Photos and story by Paul Johnstone
Layout and presentation by Rob Dwyer of www.sabbathlive.com
Tony and Ozzy onstage at Kooyong Stadium - 1/13/73!
I only recently scanned these images. All the hype about The Osbournes here in Australia coincided with me pulling out my old vinyl Paranoid and Vol. 4 albums. I then had a look on the internet and saw all these great sites, which really rekindled my interest in the band. I recently read the 2 unauthorized bios of Ozzy, which really got me re-hooked on Sabbath. I then bought (and am playing on high rotation on my car CD stacker) the Reunion CD. I was rummaging in my old photos and slides and came across these pictures from this concert
What a great shot of the band! And yep, there's on Ozzy on stage right!
I can't remember all the songs they played, but I clearly remember my extreme excitement when the band took the (open air) stage and played the first chords. I think it was "Tomorrow's Dream". The concert took place at Kooyong Stadium, which was the home of the Australian Tennis Open at the time. One month later, I saw The Rolling Stones at one of 5 shows they played at the same venue. I was sitting on a seat on the grass about 20 or 30 rows back (from where my "full band" photos were taken). I remember that I was wearing my bright orange Levi denim jacket. Pretty cool for a 15 year old!
Sabbath in full flight!
The volume was enormous. After a few songs, I left my seat and went down the front at the left hand side of the stage where Geezer was set up. I cannot to this day remember being so excited about anything! I was shaking so much that I could hardly keep the camera still! I saw a Coca-Cola look-alike sticker on his bass which said "Enjoy Cocaine". Nowadays, you can't get a camera into gigs too easily, let alone leave your seat. The rest of the show went in a blur. I could not get over the volume, not the thrill of seeing my heroes close up. Tony took center stage, Bill went at it really hard and Ozzy worked the crowd very hard with lots of peace signs. I'll never forget it.
Cheers, Paul Johnstone - Australia 8/31/2002
Special thanks to Paul Johnstone and Gary Dean for making this all possible :)
