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Bill Ward with Black Sabbath Back To The Beginning

JimmyM said:
I can’t believe there’s not yet a thread about Bill Ward’s triumphant return to the drum stool in Black Sabbath yesterday. SOVB started a thread about some of the other drummers, but Bill is the big story.

Had a double bass Ludwig set with Sabians. Seemed a little tight at first but loosened up enough to take his shirt off, unfortunately ;). But I really enjoyed seeing him and felt he did excellent, even if not as skilled as he used to be.

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Life has been kicking my butt for a few months, otherwise I would have made a similar post as you! haha
Yeah I watched the whole thing "in real time" or at least the 2 hour? delayed version. Way too much to say here, but I was glued to the screen the entire time. No show in history is perfect, but this one will go down in history as one of the most important rock shows ever (at least to me)
And Yes, I agree....seeing Bill playing with BS again has been arguably, underrated. (at least in the discussions from all the YT rock people)
I thought the Taylor Hawkins tribute was awesome, but Back To The Beginning might have topped it. Someone was comparing it to Live Aid and I think there's truth to that.
I'm so glad I got to see the show, even though I was watching on weird, foreign, shady, gambling sites across 15 different links provided by another music forum that kept getting taken down (by Sharon?) hahaha 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻
 
He had it when I saw them
 
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I think it was this Dan Armstrong bass (those were the drums I recall)

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Geezer with his Dan Armstrong Lucite Bass
@JimmyM

"
So the promoter had to phone around—all the shops were closed—and he knew this guy who owned a bass shop. So he went down and got this plexiglass Dan Armstrong, the only thing I could get. So that was my second bass, I adopted that. It was great, I really liked it. It was on the Master Of Reality tour after the Precision got smashed and then on the Vol4 album [1972]. Then that got stolen on the Vol4tour.

By then I'd learned to take more than one bass on tour [laughs]. Tony used to have his guitars built by John Birch at this time,"
 
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jda said:
I think it was this Dan Armstrong bass (those were the drums I recall)

View attachment 159195
Geezer with his Dan Armstrong Lucite Bass
@JimmyM

"
So the promoter had to phone around—all the shops were closed—and he knew this guy who owned a bass shop. So he went down and got this plexiglass Dan Armstrong, the only thing I could get. So that was my second bass, I adopted that. It was great, I really liked it. It was on the Master Of Reality tour after the Precision got smashed and then on the Vol4 album [1972]. Then that got stolen on the Vol4tour.

By then I'd learned to take more than one bass on tour [laughs]. Tony used to have his guitars built by John Birch at this time,"
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Meanwhile, Geezer brought three basses to play 4 songs last Saturday.

BTW, I have been using Geezer’s signature EMG pickups for 11 years and they absolutely rule.
 
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Seafroggys said:
I love how people who disagree with me automatically assume the position that I am coming from a place of ignorance and am unaware that this was standard practice for a good 5+ years on many hit records. No....uh, crap, sherlock!

(have to remember this is a G rated board for some reason)

Anyway, I know tastes and such change, and there was a lot of experimentation going on, but I think it goes without saying that this was a phase that didn't really last past the 70s, and we've never really gone back to it.

These records are good because the musicianship (and songs) were good, not necessarily because of the gear. On the topic of Bill Ward, while I love his playing on those first four albums, it isn't necessarily my favorite drum sound of the era, let alone of all time.
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Don’t get your panties in a bunch it was just “old people “ humor .
 
JimmyM said:
Meanwhile, Geezer brought three basses to play 4 songs last Saturday.

BTW, I have been using Geezer’s signature EMG pickups for 11 years and they absolutely rule.
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One was the bass built for the show, and another an identical (other than sticker color) made as a backup. The 3rd was the bass he played at the last gig played with Dio.

I've been planning to put the Geezer EMG in my daughter's short scale SX P bass... the stock one is very thin sounding and with all the set up and fret work I've done, it is a solid little bass otherwise.
 
James Hart said:
One was the bass built for the show, and another an identical (other than sticker color) made as a backup. The 3rd was the bass he played at the last gig played with Dio.

I've been planning to put the Geezer EMG in my daughter's short scale SX P bass... the stock one is very thin sounding and with all the set up and fret work I've done, it is a solid little bass otherwise.
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Sounds like a winning plan, James! But the AVFC bass was the bass he used to play Paranoid at Ozzy Sabbath’s last show on the tour they did in 2017. He had just gotten it a few days before the show and did it to tribute his hometown team.
 
JimmyM said:
Sounds like a winning plan, James! But the AVFC bass was the bass he used to play Paranoid at Ozzy Sabbath’s last show on the tour they did in 2017. He had just gotten it a few days before the show and did it to tribute his hometown team.
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Thought his tech said it was the Dio bass in an interview with Mark's kid from Ashdown. Either way, it is a history bass :)
 
James Hart said:
Thought his tech said it was the Dio bass in an interview with Mark's kid from Ashdown. Either way, it is a history bass :)
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According to the set lists posted, Dio didn’t do any Ozzy songs on their last tour at all. Which I guess was less important in 2009 than 1980.
 
JimmyM said:
According to the set lists posted, Dio didn’t do any Ozzy songs on their last tour at all. Which I guess was less important in 2009 than 1980.
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I just rewatched the Ashdown vid, he played it in Birmingham for the last show in 2017... saw something else recently about Dio, I must have blurred the info :)
 
James Hart said:
I just rewatched the Ashdown vid, he played it in Birmingham for the last show in 2017... saw something else recently about Dio, I must have blurred the info :)
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Understandable. We’re all a little blurry at this point! I only knew that because I saw Geezer’s post about that bass and the first bass he used to play Paranoid on Facebook.
 
joedrum said:
I read that this was Black Sabbath's swan song.

On a separate note I read the estranged Gallagher brothers have reunited Oasis after a very long hiatus.

...but I digress
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Lots of betting activity as to whether they'll even make it to the end of the tour without imploding again!
 
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