BLACK SABBATH MEDIA FILES

I have added this section to post audio and video samples of Sabbath related interviews.  Most of these have been encoded at 32 kbps MP3 format to preserve bandwidth.  But this is perfectly adequate for interview clips and still better than Real Audio samples!

VIDEO

SILENT FOOTAGE FROM MYPONGA FESTIVAL '71

Advertisement for Aussie '71 visit from January 23rd, 1971 edition of Melody Maker. Although the flyer says Sabbath would be peforming in Myponga on February 1st, it was actually just before midnight on the 31st of January.

 

Black Sabbath made their first visit to Australia in 1971.  Oddly, they made this long flight only to perform just one show in Myponga, where they headlined 'The Australian Festival of Progressive Music'.  Co-headliner Cat Stevens cancelled at the last moment.  Black Sabbath took the stage at 11 PM on Sunday, January 31st, 1971 (the 2nd day of the festival).  They were preceded by Fraternity, which included future AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott!

Footage from the Myponga show was shown on a music program called GTK by ABC-TV.  This 2 minute black & white clip shows the band performing at the festival.  The original version included an overdubbed audio track of the "Paranoid" studio track, which didn't even match the footage.  The audio has been removed to present the footage more naturally, as well as for copyright considerations.

This rare glimpse of the band performing live in 1971 goes by rather quickly, but is still quite a treat to see.  Thanks to Shigeru Sato for bringing this to my attention back in 2003 and Rich Grenfell for providing the DVD-R source.

Download Myponga '71 video (NTSC VCD - 18 MB)

More background on the Myponga '71 festival shows

 

Jackson '72 8mm Silent footage: Filmed in silent Super 8 by amateur photographer Larry Davis at Mississippi Memorial Coliseum in Jackson, MI on 9/7/72, this two minute clip is the only known existing footage of the band during the VOLUME 4 tour.  You'll need Real Player to view this clip.

 

AUDIO

Rockline Interview - 3/31/2004:  Ozzy and Tony recently appeared on this long running U.S. radio call-in program to discuss the upcoming release of the BLACK BOX, reunion rumors and answer caller questions.  The program was recorded at Rockline's new location in Los Angeles with Bob Coburn.

Paul T. of Tustin, CA won a contest on KLOS that gave him the privilege of being in the studio while this program was being taped!  He shared the photos below on the Rockline Message Board on April 2nd.  To read more of his comments on the show, go here.

         

Special thanks to Erich for sharing this edited (all songs are cut) version with us!  It's all in MP3 format and has been cut in multiple parts for the benefit of dial-up users.

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3    Part 4     Part 5     Part 6

Part 7     Part 8     Part 9     Part 10     Part 11     Part 12

Vienna '89 samples:  Shigeru Sato sent me these MP3 clips from the new HEADLESS IN VIENNA bootleg, which is from a soundboard of their show at Summer Arena in Wein (Vienna), Austria on 9/24/89.  There is also something of a mystery here in the fact that the intro tapes that are heard on the Soundboard and Audience sources do not appear to match completely?!  Take a listen and see if you can figure this one out...

Exhibit A: Intro - "Headless Cross

[Audience source - "The Gates of Hell"     Sample 1     Sample 2]

[Soundboard - "Supertzar" intro]

Exhibit B: "Headless Cross"

Audience     Soundboard

Exhibit C: Intro to "Children Of The Sea"

Audience     Soundboard

Exhibit D: Intro to "Iron Man"

Audience     Soundboard

Exhibit E: Intro to "The Shining"

Audience     Soundboard

 

Is Ian Gillan borrowing liberally from his past?:  Jarkko Aaltonen posed that question when he sent me these two samples of songs from BORN AGAIN and their earlier counterpart.  The first clip was done by Jarkko and the second is from a 1983 Retro Rock radio broadcast, thanks to Lars Bernstroem too!  See what you think...

  1. "Disturbing The Scarabus": The melody for the verses in "Disturbing The Priest" bears quite a resemblance to the verse for the title track of the Ian Gillan Band's 1978 album SCARABUS.

  2. "Digital Highway": The locomotive rhythm of "Digital Bitch" inspires Ian to weave a melody not so distant from the 1972 classic "Highway Star".  The fact that both songs are in G minor makes this similarity even more apparent!

"Megalomania (Jam)": This is a sample of newly surfaced audience tape recorded by Colin Hadden at Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on 11/5/74.  This was digitally sampled from the original master cassette recording.  Sabbath were messing around with what would become the bridge section for this epic song during this Australian tour.

 

Interview with Tony Iommi [9-3-1978]:  Journalist Larry Germack (who sounds like a teenager to me) interviewed Tony on the day after their show at the Civic Center.  The interview was conducted at the Pittsburgh Hilton Cafe.  The hectic background noise seems to confirm this!  Thanks to Gary Dean for sending this to me many years back.  I transferred this from cassette and applied a good measure of signal enhancement and noise reduction to this rare recording.  It is encoded in MP3 Pro format at 48 kbps.  Enjoy!

Iommi Pittsburgh '78 Interview-Part 1 [14:21] (4.93 MB)

Iommi Pittsburgh '78 Interview-Part 2 [12:29] (4.29 MB)

 

Rob Dwyer speaks with Bill Ward [6-29-2002]: I had been listening to Mike Stark's 'Rock 50' radio program via the Internet (from Cerritos College in California), when he decided to take callers.  Luckily for me, I was the first person to get through!  Although I really didn't have my best questions prepared, it was quite a thrill to talk to Bill in person.  I asked him about where to find info on past tour dates, memories of touring in the early 70's, and the infamous Memphis '71 story.  Click here to download! [972 KB - 5:30 running time]  This one is MP3 pro format, so be sure to download the plug-in's you need here.

Phone Interview with Geezer Butler [1-30-94]: I mastered this from a cassette recording that a journalist named Mike Insuaste did for Jam Magazine.  This is pretty cool, since there are so few interviews with Geezer circulating.  It was done a day prior to the release of CROSS PURPOSES.  Click here to download!  [5.21 MB - 22:46 running time] WLPX-FM Milwaukee Radio Interview with Ronnie James Dio [10-9-80]: This rare interview was done before Sabbath's infamous 'Riot Show'.  The calm before the storm!  Click here to download! [2.67 MB-11:41 running time]

 

Glenn's Last Stand (The Centrum, Worcester, MA 3/26/86): Here are three samples of Glenn Hughes' last live appearance with Sabbath.  I'm afraid these aren't all that flattering to Glenn (whom is one of my favorite singers in hard rock, period), but they help illustrate his final days in the band.  Special thanks to John M. for sending me these excerpts from a rare audience recording.

 

Background photo posted by kind of permission of Chris Walter