Some thoughts and articles about Sabbath's attempts to perform in the Capital District during 80's
Today, I thought I’d go back and hunt through some
old articles from my former hometown papers (Albany, NY).
What I found opened an entire can of worms that I haven't covered in
depth until now. While it's no real surprise to me that Black Sabbath and
other similar heavy rock bands have faced protests in some communities, I never
realized that my people in my own community actually made it very difficult for
me to see them during the 1980's! It’s no wonder that I only had one opportunity to
see Sabbath when I lived in Albany, ‘cause local religious leaders were
protesting so vehemently against them!
In retrospect, it really angers me to such sheer ignorance from these self appointed pillars of society who hardly know anything about the band. I suppose the band has always had to deal with these small minded sorts of people who felt the band was coming to town to reap souls or some crapola like that. Sabbath were especially sympathetic when they saw the flak that Marilyn Manson was taking after joining the Ozzfest tour back in ’97. Thankfully, they were able to carry on with a Meadowlands show, regardless of the protests. But I do remember them moving at least one show in Minnesota due to this sort of community protest.
My first opportunity to see Black Sabbath was when
they were touring to support BORN AGAIN. I
was only 14 years old at the time and can still remember how ecstatic I was when
I first heard that they would be coming to Albany. Just for fun, here's a
quote from my 1984 journals:
"After I had finished writing last night's
diary entry, a concert announcement blared through my radio.
Black Sabbath will be at Glens Falls Civic Center on March 1st!
I freaked out and ran downstairs to beg my father to go.
"Maybe", he replied. I
threw on THE MOB RULES afterwards and felt the power!"
In the March 27th, 1986 edition of the
Albany Times Union, there was an article called “Black Sabbath To Draw
Pickets” which discussed a show in Glens Falls, NY that was cancelled due to
such protests. The timing was very
bad for the band, since Glenn Hughes had just done his last show in Worcester on
3/26. They were in the process of
working in Ray Gillen, so this couldn’t have been any easy situation for them
to deal with at that particular time. It could have been a good thing for
Ray, since this gave him a whole two days to prepare for his first gig in New
Haven! Here’s the article:
“Parishioners from more than 20 area churches were expected to picket a Red Wings hockey game Wednesday night to protest a Black Sabbath rock concert scheduled for the Glens Falls Civic Center Friday [3/28/86]. The concert is scheduled for Good Friday and area clergymen have found the group's occult-like image to be objectionable, especially when the performance is on an important Christian holy day, according to the Rev. Charles Semple.
Semple, of the Calvary Assembly of God, said the protest is being organized by the Rev. Robert Powhida, chaplain of Glens Falls Hospital. Also involved are parishioners of the nearby St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, which frequently leases parking space to civic center patrons, Semple said. The picket was scheduled for Wednesday so opponents to the concert will not miss their Good Friday observances, Semple said. Rev. Paul Cox, pastor of St. Mary's, has said his church will refuse to allow cars into the church parking lot Friday night as a further protest to the concert, Semple said.
A number of years ago, religious groups protested an appearance by the rock singer Ozzie Osborne [sic], who also was scheduled to appear at Easter time, Semple said. That concert was reportedly canceled at the last minute, he said.
They couldn’t even spell
Ozzy’s name correctly in the article! Ironically,
Ozzy played a show at Glens Falls Civic Center with Metallica on April 27th,
1986, just a month after this article went to press.
I remember it quite well. This
was back when Cliff Burton was still with Metallica and the band were quite
young and hungry. You can read a
complete review that I wrote of this show here:
A follow-up article on the planned Sabbath show in Glens Falls was published in the 3/29/86 edition of the Albany Times Union: This report was put together by the national news wire, Associated Press:
A publicist for Black Sabbath said that the heavy- metal rock group backed away from a concert in Glens Falls because of pressure from local protesters. However, Mitch Schneider, the group's Los Angeles publicist, refused to elaborate on the group's reasons Friday. And he said the group wants to reschedule the concert, initially set for Good Friday at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Schneider released a statement from Tony Iommi, lead guitarist and founding member of Black Sabbath, in which Iommi said the group had been censored. "I think it's ridiculous that certain pressure groups are interested in censoring freedom of speech," Iommi said. The rock group was under fire for what local protesters called the "Satanic" nature of its music.
Glens Falls Mayor Francis O'Keefe attributed the cancellation to the "hue and cry" the concert had produced. More than 50 protesters demonstrated outside the Civic Center Wednesday night, praying and carrying signs condemning Black Sabbath's music and the Good Friday concert as sacrilegious. One of the organizers of the event, the Rev. Charles Semple of the Calvary Assembly of God, said the group's music is "very much into heavy Satanic themes."
"I think it is appropriate it being Good Friday and the nature of the name of the band and its music that the concert is off," O'Keefe said. "We're a small community up here and I really don't think we should have to be subjected to this kind of band on one of the holiest days of the year."
Kelley said that about 2,400 of the 7,000 seats in the Civic Center had been sold for the concert. He said "one might be suspicious" that the event was cancelled because of the advance ticket sales, which he said were among the worst he can remember for a Civic Center event. "All I can tell you is the band called the promoters and said they did not want to do the show," said Glens Falls Civic Center Director Jack Kelley. "I can assure you the promoters are not happy with the decision."
"It was strictly the decision of the band to cancel the show," said Keith Beccia of Northeast Concerts in Wethersfield, Conn., the promoters of the event. "Why they did it, I don't know." Beccia said he was informed of the band's decision late Thursday.
"It hasn't been the most pleasant experience from the very beginning," Kelley said of the concert. He said Black Sabbath was "advised" by local officials to book the concert on a night other than Good Friday when the event was being set up. "If they had held it even Thursday, they would have been in and out without any attention," the Civic Center director said.
O'Keefe said he will ask Detroit- based Olympia, the company that operates the Civic Center, to book only family-oriented entertainment into the facility during future Holy Weeks. The Civic Center had similar troubles in 1981 with an Easter-time performance by singer Ozzie [sic] Osbourne, who was formerly with Black Sabbath. That concert was canceled after Osbourne became ill.
Black Sabbath has a concert scheduled Saturday night in New Haven, CT [which would be Ray Gillen’s first show with the band]. It is carrying out a world tour that began with a concert March 21 in Cleveland, Schneider said. He said the group had previously played in Glens Falls, but he was unable to say when.
Sabbath only played at Glens Falls
Civic Center to my knowledge. This
was on November 25th, 1981 on THE MOB RULES tour.
It surprises me that there was such a loud public outcry, since I
remember seeing numerous heavy metal shows at that venue.
Yet another article (titled “Black Sabbath Censored”) made the paper on Sunday March 30th. While much of the article echoed the previous one, Iommi did see it fit to put in his two cents at this point.
Black Sabbath lead guitarist
Tony Iommi believes the heavy-metal rock group was a victim of censorship when
protests caused it to back out of a concert in Glens Falls, his publicist says.
The rock group came under fire for what local protesters called the
satanic nature of its music, which they said was particularly inappropriate on
such an important Christian holy day as Good Friday.
"It was strictly the decision of the band to cancel the show," said Keith Beccia of Northeast Concerts in Wethersfield, Conn., the promoters of the event.
Three
years later, history repeated itself. As
Sabbath began planning its first U.S. tour since 1986 to support the HEADLESS
CROSS album, they found themselves in the same pickle when they start
negotiating with promoters in Albany, NY.
In the May 6, 1989 edition of the Albany Times Union, staff writer Marc Carey penned this article titled “Heavy Metal Concert A Worry In Clifton Park”:
Supervisor Kevin M. Dailey is seeing red over Black Sabbath. Dailey reacted with concern Friday to news that the Clifton Park Arena on the town-owned Clifton Common has booked that band, a heavy metal group whose song lyrics have included references to wizards, black masses, the occult and fantasy, as the first musical show at the arena that opened in December. But Dailey shouldn't be blue, insisted the president of the arena management association, who said it's only rock 'n' roll and he likes it - at least from the financial point of view.
“The concert is a cross
the town should not have to bear”, said Dailey. "We're getting calls at
Town Hall from concerned residents”, said the supervisor. "I think we should be booking acts that are appropriate
to Clifton Park. That's my opinion
and I wouldn't be at all keen at having heavy metal, satanic worship, hard rock
acts." Dailey said he feared a
"very negative and adverse reaction" from town residents to the
booking of the act.
The group's original lead singer, Ozzy Ozborne [SIC! How many different ways are these people going to screw up his name?!], was unsuccessfully sued by the parents of a teen suicide on the grounds that his lyrics caused the boy's death.
In 1980, two people died and two others were injured in separate traffic accidents following a concert by Black Sabbath and another heavy metal band, Blue Oyster Cult, at the Lebanon Valley Speedway in New Lebanon [8/8/80]. Youths overturned cars and vandalized police cars in the aftermath of that event, which drew between 15,000 and 30,000 fans.
In 1986, a scheduled appearance by the band at the Glens Falls Civic Center was canceled following a march by local religious leaders outside the center.
The $1.75 million arena was built through a complicated financing scheme in which the town leased the land to the Clifton Park Arena Association, which built the facility and leased it to the town, which in turn subleased it to the Clifton Park Arena Management Association headed by Jim Salfi, former coach of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hockey team.
"If I thought it was going to be a problem, I wouldn't allow it to happen," said Salfi of the concert. He said he notified Dailey last week that the band had been booked for the June 8 date. "I didn't get any concerns from Kevin Dailey last Friday," said Salfi. "A concert will make us more money than making ice."
He said the concert promoter, Northeast Concerts, already handles bookings for such places as the Palace Theatre in Albany, the Glens Falls Civic Center and the RPI Houston Field House. The company is the largest concert promoter in the Northeast, he said, and a top-notch organization. The company is looking at booking several concerts a year in the facility. A concert drawing 5,000 to 7,000 people at RPI, he said, can make a profit of $55,000. The Clifton Park Arena will hold about 3,000 people for a general admission concert.
Salfi also belittled concerns about the type of music Black Sabbath plays. "What are we going to do, stick our nose up in the air and say we're above this?" he asked. "You've got to put what the kids want to see in there. I'm not a heavy metal fan." He said there will be more than adequate security for the concert.
That did not allay the fears of at least one town clergyman. "I think there are certainly things about it to be concerned about," said the Rev. Dwight Moore, pastor of the Clifton Park Assembly of God congregation. "I suspect at the very least it's regretful in a community like Clifton Park where there are not an overabundance of things for youth to do that this has to be one of the options," said Moore.
It also did not calm Dailey. "What are we going to do, send over our six (town) constables? We had a hard time controlling the Shenendehowa- Niskayuna hockey game," he said. According to Dailey, the concert will be subject to the town's mass gathering ordinance, designed to protect the "health, welfare, safety and morals" of town residents.
Five days later, the show was cancelled, although it was alleged that the cancellation had nothing to do with the protests. This is from the May 11th, 1989 edition of the Albany Times Union:
Although forced to cancel their first concert planned for next month, the operators of the Clifton Park Arena are close to signing a contract to bring eight concerts annually to the facility, according to the head of the head of the arena management group. "We're not folding our tents by any means," said Jim Salfi, president of the Clifton Park Arena Management Association.
The first concert, originally set for June 8 with the heavy metal Black Sabbath rock group, was canceled Tuesday, Salfi said.
The arena, which seats 3,000 people for a general admission show, needs additional electrical work to allow concerts, said Salfi. He said original bids for the work ranged from $3,000 to $15,000, which he said is more than the arena management group wants to pay. He said another contractor is slated to inspect the facility today and put in a bid for the work.
Salfi said the Black Sabbath cancellation was not tied to what town officials said was a community outcry last week. Town Supervisor Kevin M. Dailey had termed that type of show inappropriate.
But Salfi said he has been in negotiation with Keith Beccia, who heads Northeast Concerts, the largest concert promoter in the area, and is close to finalizing a deal for an eight- show annual package. "I don't care what you put in there, you could put a gospel group in there and other religious groups could take offense.
"Keith Beccia and I have finalized a proposal on what our fee and percentage would be per concert," said Salfi. "What we want to do with Keith if he's successful (booking the first concert), we want to sign a contract with him for eight concerts a year... I have finalized it with Keith."
He said Northeast just this week ran concerts at the Glens Falls Civic Center and the RPI Field House, both of which went off without incident, other than possibly a little marijuana smoking. "Take one whiff, that's what concerts are about," Salfi said. Salfi said no new date had been set for a first concert, but added, "It's not going to be an overnight thing."
According to Dailey, several athletic events, including baseball, soccer and softball, are set for the June 8 date. The parking problems created by the overlapping events alone, Dailey said, would have ruled out the Black Sabbath show. The supervisor said he wants to see further shows booked that are "compatible" with the community.
15-20 years later, I’m just now
learning that the reason that I didn’t get to see my favorite band more was
due to individuals in my community “protecting my morals”!
I’d rather not get on a soapbox here regarding these self appointed
watchdogs for the religious right. It’s
not like you need me telling you how hypocritical and shortsighted these people
are! But yeah, I did feel a bit disgusted to discover the truth of
the matter so many years later.
What I would be interested in hearing is similar experiences from Sabbath fans. If you’re aware of any shows that were petitioned or cancelled due to protests by “community leaders”, please write to me about them. I think it would give us a better understanding of what Sabbath went through when they went on tour. I always knew that this stuff happened, but I didn’t realize that they faced it so frequently.
-Robert Dwyer
3/22/2003