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Associated Press (July 30th): 'Rock Music Fans Give Blood For Tickets'
LOS ANGELES -- Give blood, go to a metal music festival.
Hundreds of Inland Empire residents gathered to give blood at the KLOS blood drive Thursday, lured by the promise of a ticket to the Ozzfest on Saturday.
The traveling music festival features hard-rock acts such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Slipknot.
Officials say the wait in line to give blood was hours long -- but the fans didn't care.
Tonya Connors, a 21-year-old with teal-colored hair, says she still plans to let loose at the concert, even after donating blood just three days prior.
"It's going to be on!" she says.
Article from Reuters (July 31, 2004):
Another perennial favorite, Ozzy Osbourne's heavy metal spectacle Ozzfest,
is charging from $30 to more than $100, but organizers nonetheless are
boasting a healthy business. Marquee reunions of metal pioneers Black
Sabbath and Judas Priest appear to be the draw, along with current flag
bearers like Slipknot and Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society.
"Ozzfest is successful because Ozzy has a
very loyal following, and he's never stopped touring and making
music," said Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison. Sharon Osbourne, wife
and manager of the tour's founder, said attendance is high for the
26-stop, two-month trek, but declined to give specifics. "It seems as
though ticket sales have been a bit soft for most of this summer's concert
tours, but that's not been the case with Ozzfest," she said through a
publicist.
These tours are bucking the trend, according to
Pollstar, which reported sales for the top 50 U.S. tours through June were
down 2 percent, compared with the first half of last year, to 12.8 million
tickets.
Press Enterprise article - 'Reunions have become almost routine for Black Sabbath.'
by Mark Brown / Scripps Howard News Service (09:53 AM PDT on Saturday, July 31, 2004)
The original lineup of Black Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward and bassist Geezer Butler - has found a variety of creative ways to break up and get back together over the years.
But the recording of "Never Say Die" in 1978 may be the epitome of rock-star hubris.
Ozzy had left the group, so the remaining members brought in a new singer and wrote an entire album of songs.
Four days before recording was scheduled to start, "Ozzy wanted to come back, to join the band again," Iommi recalled. "We, of course, wanted him. He came back, but he wouldn't sing any of the songs we'd written for the other guy."
With deadlines looming, the band members went into crisis mode. They flew to Toronto and rented a movie theater.
They couldn't come up with quite enough songs, so to get around Ozzy's objections, Ward sang "Swinging the Chain," one of the songs written for "the other guy."
The resulting "Never Say Die" is widely slagged as Sabbath's nadir, and Iommi doesn't disagree: "It's odd for me to listen to now, knowing how it was recorded."
The Sabbath members reunite under much less nerve-fraying conditions for Ozzfest, coming to Hyundai Pavilion today.
"We've known each other so long and we've gone through so much stuff together that it seems pointless to argue and fight over things, really," Iommi said. "When we were young, yes, we were all highly strung.... Now it's great to walk onstage together and just play without all those egos that used to stop it."
It's been a high-profile period for Sabbath. In a mind-boggling move in 2002, Osbourne and Iommi performed the classic "Paranoid" in front of the Queen for England's Golden Jubilee.
And the band has the summer tour and "The Black Box," a new boxed set of all its albums with Osbourne, with a bonus DVD.
That DVD features a performance that was never supposed to happen: Black Sabbath in 1970, the heaviest band in the world, doing a rave-up version of "Blue Suede Shoes."
" 'Blue Suede Shoes' shouldn't have been in there. It should have never been recorded!" Iommi growled.
The band had flown to Germany to tape a segment of the old show Beat Club. The crew asked the members to do a song while they set up equipment.
The band took a run at recording some new songs a few years ago, but "it just came to an end, really," Iommi says. "We didn't go any further, and it's a shame because they were really good."
Review
from Reuters - 'Concert Review: Ozzfest" by John Lappen (August 2nd,
2004)
Review
from San Bernardino Sun - 'Ozzfest dusty, dirty, daunting' by Marie Vasari
(August 1st, 2004)
Review
from San Bernardino Sun - 'Ozzfest provides bevy of bizarre to headbangers'
by Rod Leveque (July 31, 2004)
OZZFEST TRUE TO VISION: One of the best lineups in years
- Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and newcomers - takes metal back to what it
used to be (By Robert Kreutzer - 11:26 PM PDT on Sunday, August 1, 2004;
Special to The Press-Enterprise)
BEST AND WORST
Bang Your Head
Black Sabbath - Awesome.
Judas Priest - Welcome back!
Slayer - Blistering as always.
Cover Your Ears
Superjoint Ritual - Shut up and play, Phil!
Slipknot - Grow up, guys ...
Dimmu Borgir - Get serious!
DEVORE - Ozzfest is back where it belongs. Making its 2004 stop at the
Hyundai Pavilion of Glen Helen on Saturday, the festival featured several
outstanding sets from one of its best lineups in years.
The glamour fest for hard rock was getting a little stale recently, even
while it continued to load up the profits. But some great bands - from
legends Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to up-and-comers like Unearth and
Lacuna Coil - have corrected the course. And so the tour was enjoying a
creative comeback when it returned to its Glen Helen birthplace (the first
one was held here in 1996).
Ozzfest has endured not just because of the music but the overall lunacy.
For so many it is the one place and one day where people can safely go
crazy - running around half-naked, moshing their brains out and doing
other activities frowned upon by polite society - from early morning to
late night. Coupled with a full day of over-the-top rock, you can always
find 50,000 people who look forward to the event.
The artistic end has been a little more uneven, though. While priding
itself as being underground and dangerous, Ozzfest was becoming
predictable, featuring superstar bands played to death on commercial
radio. The second stage, frequently the most fun place to be, was becoming
more and more the home to thrash-by-numbers bands.
This year's lineup was the most varied and left no metalhead behind.
There was plenty of standard-issue punkish raw thrash, but also bands
stabbing at melody as well as some subgenres not often featured in a
mainstream festival. And it was all topped by two legendary old-line
blues-based British bands, taking metal back to what it used to be.
Priest and Sabbath
Because this Ozzfest featured the reunited Judas Priest, together for the
first time in well over a decade, it's tempting to say that band stole the
show. It didn't. Sabbath, with an amazing array of songs - plus the
seemingly ageless tandem of guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler
as well as a surprisingly fiery Ozzy Osbourne - was just not to be topped.
Sounding close to incoherent and moving like his joints were bolted only a
couple of years ago, Osbourne was the best he has been in a very long
time, talking clearly and even grimacing menacingly during songs. This was
from a guy who we were told might not ever be able to perform again after
an ATV crash in December.
"The doctor told me I shouldn't play a show for 18 months,"
bellowed Osbourne, who also recounted his to-the-point rebuttal.
Ed Crisostomo / The Press-Enterprise
Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford whips the fans into a frenzy Saturday
during the Ozzfest stop in Devore.
The band was flawless and explosive from start to finish, performing songs
like "N.I.B." and FM staples like "Paranoid" and
"Iron Man."
Judas Priest also played a memorable show, one for which fans rightfully
went berserk. Though his solo material isn't bad, lead singer Rob Halford
was right back where he belonged, wailing his heart out through songs both
well-known and somewhat more obscure of this great British band.
The band did perform its mandatory radio hits - "Living After
Midnight" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." More to
the nitty-gritty of what the group is all about were songs like
"Victim of Changes," which allowed the band to turn the switch
for some thunderous jams and gave Halford all the room he needed to wail,
scream and whip the audience into a frenzy.
Other acts
No less influential than Black Sabbath and Judas Priest is Slayer, which
turned in its typically incendiary show. While so many of the second-stage
bands thrashed just as aggressively, none could top the hysterical yet
nuanced main-stage playing of guitarist Kerry King and bassist Tom Araya.
Starting the main stage off in the late afternoon were Black Label Society
and Superjoint Ritual, one of two highly-regarded side projects of Pantera
frontman Phil Anselmo. Both rocked with requisite fury but didn't quite
stand out. Anselmo (along with, on the other side of the political fence,
Bush-bashing Otep) might do well to screech more and pontificate less. Not
saying shut up and play - just play a little more.A new entry in the
festival is Dimmu Borgir, a bona fide Scandinavian black metal band. The
group was representative of the substyle, which includes intensely intense
guitars, organ interludes and demonic voices furthering the preoccupation
with occult themes. It was easy to see why black metal, after all these
years, is still basically a small cult rather than a major movement.
The second stage was also a better place to be after last year's lineup of
bands that mostly disappeared a year later. While there wasn't a huge
amount of variety, nearly all bands played like they were serious. Most
got 20 minutes to a half-hour, and clearly few were able to get in their
grooves in that short amount of time.
At this point, Slipknot needs new tricks. While the band is still as
furious as any around, the overall show and attitude are still hostile and
basically unchanged for years, appealing mostly to 13-year-olds with a
chips on their shoulders. It would be nice if the band members could be as
forthcoming with talent as they are with expletives.
Galder of Dimmu Borgir performs.
For most of the day, fans were fairly well-behaved. Most violence was of
the cordial kind exchanged in the mosh pits. By nightfall, though, the
fires on the lawn - which happen every year - began. There was a lot of
burning synthetic materials going on, which left me with a headache and
smelling like melted plastic even after a shower.
Fortunately, traffic was not a headache. Unlike Hyundai Pavilion's season
opener, the No Doubt / blink-182 show, fans weren't sentenced to five
hours in gridlock. -->
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The Set List
-
Intro
- Sabbath Medley -> Supertzar
-
War
Pigs
-
N.I.B.
-
Fairies Wear
Boots
-
Into The Void
-
Black Sabbath
-
Snowblind
-
Iron Man
-
Children Of
The Grave
-
Encore:
Sabbath
Bloody Sabbath (intro only) -> Paranoid
More
reviews from Black-Sabbath.com
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