2005 EUROPEAN TOUR REVIEWS

July 3rd, 2005 - Globen - Stockholm, Sweden

Ticket stub from Peter Eklund of www.sabbath.se

After waiting for 22 years, I finally saw Black Sabbath.  They were playing in Globen Arena, the biggest indoor arena in Stockholm.  The concert had been sold out for months (the tickets were actually gone after 35 minutes), so the concert was visited by 10,000 spectators.  The ticket company actually released more tickets after the initial ones, but they were behind the actual stage, so I guess the spectators there just saw Ozzy's ass for 90 minutes...

The opening was Soulfly, and they played from 19.30 until 20.15.  This is a review of Sabbath, so I won't write anything about Soulfly.

I was a bit surprised by the small stage.  Just 4 stacks of Ampeg bass amplifiers on Geezer's side and something similar on Tony's.  I didn't mind though, as I had managed to get quite close to the stage.  The show was being filmed live, so if you couldn't see the actual stage, you could always watch a gigantic TV-screen hanging from the ceiling.

At around 20.45 Sabbath started to play.  They played for 90 minutes, until 22.15.  I think the set list went like this:
1) Intro - Sabbath Medley
2) N.I.B. (no bass intro)
3) After Forever
4) Dirty Women
5) War Pigs
6) Fairies Wear Boots
7) Symptom Of the universe (intro only), Sweet Leaf (intro)
8) Electric Funeral
9) Iron Man
10) Into The Void
11) Black Sabbath
12) The Wizard
13) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (intro only)
14) Paranoid
15) Encore: Sleeping Village (intro)
16) Children Of The Grave
17) Changes (tape version)

Black Sabbath were truly awesome.  Ozzy was at his absolute peak, his voice sounded great.  I wouldn't say that they played perfectly tight, but I think this was because of the amazing audience.  I have been to more than 50 concerts, but I have never heard more noise, screams, applauds or roar from an audience.  Sabbath played loud, almost at an bone crushing volume, but their volume almost drowned in the crowd's roar.  Amazing. I could hardly hear the bass or the guitar because of the noise from the audience, while Ozzy's voice was mixed several levels louder than the music.  Bill missed a bit in "War Pigs", and Ozzy's voice wasn't perfect in "Dirty Women".  He also had some problems with feedback on "The Wizard", which made him furious at the sound technician.

The high point for me was "Iron Man".  I have never been a really die-hard fan of "Iron Man", but hearing that sole base drum in the intro was THE thing I will remember.  I think Bill went on for 1 or 2 minutes, just a sole bass drum and the audience's rhythmic roar.  I am also truly amazed with Ozzy's stamina.  I was totally gone after 40 minutes of shouting and jumping, but this guy is 22 years older than me, and he kept on running, smiling, jumping and kneeling the whole show.  Respect.

By the way, they also had a keyboard player on stage (not very visible).  I thought Ozzy said that it was Rick Wakeman's son, could that be right?  He looked quite young.

We went by bus to the concert and the bus driver offered us the whole concert on DVD, filmed by two cameras.  I have no idea how he arranged this, as it was totally forbidden to bring even a small camera into the concert.  Anyway, I will of course buy this DVD, so expect a review when I have received it.  I was quite annoyed that they didn't sell any tour programs or tour scarves.  Don't they do that anymore?

Thomas Broberg:

I'm sending you my autographed ticket from the Stockholm show.  This encounter with the axeman took place just outside the Grand Hotel right after the gig at Globen on July 3, 2005.  They stayed here for several days.  Unfortunately, the rest of the band (read OZZY) did not show up much between the gigs in Scandinavia, but Tony did take some time to step out and meet us outside the hotel.  This is also well covered by the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet".