Ozzy Osbourne live in Athens September 2010

Back in 1987 I had seen Black Sabbath live. Well, it was a kind of Black Sabbath. I think the only original member was Tony Iommi. And they didn't play Paranoid. So, I thought that by seeing Ozzy Osbourne solo in 2010 the situation would be rectified.  As he came up on stage, an (almost) full moon appeared through the clouds and the set (naturally) began with Bark At The Moon (from my favourite solo album of his from the 80's).

 

 

He also played Shot In The Dark from the following album which had a different sound since the synthesizers were more prominent but nobody seemed to mind. But what I really liked is that he didn't just play a couple of Sabbath songs, he played quite a lot and some of them were not what the crowd expected (eg "Fairies Wear Boots"). War Pigs was magnificent and at the end of it he declared "A very good friend of mine has recently passed away. His name was Ronnie James Dio". However, I seem to remember that he felt a lot differently  back in the 80's when Dio replaced him as lead singer of Sabbath...

 

On top of that VIP ticket holders who were at the front of the stage were awarded with several showers courtesy of Ozzy who was constantly throwing water at them. (He was also throwing water at himself, so I guess that was fair). The hero of the night must have been the roadie whose task was to refill the water bucket. And he gave a standing ovation to his Greek lead guitarist Gus G.

 

There were two tracks that I wanted to hear and he saved them for the end: Crazy Fuckin' Train and of course Paranoid. I had to wait 23 years for that last one...

 

 

 

SETLIST:   
INTRO: Carmina Burana

01. Bark at the Moon
02. Let Me Hear You Scream
03. Mr. Crowley
04. I Don't Know
05. Fairies Wear Boots
06. Suicide Solution
07. War Pigs
08. Road to Nowhere
09. Fire in the Sky
10. Into the Void
11. Shot in the Dark
12. Rat Salad (with guitar and drum solos)
13. Iron Man
14. Killer of Giants
15. Flying High Again
16. I Don't Want to Change the World
17. Crazy Train
ENCORE:
18. Mama, I'm Coming Home
19. No More Tears
20. Paranoid