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.

********************************************

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

The Who : LG Arena Birmingham Setlist & Review June 28 2013

They hoped they’d die before they got old but on Friday night bus pass rockers Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend picked up their guitars and played ­– if not quite like yesterday then not far short of it.

Daltrey, an improbably buff 69, and Townshend – still windmilling power chords at the age of 68 – are touring 1973 mods and rockers concept album Quadrophenia, a difficult child at the best of times.

Perfectionist Pete has never been happy with his rock opera in live concert, describing earlier outings in his recent autobiography as shambolic and repeatedly failing to live up to the potential of the period pop piece.

So the news that Daltrey had persuaded him to give it another go came as something of a surprise. Whether the current tour will live up to his high expectations only time will tell, although the 15,000 fans went home happy.

The trouble with playing a double album – and not one of your best – in its entirety, and in track order to boot, is that there will inevitably be peaks and troughs, and there are more troughs than peaks in Quadrophenia.

So while the diehard faithful will lap up every song, the less committed have to show patience, especially when the band do not deign to speak to the audience until they have finished serving the main course.

Opener The Real Me promises much with its Who hallmarks, but it feels a long time until The Punk And The Godfather scales similar heights, and kid brother Simon Townshend sings a surprisingly strong Dirty Jobs.

Archive images of the band smashing their instruments during Helpless Dancer only serve to suggest how tame the new generation band seems. It’s fully 45 minutes before a rousing 5:15 finally ignites the crowd, complete with a film footage bass solo from the late John Entwistle.

Then it’s hit and miss again, the bluesy Drowned taking things back to basics and Bell Boy boasting the dearly departed Keith Moon’s madcap vocal, again captured on film. Daltrey watches his old friend as if mesmerised.

The Rock is backed by film of social revolution from Vietnam to Pussy Riot, earning Margaret Thatcher a chorus of booing from the audience. Diana, Princess of Wales later gets a similar reaction. “What are you?” asks Townshend. “All Irish?”

Throughout the gig there have been striking images on the video wall behind the band, ranging from early Who gigs to newsreel of the Blitz, rationing, the beach confrontations of the 60s and footage of Brighton Pier in flames. 

Trouble is, at times they've been more eye-catching than the band.

Love Reign O’er Me brings Quadrophenia to a close, microphone-twirling Daltrey in fine voice. And it’s then that the gig finally moves up the gears with a short greatest hits setlist tagged on to the end.

Who Are You, You Better You Bet and Pinball Wizard have the arena rocking. The mighty Baba O’Riley brings the house down, taking well-heeled fans back out into the teenage wasteland.

Won’t Get Fooled Again is the inevitable, fist-pumping, singalong finale. One of rock’s greatest anthems, it brings out the best in The Who, sweeping aside the claims of much younger pretenders to the throne.

Good gig, then, but they were better when they played the NIA a few years back with a joyous celebratory setlist not confined by the zoot suit straitjacket of Quadrophenia.

THE SETLIST

I Am The Sea

The Real Me

Quadrophenia

Cut My Hair

The Punk And The Godfather

I’m One

The Dirty Jobs

Helpless Dancer

Is It In My Head?

I’ve Had Enough

5:15

Sea And Sand

Drowned

Bell Boy

Doctor Jimmy

The Rock

Love Reign O’er Me

Who Are You

You Better You Bet

Pinball Wizard

Baby O’Riley

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Tea & Theatre

Neil Young & Crazy Horse : LG Arena, Birmingham Review and Setlist June 11 2013

TUESDAY June 11, 2013. Write it down in your diary. Neil Young smiled.

The ornery ol’ Canadian cuss beamed like a smitten schoolboy as the reunited Crazy Horse riffed vocally on fan favourite Fuckin’ Up.

Before launching into the song he’d asked the capacity crowd at the LG Arena: “Rock and roll or Cortez?” in a tone which suggested they couldn’t have both, not with scheduled stage time running out.

But, hell, he was enjoying himself. In the end, he did do both, restoring a mighty Cortez The Killer to the setlist and more, stretching an epic gig to the two and a half hour mark.

Even at the close, as the covers came down, he looked ready to rock on.

Touring with Crazy Horse for the first time in years, Young took his cues from the past. The giant Fender amps and Back To The Future scientists were straight from 1978’s Rust Never Sleeps tour.

The upcoming live Alchemy album will finish a trilogy comprising 1978’s Live Rust and 1990’s Weld.

Cue continuity not just in stage setting but also in the setlist, valiant veterans from those campaigns rubbing shoulders seamlessly with new kids on the block from the recent Psychedelic Pill.

Now 67, and famously uncompromising, Young was in a mood to please. Entering the stage under the Union Jack, and to the strains of the National Anthem, hand held on heart, he seemed invigorated.

Something remarkable seems to happen when he’s back in the company of Crazy Horse cohorts Billy Talbot, Frank Sampredo and Ralph Molina. They hit an irresistible groove which allows extended improvisation.

Right from the opening Love To Burn, walking  in the valley of hearts, Young’s guitar was spitting and sputtering, feedback-fuelled and hungry for more. Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze continued in the same vein.

First of the newcomers, Psychedelic Pill, set the scene for early highlight Walk Like A Giant, the lament for the failed summer of love stretching into 20 minutes or more, ending in angry, apocalyptic brutality.

Litter blew across the stage throughout the song. Whenever it ran out, a roadie emptied another carrier bag full. You could see what he was getting at, but perhaps the budget ran out.

With Woodstock’s dove of peace fluttering behind the band, they restored balance with Hole In The Sky harmonies before a solo double delight, Young strumming Heart Of Gold and Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind.

He transferred to piano for the subtle Singer Without A Song, then cranked up the amps again for a lengthy Ramada Inn, the latter a reflection on growing old but not really one of his best.

Then, remarkably, he moved up the gears. A rocked up Cinnamon Girl, a playful Fuckin’ Up, classic Cortez The Killer and Buffalo Springfield’s short, sharp and sweet Mr Soul built up momentum.

The crowd found release in set closer Hey Hey My My (Into The Black). It was touch and go for a while, with repeated calls for Rockin’ In The Free World, but the choice was spot on. Rock and roll will never die.

Way past scheduled set time, they came back on to encore with a full-length Powderfinger. Last buses? Last trains? Car park crush? No-one cared. Nobody moved. Nobody wanted to leave.

Rust never sleeps, you know.

SETLIST

Love To Burn

Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze

Psychedelic Pill

Walk Like A Giant

Hole In The Sky

Heart Of Gold

Blowin’ In The Wind

Singer Without A Song

Ramada Inn

Cinnamon Girl

Fuckin’ Up

Cortez The Killer

Mr Soul

Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)

Powderfinger