2005 EUROPEAN TOUR REVIEWS

July 1st, 2005 - Roskilde Festival - Roskilde, Denmark

No Poul Tharuup: "Here is a scan from the paper "Ekstra Bladet".  The words "Er Gud" means "Is God".

Official Festival Site

Poul Thaarup:

Hi Rob!!

As I told you before, both Ralf Schulz and I went to Roskilde to hear our boys!  Here I bring you my review of the event:

When the sun became red at exactly 10 pm, the intro tape started and Sabbath were ready to play in the land of the Vikings.  "N.I.B." began without without its typical bass intro then "After Forever", one of my favorite songs.  The audience went crazy and there were Sabbath signs everywhere, with everyone singing along.  Even this 49-year old started headbanging!  (I still feel the pain).  During "After Forever", Bill Ward was thundering away like the real power machine he is.  Then "War Pigs" followed with the audience singing the lyrics and Ozzy´s usual "Oooh....oooh´s".  I was standing about 100m from the scene, but could easily see it all because of three big projection screens.

Tony walked round the scene smiling and seem to think to himself "the heavier, the better"!!  Geezer (which is my nickname as well) was looking kind of tired and old and wasn't his usual headbanging self.  Next was "Fairies Wear Boots and the entire version of "Dirty Women" filled in with a great guitar solo.  The heaviest moment was when they thundered into a medley of "Symptom Of The Universe" (oh .... my neck), "Sweet Leaf", and then the doomy "Electric Funeral".   Next was "Iron Man with an extra long drum intro and the sun went down.

"Into the Void": ...... real HEAVY!!

"Black Sabbath" with rain und thunder on a hot day.  Here, Bill was playing it just like in his early years.  In "The Wizard", Ozzy had some problems with his voice, but could do his harmonica well.  "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" led into "Paranoid".  And after a five minute break, "Children Of The Grave was played without the "Sleeping Village" part.  

Having heard Sabbath over twenty times (first in 1970) I must say hat this one could easily be in my top 5 list.  Before the concert I was 49 .... during the concert 17 ..... and today my body feels like I am 70 !!!

Ralf Schulz: 

I am still alive and kickin', although you haven't heard from me in ages.  I have just recently returned from Roskilde.  The show kicked some ass!  For me, it was one of my top 10 shows I have ever been to.  That is not solely down to Sabbath giving a star performance, but on that day everything was perfect - from the weather to the people we met and the beer we had....

I went with Poul Thaarup, who I believe you know quite well from the internet too, and a Danish friend of his (just passed sixty!).  We only went there for the Friday night and arrived at the precise moment AUDIOSLAVE began their set.  I had never heard their new album up to this point and was so impressed by their performance I bought it the next day.

During their set and the break leading up to the mighty Sabs, we met all sorts of Scandinavian weirdos.  We were asked four times whether we'd mind if we had our photos taken (!!!)????  Makes you wonder what were these people up to???  We are not that old are we???? (45 - 49 - 61 )

Had a bash to the merchandise stalls - expensive, but to better mark the occasion everyone had a t-shirt obviously.  Then we went back to main stage area to find as good a view point possible.  As a guess, I'd say there were about 50,000 people there for the Sabs gig.  So we weren't daring to go right to the front (maybe we are old eh??), but made it to about half way to the stage.  The sun was going down and the intro began to play with Ozzy working up the crowd from backstage - and Lord he did get the crowd going for the night.  I have never seen so many happy smiling faces around me at any gig for ages (centuries?) - include me, as I believe I was grinning from ear to ear all night!

There is not all that much I can add to any of the other reviews.  The set list was exactly the same (all except for the omission of the "Sleeping Village" intro).  The sound was absolutely brilliant, especially Bill Ward's drumming which came across VERY heavy.  Ozzy missed one or two high notes and his voice gave out once or twice, but who cares!!!  You could really see that Ozzy was enjoying the show as much as I did.  He was grinning like an idiot too and even the Riffmaster treated us all to a lot of smiles.  We felt the guitar solo towards the end of "Dirty Woman" was a tad longer then usual (BRILLIANT STUFF), but remember we are old and our memories can play tricks on us....

Without going into the debate about whether they should or shouldn't continue , let me just say sure I would prefer a new recording.  BUT if they don't do it, please treat us to more of the same please.  I will only be too happy to see them play a set like that every year.

To end on the theme I started off with, I met lot of weird people, like some 15 to 16 year old boys who fell onto their knees in front of me - praising me whilst I was headbanging.  EH, WHAT DID THEY HAVE IN THEIR MORNING MILK???  Or like when I was suddenly being lifted high into the air during "BLACK SABBATH" - all 90 kgs of me!!! I was rising from the masses like the messiah arms aloft...

Well, this was some day to remember!  I would urge everybody go to the Ozzfest this summer... for you never know whether they will return for more!!!

Additional pictures and links from Poul Thaarup

ANDERS HOUMØLLER THOMSEN:  [from Internetavisen - Jyllands-Posten 7/4/05]

Det tunge skyts var kørt i stilling på Roskildes anden dag med to styk hård rock-veteraner.

Orange Scene, fredag: BLACK SABBATH OG D-A-D

Hvis Ozzy Osbourne har lagt stofferne og sprutten på hylden, hvad havde han så indtaget før sin optræden på Roskildes Orange Scene?! Den 56-årige rocklegendes rystesyge blev i hvert fald vendt til en professionel force, da Ozzy med et kæmpe smil og spændt kropslig uro mødte publikum med opfordringen: "I wanna see you fucking jump!".

En kæmpe rock-kliche - ligesom meget af Black Sabbaths materiale i øvrigt - men det gamle britiske band har nu den kvalitet, at det var først ude med en række heavy-skabeloner. Og så var bandet voldsomt energi-blussende ved Roskilde-koncerten fredag aften. Oven i købet i sin originale opstilling, så Ozzys skingre vokal og lidt vaklende fraseringer blev sparket ud i sommernatten med svimle og brutale riffs fra guitarist og mastermind Tony Iommi. En sang som "Dirty Women" kan bestemt ikke imponere med begavet rocklyrik - vi kører faktisk på fælgene med decideret pueril og hjælpeløse tekstbrokker - men musikkens ofte bluesrock-organiske drive og de hårde guitarkanter holder festen fornemt i gang.

DAD-rock
Underholdnings-rocken i farmandsafdelingen fortsatte senere på natten med dansk rock'n'rolls evig-populære veteran-ensemble D-A-D. Bandets seneste plade er kun halvgod - eller halvdårlig - alt efter temperament. Men som med Ozzy og co. er der også her langt til ringvragsklasse og oldinge-tomgang. Med bassist Stig Pedersen i opsigtvækkende halvnøgent legionær-look og et tændt band fik publikum en solid gang nat-festivitas, hvor selv ikke "Sleeping My Day Away" blev glemt. Men den sensible nuance - og det unikke øjeblik med uro i sjælen - skulle man alligevel en dag tilbage i programmet for at finde: Nemlig ved torsdagens koncert med det svenske band Kent, der stadig spøgte i nervesystemet hos denne skribent i en sen skrivende nattetime på Roskilde: Underholdning er meget godt - men drømmer vi ikke om bands, der hæver ambitionsniveauet en faktor og stræber så højt, at de risikerer at røre himlen? Jeg gør - og det lykkedes for Kent i sjældent sanselige øjeblikke, hvor rocken blev til langt mere end bare underholdning.

Så smuk var min sorte Sabbath (from B.T. Fokus - 7/2/05)

Photo by Kristian Juul Pedersen

Sjove gamle mænd (by Erik Jensen for Politiken.dk - 7/2/05)

Photo by Anders Birch

Black Sabbath: Da da da da da..... [By Thomas Søie Hansen - from Berlingske.dk 7/4/05]

Kaspar Damm Larsen:

Nice project you've got going, thought I'd contribute a bit.  Sabbath have done 2 gigs at Roskilde Festival (1998 and again on Friday night - fucking amazing) and www.rockphoto.dk have pictures from both gigs.  I've checked out their Archive site, but the pics from Fridays gig is at http://www.rockphoto.dk/artists/blacksabbath/index.htm.  At the moment there's only 3, but as one of the lucky few who have access to the media "village" where Rockphoto's stand is located, I can definitely say that they have more pictures from that gig.