Black Sabbath : LG Arena Birmingham 2013 review & setlist

There he stood, dressed in black, a grim grin spreading across his face. Flanked by giant photographs of Pope Benedict XVI, Ozzy Osbourne blessed the faithful, and perhaps thanked his own lucky stars.

Because Black Sabbath, Brummie inventors of heavy metal, were finally back home where they belong, shrugging off their collective 227 years and the serious health problems that have dogged their later lives.

More than 15,000 turned out to worship at the altar of the rock guitar riff as founders Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler – with babe-in-arms Tommy Clufetos standing in for Bill Ward – rolled back time.

They’d been at ease with each other at the soundcheck, laughing and joking, but there’d been an underlying tension. “Playing our hometown with all our family and friends out there will be nerve-racking,” admitted Iommi.

“We’ve not felt this nervous at any other gig on the tour.”

They needn’t have worried. Sharon Osbourne, watching from the wings, told them so before they went on. And you don’t mess with Sharon. The X Factor judge, as she will tell you, is rarely wrong.

From the moment the men in black hit stage and launched into War Pigs – recorded all of 43 years ago – the LG Arena erupted. Fans, some of whom had queued since 7.30am to get the best places at the front, embraced their own.

“Let’s go fucking wild!” yelled Ozzy as they followed with Into The Void, telling the Birmingham crowd: “I’ve missed you.”

His voice may be not what it once was but, hell, it didn’t matter. Not here. Not back home.

Under The Sun, with video footage of money-grabbing evangelists, anti-Sabbath protesters in America’s Bible Belt, lesbian nuns and those pictures of the Pope, continued the history lesson. Snowblind, with an Ozzy health warning, was next.

Not that this was a nostalgia exercise. Sabbath sound as powerful and as vital as they have ever done. New song Age Of Reason boasted Iommi’s best guitar yet as Clufetos pounded the drums as hard as the late John Bonham.

“We want to take you back to the very beginning,” Ozzy told the fans. “Can you believe we’ve been going 45 fucking years?”

Cue Black Sabbath, the track that opened their debut album. As the band hit an irresistible groove midway through the song, their frontman poured a bucket of water over a hapless security steward.

“I’m back in fucking Birmingham!” yelled Ozzy, by way of explanation.

Behind The Wall Of Sleep, N.I.B – ushered in by a busy Butler bass solo – End Of The Beginning... they just kept coming. Fairies Wear Boots, with its seductively sinister video, turned full tilt boogie.

Drum solos usually mark the moment you head to the bar or take a comfort break but Clufetos’ Rat Salad showpiece was jaw-dropping. Technically tight but brutally brilliant, the US drummer brought the house down.

Iron Man and God Is Dead? got the moshpit moving. Dirty Women, with its B-movie video backing, isn’t one of the band’s best but surprisingly served up Iommi’s best solo of the night. Children Of The Grave was a climactic closer.

“One more song,” chanted the crowd. “It’s Christmas,” responded Ozzy. “Shall we come back and do it again?” raising hopes that this weekend’s double header may not, after all, be their last hometown gigs.

Encore Paranoid, its razor riff cutting through confetti cannons, and the release of giant balloons, ended a memorable two-hour homecoming.

After the gig Sabbath celebrated with friends including ELO’s Bev Bevan, funnyman Jasper Carrott, Blues legend Trevor Francis, sixties star Dave Berry, family and a pet pooch flown in from LA.

“It’s been a great night,” said Iommi. “We were all pretty nervy about being back in Brum. We wanted it to be special for the fans. D’you think they liked it?”

Silly question. They do it all again at Birmingham’s NIA tomorrow night.

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SETLIST

War Pigs

Into The Void

Under The Sun

Snowblind

Age Of Reason

Black Sabbath

Behind The Wall Of Sleep

N.I.B

End Of The Beginning

Fairies Wear Boots

Rat Salad

Iron Man

God Is Dead?

Dirty Women

Children Of The Grave

Paranoid

Paul McCartney and Morrissey get PETA stamp of approval

Paul McCartney is going postal – literally.

Just in time for holiday cards in the States, animal rights group PETA has launched a limited-edition sheet of US Postal Service approved stamps honouring celebrated vegetarians.

Macca joins daughter Stella and a host of others including Vivienne Westwood, Morrissey, Alan Cumming, Belinda Carlisle and Joan Jett.

Westwood went vegetarian because the English fashion designer believes that we should “not consume but live in harmony” with the world.

And Stella McCartney – who, like Westwood, refuses to use fur in her designs – credits her father with instilling vegetarian values in her.

“One of the things I was taught growing up was ‘Do unto others as you would have done to yourself’”, she says. “It’s a way of life.”

Manchester’s Morrissey, of course, famously titled The Smiths’ 1985 album Meat Is Murder, and he’s still playing the title track live on tour.

Cumming, who famously blasted fur-wearers from onstage in Cabaret, thinks “killing to make or eat things is horrific”.

“Rotten carcasses don’t feel good inside my body”, the Scottish actor says. “I’ve also seen some horrible documentaries about the hormones and things that go into meat. On a health level, meat is so scary.”

The new stamp sheet is available for purchase at www.PETA.org

Motorhead : heart pacemaker Lemmy 'why we had to cancel the tour'

Midland rock wildman Lemmy has had to have a pacemaker fitted because of heart problems – and it could mean the end of the road for his band Mötorhead.

The 67-year-old heavy metal hero from Stoke-on-Trent also suffers from diabetes, and a tour including a stop at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, has had to be cancelled at the last minute.

It is a huge blow for the band, who have just released their 21st studio album, Aftershock, and were being lined up for big festival dates next year in addition to an exhausting four-month tour.

“We have made the decision because I am not quite ready to hit the road yet, and am working my way back to full fitness and rude health,” said Lemmy,

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to start promoting veganism and alcohol-free beverages, but it is fair to say that I personally have been reconfiguring areas of my life to make sure I can come back fitter and stronger than ever.

“It disappointed me tremendously to have to say I wasn’t quite ready to hit the road yet, but not nearly as much as it would’ve disappointed me to go out, play some average shows and watch my health give way long before the tour was over!

“When people come to see a Motörhead tour, they expect a Motörhead show, and that is exactly what you will get as soon as I am fit and ready to rumble.”

Guitarist Phil Campbell revealed that Lemmy’s notorious tough guy image made it hard for him to accept help when he fell ill.

“Lemmy’s continuing health problems have given us no option but to postpone the European tour which was due to start this month,” he said.

“He had a pacemaker fitted earlier in the year because he’d been suffering from irregular heartbeats, and then his diabetes started playing him up.

“The good news is that his ticker’s fine now and he’s made sufficient changes to his lifestyle and diet in order to combat the diabetes.

“It’s just that he felt he wasn’t 100 per cent ready to go back on the road just yet.

“As a result we put the dates back to enable him to build himself back up to full fitness.”

He added that while most fans had come to regard the gravel-throated singer as an unstoppable, hell-raising war horse destined to rock on for ever, he had very different view of the vicar’s son otherwise known as Ian Fraser Kilmister.

“Look, none of us are getting any younger, so Lemmy’s condition didn’t exactly come as a massive shock,” said Campbell, 52. “But the older we get, the more we tend to be there for one another and back each other up.

“The main problem is that he’s displayed such a hard persona all his life that it makes it difficult for him to let people in. He’s like the John Wayne of rock – always wanting to soldier on and handle things on his own, you know?”

Tickets for Motorhead’s November 19 show at the Civic Hall will remain valid once dates are rescheduled in the new year.

Leslie West : Still Climbing

You can’t keep a genuine guitar hero down.

Despite losing most of his right leg in a desperate battle against diabetes, former Mountain mainman Leslie West is still gigging and this is his best album in many years.

Powered by gutsy blues rock but credibly contemporary, Dying Since The Day I Was Born finds him duelling with Alterbridge axeman Mark Tremonti, there’s redneck rock in Hatfield Or McCoy and Long Red, plus classy covers of Feeling Good and When A Man Loves A Woman, the latter with Jonny Lang.

Motorhead : Aftershock review

They may have had to cancel their Wolverhampton Civic Hall gig but there’s no stopping Lemmy & Co on their 21st studio album.

Driving rock guitar riffs, gruff grumbly vocals, speaker-busting bass and an avalanche of drums mean that it’s business as usual.

The likes of Heartbreaker, Coup De Grace and Paralysed sound just like Ace Of Spades in one way or another, while other tracks recall AC/DC and ZZ Top.

There’s nothing new here but diehard fans don’t want progression, just good old-fashioned runaway rock and roll.

Linin Park : Recharged review

Mike Shinoda’s stadium rockers aren’t shy when it comes to pushing the boundaries.

Cue an album of remix reinterpretations of the band’s most recent album Living Things, most of them by artists and DJs from Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records stable.

Shinoda’s own remix of Castle Of Glass and Rad Omen’s Roads Untravelled are particularly strong but two versions of A Light That Never Comes – originally unlocked in an Xbox game – steal the show, the first with Aoki and the second a stripped back Rick Rubin reboot.

Not essential but enjoyable all the same. Roll on that Hybrid Theory appearance at Download next year...

Uriah Heep announce intimate club tour for February 2014

Rock legends Uriah Heep have announced a string of low-key dates for early 2014.

The intimate shows are in response to huge demand from Heep’s UK fans following the announcement of the headline spot at “Giants of Rock”, and will also allow the band to enjoy some time away from the studio sessions for their forthcoming album.
 
There are also plans to record another live album at the end of February.

 2014 is set to be yet another big one for Mick Box and the band as they work on the new material, and of course keep on touring.

Heep have been round the world several times in the last 24 months visiting South Africa, Australia, Asia, North America, South America and East & West Russia – and they’ll play the prestigious Sweden Rock Festival in the Summer.

Here are the 2014 UK dates:
 
February 4th – The Stables, Milton Keynes

February 6th – Tivoli, Buckley

February 7th – Picturedrome, Holmfirth

February 8th – Robin 2, Bilston

February 9th – Giants of Rock, Minehead