2005 EUROPEAN TOUR REVIEWS

June 25th, 2005 - Rockwave Festival - Terravibe - Athens, Greece

Official Festival Site

Greece Gets Ready to Rock with Rockwave 2005 (by deTraci Regula from About.com - 6/24/05)

Neville Thomas:

I've just returned from the Rockwave festival.  I know I'm biased but Sabbath really kicked ass tonight.  Before I continue - no, I didn't record the show.  I met an overzealous security guard at the entrance who took it. BUT there were at least three people using camcorders during the gig so there is a chance that something will emerge soon.  Having nothing to lose, I forced myself to the front so at least I got a very good view of all that went on.

Black Label Society were okay.  I'm not much of a Zakk fan, but watching him live is entertaining enough and he got the crowd going with his usual tricks, such as playing the guitar behind his back and playing with his mouth a la Hendrix.

Velvet Revolver were bloody awful.  Judging from the crowd's reaction, many must have felt the same way I did.  When they left the stage, the majority of the 20,000+ fans called out for Ozzy or Sabbath rather than for an encore.  It was quite pathetic when Slash et al returned to play two encores.

When Sabbath came on stage, the crowd really got moving.  I should know since I almost got crushed a few times at the front!  I think Ozzy mixed up the lyrics of "N.I.B.", but on the whole he was great.  He hasn't been so lively in years.  He didn't run across the stage as often as he did in his heyday, but he was anything but lethargic - doing his usual bunny hops from time to time, falling to his knees in mock adoration after introducing TI and
beckoning the crowd to join in, revealing his ass - in short, he's back to his old self.

The set list wasn't altered in any way.  It was great to hear "Sleeping Village" live, but it was a tad disappointing since it was only a fragment of the song.  But I'm really being picky here - the gig was great.  I hope to get a recording of it ASAP.  Not that I need one - it'll be ages before I forget what I saw this evening.

Stella Koufidaki:

Sabbath have come and gone, but left us in Athens with memories of a great evening.  I've posted a report of the evening on the Travellers in Time forum, including all the unexpected events that happened that night, away from the stage.  Heepdevil (of the Heep forum) suggested to send this report to you (of course!), so here it is.

The Rock Wave Festival has been going on over here in Greece and we are enjoying
quite a few good concert evenings.  This last Saturday (25th), it was the evening for Wastefall (Greek band), Black Label Society, Velvet Revolver and Black Sabbath.

The event took place in "Terra Vibe", some grounds about one hours drive from the center of Athens.  To make sure that everyone had a way of getting to "Terra Vibe", the organizers made sure there were buses to take everyone there and at a very
reasonable price.  The people that had no other transportation were driven there and delivered right in front of the entrance of Terra Vibe by late afternoon - myself included...

What a nice place this was - I had never been here before!  There were a lot of pine trees all around, offering shade to whoever needed it.  A long path was ahead with kiosks left and right full of wonderful merchandise: clothing, records and CD's,
posters, music gear, and radio & magazine promotional stands.  People were buying these things even early on.  From there, you could go to the cashier stand and cash your money in for chips, in case you wanted to buy food or drinks.  People were lined up all night long and for good reason.  The souvlakis were very tasty and so were the lime margaritas (and strong as well....).  With the cicada buzzing away in the hot Greek day, the party had started.

It was still daylight when Wastefall were on stage and their audience was there to enjoy them. The sun was shining on Black Label Society when they came on stage as well.  It was shining through their long blonde hair, on their great guitars, and on the skull that decorated the stage.  This was serious fun now!  All the young ones packed themselves right in front of the stage, dancing and jumping as they bounced inwards towards the stage, only to be rescued and often carried away by security.  Some of them were so young and were in total bliss because of their achievement.

Velvet Revolver were quite impressive in their stage presence, as well as the music. By the time they were on, most of the crowd had come around into the audience area, but you could still move around somewhat.  The dancing was going on non-stop in front of the stage.  

Evening was dawning and the stage lights were on.  By the time Black Sabbath came on stage, there was no room for anyone to move.  A wave of people started rushing forward towards the stage and hit me.  I quickly decided to move away from the front of the stage to the side, to where I could watch it all more safely from the giant screen.  So I kept upfront and to the right.  Hey, I could still see Ozzy from there, especially when he was at the edge of the stage with a bucket full of water, "donating" it to the audience.

The man is crazy!  He bowed to us all more than once, sang for us, partied and got himself drenched with us.  The crowd went crazy and there were about twenty five thousand there.  When they played "Black Sabbath", everyone flicked their lighters alight, which looked GREAT in the hot Greek evening.  They played most songs out from PARANOID and a couple off BLACK SABBATH, finishing with "Children of the Grave".

Out of respect, we shouted out loud whenever Ozzy asked us to and danced away all throughout their performance.  And when it was time for them to go, all twenty five thousand (or so) of us had to take the long path away from the stage and the Terra Vibe grounds....

Unexpected events happened during the concert, such as troublemakers vandalizing cars and buses outside the Terra Vibe grounds and stealing the cashiers' money,
of the concession kiosks.  This caused a great delay for quite a few of us in getting back to Athens.  The organizers compensated us for our troubled evening.  I myself requested and gladly accepted a couple of free passes to Dio's night of the Festival, a few days from now!!

My film is already in for developing.  So in a couple of days or so, I'll send some files
with photos of the concert, as well as a print from the ticket stub.  Many thanx to Ozzy Osbourne for his Athens appearance.  Come again!!!!! :-)