Black Sabbath to reunite for one final benefit show July 5

[Terry]

Ozzy has turned into a freak show. His "performances" with Sabbath a few years ago were a pain to see and hear...
How worse did it get? If it can be worse it's hard to imagine.

They came to my area back in ...2013? 2015? Whichever ...on the tour they undertook after they reunited in 20 ...11? And then Ward ended up pulling out. I think they initially had announced they were going to do an album with Ward, then tour. But it ended up they toured without Ward, then went on to do an album without Ward and then (I think) toured some more.

Anyway, they came to my area on the tour for that album. In the end, I just couldn't be bothered.

So, I saw Ozzy twice. Once in 1984 and once in 1986.

And I saw Black Sabbath twice. Once in 1983 and once in 2007. Neither time when Ozzy or Ward was onstage with them.

Maybe if Ward ends up taking a powder on this reunion Tony and Geezer can call up Ian Gillan and Bev Bevan and reunite the Born Again touring lineup.

But ...yeah. I can't really say I've had any use for Ozzy since the No More Tears album. He's been more of an addled, doddering goofball to laugh and roll your eyes at than he's been a cool rock star. Clearly his years of boozing and drugging took their toll. Sort of why I couldn't be bothered 10-odd years ago to go see him with that version of Sabbath.

But War Pigs is still my shit, yo.

[FORD]

This is just..... wrong.......

[FORD]

Fucking miserable cunt Sharon has managed to kill every goddamned bootleg video stream of this show as soon as they popup up. Managed to find some audio and right now it's Cheezeball Hagar doing an absolutely gawdawful version of Ozzy's Flying High Again. So you aren't missing much.

[Seshmeister]

Baby Jesus is punishing you for trying to steal content from Sharon who is no doubt stealing from the charity.

[Seshmeister]

Stephen Tyler at 77 is unbelievable...

[Seshmeister]

[Seshmeister]

[Seshmeister]

Fucking Hagar would turn up at the opening of an envelope.

Full setlist here

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/various-artists/2025/villa-park-birmingham-england-4b45278a.html

[nick500]

Yeah The Guardian in the UK didn't think much of Hagar saying he killed the momentum dead:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/06/black-sabbath-and-ozzy-osbourne-back-to-the-beginning-review-all-star-farewell-to-the-gods-of-metal-is-epic-and-emotional

Someone put up the actual feed of Sabbath a couple of hours after the show ended with stellar sound and they sounded thunderous.
Iommi had a massive sound. He would look over at Bill Ward every once in a while with a smile on his face.

[Terry]

Yeah The Guardian in the UK didn't think much of Hagar saying he killed the momentum dead:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/06/black-sabbath-and-ozzy-osbourne-back-to-the-beginning-review-all-star-farewell-to-the-gods-of-metal-is-epic-and-emotional

Someone put up the actual feed of Sabbath a couple of hours after the show ended with stellar sound and they sounded thunderous.
Iommi had a massive sound. He would look over at Bill Ward every once in a while with a smile on his face.

Saw clips of War Pigs (the opener) and Paranoid (the closer).

Iommi and Butler sounded great.

Ward sounded decent, although sluggish here and there. I'm given to believe he doesn't play much anymore in terms of a regular basis, even to keep his chops up. Kinda sounded it.

Ozzy's voice sounded weak, off-key and warbly.

[Seshmeister]

Yeah The Guardian in the UK didn't think much of Hagar saying he killed the momentum dead:

"You guys sound like you are having fun - I'll soon stop that..."

[FORD]

All things considered, I thought Ozzy sounded pretty good, at least for a guy in his mid 70s with Parkinsons who is been in the hospital more than in a studio for the last decade or so.

Ironically, it seems to be only gig where he actually remembered all the lyrics. Don't think I've ever seen that, even back to the early Sabbath tours.

Now on the other hand, Axl Rose was fucking out of sync with the rest of GNR on every damn song they did. What a way to ruin what could have been a great performance, with Izzy back in the fold for at least one day (or at least that's who it looked like. Unless it's an AI robot with a perfect Izzy mask?)

[Seshmeister]

Ozzy uses a video prompter screen for lyrics now and has done for many years.

You can clearly see beside the monitors in front of him. Maybe they should have put one in front of Hagar....

[Seshmeister]

I thought it was Far from the worst performance I've seen from GNR in recent years.

I would maybe go and see them if the ticket was free and I had easy access to reasonably priced booze.

[Seshmeister]

This should have been about Jake E Lee but David Draiman was booed for literally signing bombs dropped on Gaza.

Then again Sharon Osbourne successfully called for another act Kneecap to lose their US visas for being against the bombings.

While some of the other artists showed their limitations. MVP award goes again to Nuno Tenniscourt.