'Heaven and Hell' was the first Sabbath album that I really 'got into' and so - for me - Dio was always my favourite era of the band; we used to play the album on tape on a huge ghetto blaster, wherever we went, from the park to the train station to the streets around our town. I went on to see Dio ('Mob Rules' tour), Ian Gillan ('Born Again' tour), Tony Martin ('Tyr' tour) and Ozzy (3 times at Download Festival - 'European Tour - '05, 'The Reunion' tour and 'The End' tour) all front the band, but my favourite version of Black Sabbath was and will always be, the version with RJD fronting them, spinning the microphone stand and 'throwing up the horns' and bringing an almost theatrical style to the frontman position. I always liked what Dio brought to the band, his lyrics, the faster pace of some of the songs and also his unique take on the 'Ozzy era' tracks; to be honest I would also have loved to have seen Ozzy take a stab at some of the 'Dio era' songs - especially tracks such as 'Neon Knights', 'The Mob Rules' and 'Die Young', but it sadly never happened. I saw Black Sabbath for the first time in '82 at the Cornwall Coliseum near St Austell - sadly now demolished - on the 'Mob Rules' tour. I bought the obligatory t-shirt - now long missing - and a programme, remember those? I was absolutely hooked on Sabbath, they were my latest favourite band and then Dio left! Talk about feeling 'gutted'!! I saw them later, as mentioned, with Gillan, Martin and finally with Ozzy - who I'd seen four times on his own as well - but that first time for me was the best and in my honest opinion the liveliest and most exciting that they ever sounded as a band. On a side note - I have also loved watching Ozzy solo as well, because then you get the best of the 'Ozzy era Sabbath' plus his own great songs, such as 'Mr Crowley', 'Shot in the Dark', 'Bark at the Moon' and 'Crazy Train' etc. And now to this book. This is the third book in the series and this time we have a British artist leading the charge. We've had American (KISS) and Australian (AC/DC), so now we are onto one of the bands that spearheaded the 'Heavy Metal' genre and still continue to be extremely popular to this day, from young kids growing up with parents who have loved them all their life. So take it away, the original and best 'Lords of Darkness'...