Written and compiled by Robert Dwyer
This section of Sabbathlive.com is meant to address other interesting points and questions that don't necessarily fit within the timelines. I've also provided links to other Sabbath related FAQ's and resources. This is still very much a work in progress (as is the entire site), but I hope you'll find the following articles helpful.
IV. Where can I obtain Black Sabbath bootlegs or ROIO's?
Journalists and fans
alike frequently ask Tony Iommi about the tragic accident that could have
prematurely ended his career as a guitar player. Instead of attempting to retell this story in my words, I thought it
best to give the podium to Tony. Here are two interview excerpts in which he talks about the
incident and how he overcame it.
From Steve Gett's article 'Still Paranoid After All These Years' in Guitar For The Practicing Musician magazine, 1983
"I lost them under
a guillotine in a factory where I was working and I was told that I would never
be able to play guitar again. By
then I was already hooked on the instrument and couldn't believe that I'd have
to stop. So I just carried on
trying and eventually made some plastic tips, which I took to the hospital so
that they could make proper ones for me to use.
Even after that though, it was hard and I had to completely re-adjust my
style of playing because, for a start, you can't feel the strings with the
tips."
"There's certain things, chords especially, which other guitarists can play that I can't. So I've found that I've had to discover different ways of doing them. I still have to wear caps and if I break one it's a bit like having to stick the end of your finger on again."
From
Tony’s first column for Guitar World magazine (1992?), which was known as
‘Heaven And Hell’. This
particular article was titled “Never Say Die”.
“Although my handicap has received quite a bit of press over the years, a lot of people are very surprised when they find out that I'm missing two fingertips from my fretboard (right) hand. (I'm a lefty.) After all, that is a fairly serious affliction for a guitarist. Specifically, I lost the tips of my middle and ring fingers in an accident I had at work-they got caught in a piece of machinery. Ironically, the day the accident happened was my last day at that job before turning professional musician, as I was all set to go to Germany on tour with a band. The timing couldn't have been worse-not that there's ever a good time to cut off the ends of two of your fingers! As you can imagine, it was an awful experience and I went through a terrible period of depression because I was convinced that my guitar playing days were over for good. I went to dozens of different doctors and hospitals and they all said, "Forget it. You're not going to be able to play guitar again."
While I was down in the dumps though, a friend of mine, who happened to be my foreman at work, brought me a record of [world-renowned Gypsy jazz guitarist] Django Reinhardt who, at the time, I'd never heard of before. My friend said, "Listen to this guy play," and I went, "No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now!" But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me. I told him I thought it was really good and then he said, "You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire." I was totally knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I suddenly became inspired to start trying to play again.
I tried playing right-handed for a while but
that didn't work out for me so I bandaged my two damaged fingers together and
started playing lefty again using just my first (index) and little fingers. I then decided to go a step further by trying to bring my two
injured fingers back into the game. What
I did was this: I melted down a "Fairy Liquid" [an English dishwashing
detergent] bottle, made a couple of blobs of the plastic and then sat there with
a hot soldering iron and melted holes in them so they'd fit on the tips of my
injured fingers, kind of like thimbles. When
I got the caps to fit comfortably, I ended up with these big balls on the ends
of my fingers, so I then proceeded to file them down with sandpaper until they
were approximately the size of normal fingertips.
It took me quite a while to get them exactly right because they couldn't be too heavy or thick but had to be strong enough so they didn't hurt the ends of my fingers when I used them. When I had sculpted my "thimbles" to the right size and tested them I realized that the ends weren't gripping the strings so I cut up a piece of leather and fixed pieces to the ends of them. I then spent ages rubbing the leather pads so they would get shiny and absorb some oils and would help me grip the strings better. I filed down the edges so they wouldn't catch on anything and it worked!
Once I had done this it took me quite a while to get used to bending and shaking strings with those two fingers because I obviously couldn't feel anything. It was difficult to even know where my fingers were and where they were going. It was just a matter of practicing and persevering with it, using my ears to compensate for my lost tactile sense.
In the years since my story was publicized more than a few musicians who have had similar afflictions have told me that my "never say die" attitude has inspired them to keep going. However bad something may seem at first, you've got to try to overcome it because sometimes the "impossible" is possible. It was really depressing at first, but after hearing Django, I just wouldn't accept defeat. I was sure there had to be a way around my problem.”
Sabbath didn't start using intro tapes for their concerts until 1975 during the SABOTAGE tour. Before then, they would simply have an M.C. or roadie yell out something along the lines of "Would you please welcome, BLACK SABBATH!!!" Someone had suggested that it was Ozzy whom did these introductions. According to Dave Tangye, this is completely untrue.
Dave Tangye: "The answer to your question is a definite NO! Sabbath in my time with the band, were always introduced by a MC. Albert Chapman used to do the honours. Before him, a guy called Norman, who worked for Harvey Goldsmith (promoter in England) would take on the task here in England. On the early US tours pre 1975, the promoter of whichever gig they played would introduce."
Their favorite opening numbers during the early 70's included "N.I.B." and "Tomorrow's Dream". For "N.I.B." Tony would usually hit a powerful low E string drone and play a short introductory 'blitzkrieg' guitar solo before the band crashed in with him on the main riff. Maybe this wasn't as dramatic as playing an intro tape, but it worked for them!
This all changed in 1975 when the orchestral sounding "Supertzar" became Black Sabbath's signature introduction. (Note - Dave Tangye says they would also use the Halle Orchestra rendition of a chorale work sometimes) This song remained their intro of choice from mid 1975 through the end of the HEAVEN AND HELL tour in February 1981. It appears to be Tony's favorite intro piece, since it was used on numerous tours into the 90's.
During the SABOTAGE tour, "outro tapes" were played over the P.A. once the lights went up and the band was finished with their encores. It would be interesting to know when this unspoken custom began at rock concerts. But as everyone knows, when the lights go up and house music comes on, you are being told "Show's over! No more encores! Time to go home!" Sabbath would play the ultra-sedate "Solitude" at the conclusion of the SABOTAGE era shows, maybe to subliminally cool everyone out. For the TECHNICAL ECSTASY and NEVER SAY DIE tours, their new ballad "She's Gone" became the choice outro.
Finally, the band found a new tape to use for the HEADLESS CROSS tour. It was then that they began using "The Gates Of Hell" from that same album. It was used throughout the HEADLESS CROSS and TYR tours in 1989-90. During that time they would sometimes also add "Ave Satani" (from THE OMEN) in front of "The Gates Of Hell". That combination was solidified during the TYR tour.
When Tony Martin returned in '94 for the CROSS PURPOSES tour, it was back to "Supertzar" again for the intro! But this was changed back to the "Ave Satani/The Gates Of Hell" intro for the FORBIDDEN tour.
When the original lineup reunited in 1997 for the REUNION tours, they adopted Ozzy's practice of using a video, as opposed to the customary audio tape. The intro for the '97, '99 and 2001 tours consisted of a video collage of assorted clips of the classic lineup backed with a well edited medley of classic Sabbath riffs. On my lists, this is known as the "Sabbath Medley".
Early on in the Ozzfest 2004 tour, Sabbath has mainly reverted to using "Supertzar", but has also used the "Sabbath Medley" on at least one occasion.
There
have been odd exceptions at various shows, but Sabbath has stuck mainly to the
timelines listed above.
PARANOID is currently the best selling Black Sabbath album in the United States, having sold 4 million copies as of January 31, 1995. It was also the first album for the band to go Gold, reaching that plateau on May 7th, 1971.
MASTER OF REALITY and the compilation WE SOLD OUR SOULS FOR ROCK AND ROLL have also reached multi-platinum status, selling above 2 million copies!
Other platinum award winners of 1 million copies and above include: BLACK SABBATH, VOLUME 4, SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH, HEAVEN AND HELL, REUNION and the long form video THE BLACK SABBATH STORY - VOLUME 1. HEAVEN AND HELL is the only album without Ozzy to earn an RIAA sales award!
All of the Ozzy era releases have achieved at least Gold record status as of 1997. But it took SABOTAGE, TECHNICAL ECSTASY and SABOTAGE up to 20 years to earn this honor! The Dio/Sabbath collaboration MOB RULES is the only Ozzy-less Sabbath album at the Gold level. Also, the video for THE BLACK SABBATH STORY - VOLUME 2 went gold when it was re-issued on DVD.
Black Sabbath's sales were very strong in the U.S. from 1971-1974, but declined with the release of SABOTAGE. After a 6 year dry spell, the band received an almost posthumous award for WE SOLD OUR SOULS FOR ROCK AND ROLL on February 7th, 1980, just months after Ozzy's dismissal.
The Dio era lineup invigorated sales again, earning themselves their first platinum award for HEAVEN AND HELL! Sales weren't quite as good for MOB RULES and even poorer for LIVE EVIL and BORN AGAIN. Oddly enough, this slump ended during the SEVENTH STAR era with 7 back catalog albums reaching Platinum status and MOB RULES finally getting the Gold. Unfortunately, neither SEVENTH STAR nor any of the studio albums that followed would ever reach the Gold award status.
Fortunately, sales for the back catalog albums such as PARANOID and MASTER OF REALITY continue to be strong. The OZZFEST '97 marked a resurgence for the band, even bringing less popular albums like SABOTAGE, TECHNICAL ECSTASY and NEVER SAY DIE to Gold record status. Also, the live album REUNION did quite well, proving that U.S. fans would still pay to hear the original lineup on record AND in concert!
To date, the band has earned 27 sales awards from the RIAA. Other albums that have still not achieved Gold status to date include BORN AGAIN, SEVENTH STAR, THE ETERNAL IDOL, HEADLESS CROSS, TYR, DEHUMANIZER, CROSS PURPOSES and FORBIDDEN.
I completely understand that many of you are simply curious about finding specific recordings based on what you may have read about them. I too have always been fascinated by the unreleased stuff, especially since I've already purchased each and every official release the band has put out! For hardcore fans like myself, collecting ROIO's (recordings of illegitimate origin) is a perfectly natural progression once all the official releases have been acquired.
Unfortunately, the unauthorized sale of these recordings by black market pirates and profiteers has also attached a certain stigma to the tapes themselves, often referred to as 'bootlegs'. These releases are most often produced in parts of the world where copyright laws are much more relaxed or the police are simply not as vigilant. The producers of these recordings are mainly interested in an easy profit, so quality is not one of their priorities. For this reason, the quality of 'bootlegs' will often be markedly worse than a commercial release. Much of this depends on the source tape used, but lazy post production is also to blame. Also - a good many 'bootlegs' are mislabeled, so don't trust the cover art to give you the correct story!
Now for the important part! It has never been my purpose or intention to condone the illegal SALE of unauthorized recordings of the band. In other words - DO NOT ASK ME WHERE TO PURCHASE BOOTLEGS!!! If anyone should profit from these recordings, it should be Black Sabbath, not Joe Schmoe on Ebay! If you send me an e-mail asking me any variation of this question, you will be directed to read this FAQ point! As much as I try not to take offense to this question, it does irritate me. So DON'T ASK!
The main reason that I even discuss and compare the bootleg releases is because they provide a consistent example of how a particular show sounds. Fan produced CD-R's vary widely in terms of quality and are much more difficult to catalog. New variations on the same recordings are coming out all of the time, so it is a very daunting task to keep my database up to date!
If you're looking to collect ROIO's, than I'd recommend trading for them. For years, people have engaged in the non-profit exchange of recordings were once only available through the black market distributors. This is a preferable alternative because (1) you aren't giving your money to companies that are making money on the band's music and (2) it's far cheaper! The last time I checked, bootleg silver CD's were going for upwards of $30 for a single disc! These are outrageous prices, especially when you consider the poor quality of many of these releases!
On the other hand, many fan produced CD-R's are much better than what the bootleggers are putting out. This is because these hobbyist sound engineers will take much care in the mastering of their shows, removing tape hiss, EQing the tape and even doing speed correction when necessary. I am aware of many fan communities that have taken the time to remaster and circulate the best quality versions of shows possible. These hobbyist labels also insist that their releases NEVER be sold for profit.
If you are interested in locating unreleased recordings of the band through non-profit trading, you should start by visiting the SABBATHLIVE Trading Registry. This is a directory of individuals who are interested in obtaining Sabbath rarities through FREE TRADE ONLY. If anyone here offers to sell you their recordings, please let me know so that I can remove them from the list!
And it should go without saying that you should support the band whenever possible and buy the official release, NOT copy them! If you truly love Black Sabbath, then show 'em with your currency!
If you are interested in more comprehensive FAQ's about the band, you may want to check out the following resources. I cannot vouch for the accuracy for all of these documents, but I found each of them to be interesting and useful.
Black Sabbath FAQ (Version 2.1) - This is the original Black Sabbath FAQ that was put together by Alexander Rack and Chris Slenker. It was last updated in January 2003.
Joe Siegler's Band Personnel Timeline - A well written timeline of all of Sabbath's various lineups!
Ozzy Osbourne FAQ - This is a very detailed study of all things Ozzy, compiled by Mike L. from Canada! The latest revision was done in September 2005.
Ronnie James Dio FAQ: Tapio Keihanen wrote this list of Dio related questions and trivia, which was last updated on 5/11/99.
Ian Gillan 'Questions & Answers': While this isn't in any particular order, Ian Gillan has been kind enough to answer fan questions directly in this special section on gillan.com!
