In case the server is down when you go to look at it, here’s the text.  I particularly like the bit where he calls out the fans for insulting Oz, Tony, & Geezer as well as the representatives.  People need to calm down.

]]> http://www.black-sabbath.com/2012/02/a-message-from-bill-ward/feed/ 0 http://www.black-sabbath.com/2012/02/tony-martin-2012/ http://www.black-sabbath.com/2012/02/tony-martin-2012/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:27:36 +0000 Joe http://www.black-sabbath.com/?p=4240 [Continue Reading]]]> Those who have followed me and this site for some time now know I’m a big fan of the band’s ENTIRE history.  Not just one part of it.  The band’s been around since 1968 in some version or another, and in all that time, there’s been about 31 people play (officially) under the banner of Black Sabbath, be it in the studio or live.   I point this out, because the era with Tony Martin as vocals doesn’t get near the attention it should.  Granted, the fact that almost all of that era’s albums are out of print doesn’t help, but still..

I wanted to draw your attention to the Tony Martin Band.  Tony this morning posted a picture on his Facebook page, and made an announcement that the Tony Martin band looks like it’s getting back into action.   Here’s what Tony posted, along with the photo.

May i inroduce the new 2012 band, Tony Martin’s Headless Cross…. Danny Needham, Geoff Nicholls, Dario Mollo, Myself, and Magnus Rosen. We have one appearance planned this year at the end of July on the east coast of England. More details to follow.

Tony’s been in need of a new solo album for awhile now.  Even if he doesn’t do that, his playing live will keep alive his era of Black Sabbath tracks – something that’s criminally missing these days.   This is pretty much the same incarnation of the band from the last time we saw them, with one exception.  The bassist is different.  The new guy is Magnus Rosen, that Tony tells me comes from the band Hammerfall.

As a side note Dario Mollo and Tony recently released the most excellent “The Third Cage” album, which if you’ve never checked out..  Well, why the frig not?   I mean, check this out:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

[ Buy in US | Buy in UK ]

Right now the 2012 incarnation of Tony’s band has just one gig scheduled later in 2012 – Tony says there’s more planned, but it all can’t be announced yet.  Given what happened last time the band tried to tour, he’s probably holding off for good reason.  I’m certainly hopeful they will do something more than just the single gig.  I’ll dream that they’ll play the US, but I’ll take the band’s existence first.  :)   And if they do tour, they need to bring back the Sabbath track, “What’s the Use?”

The interview was broken up into a few segments, with about three songs played inbetween each segment.  Here’s John’s notes from the interview:

• First Segment: They have 13 strong ideas, they are making demos, working on ideas – Geezer has been writing stuff. Tony’s on Chemo, said he’s been sick – has headaches – talked about Sharon’s cancer – said he’ll get through it – Tony went to Dr for enlarged prostate when they found other
• Second Segment: on moving sessions to UK – said “Well its Hell, we all have individual managers” talks about how great Sharon is. Back on Tony – has monster riffs for the new stuff and was working in the studio today – says it sounds heavy, doomy and low-fi but there is some rock stuff on there as well – says Rick Rubin likes the 1st Lp and it will be few overdubs
• Third Segment:  working with BS today vs solo – BS he’s part of a team, solo its his thing.  says he Geezer Tony and Bill are having a great time in the studio! (When was this recorded?!) says they goof around a bit not all work – Says he gets writers block – Tony never does – Talking about the old days they just played whatever they wanted and people took to it – Rick Rubin: greatest guy ever.
• Closing Segment:   The tour: says he has no idea – says main goal is just to make a BS album – guy presses him on the tour, says over and over he doesnt know – mentions all including Bill again at the end, says they are just doing their thing, making a BS album – he’s freaked out to be back in Birmingham, staying at a hotel there – he works out every morning, host was talking about his paintings.

Summary bits..

• They have 13 strong ideas, are in the studio working on putting the songs together.
• Tony’s on chemo, sick – but working through it
• Non-committal on tour plans, just concerned with making a Black Sabbath album.   The “non committal” thing might be why the tour dates have disappeared from the official site.
• The fact Bill was mentioned twice leads me to believe perhaps this was recorded before Bill’s FB post and they were full well expecting him to show any day at that time.

Thanks to John Swanner for sending in the notes, having listened.  I believe I read where the full interview will be replayed a few times over the next few days.  Head over to SiriusXM’s website for more details on schedules.

Anyway, in the time that’s happened since, there’s been an awful lot of reactions online.  The overwhelming majority of the reaction has been some sort of “Come on guys, get your shit together, get this worked out”.  I’ve seen the gamut of reaction from the positive to the negative – on all sides.  Those calling out the guys for not getting it settled before the 11-11-11 presser, those villifying Sharon Osbourne (which is a sadly too easy shot to take), those ragging on Bill for taking away their reunion, those calling for a 25/25/25/25 split of the pot, etc, etc, etc..

I’m not surprised at that, because for a lot of people, this will be their only chance to see Mk I Black Sabbath.  Of course, they played together a ton of times from 1999 through 2005, so it’s not like it hasn’t happened, but still.   I’ve noticed when you mix metalheads, emotion, money, and high expectations, there’s going to be a ton of how shall we say, “emotional responses”… and there’s been a lot of them online the last few days.

In the last 48 hours or so, I’ve seen a few stories in particular that make me scratch my head at the Internet in general, and it’s ability to fact check itself.  The first is that Sharon Osbourne “fired” Bill Ward, and another that the other three have replaced Bill Ward with Tommy Clufetos (from Ozzy’s solo band), or Bill Ward quit, and is refusing to come on board, etc…   Let’s look at some FACTS:

1. Bill Ward issued a statement saying that he won’t sign the contract offered to him, and isn’t with the guys as they work on the new album.
2. The next day, the other three guys issued a statement saying basically “We’re sorry Bill feels that way, but we’re gonna keep working, the door is open”.  (I’m paraphrasing).
3. Bill issued a thank you statement for the support he’s gotten from the fans.

That’s about it, folks.  Those are the only FACTS as we know them that have been released by the band.  Unless the band announces it, it’s all rumour.  I’m sorry, but I don’t deal in rumors for the most part.

Obviously, given none of us as fans are privy to the contracts involved, it’s impossible to know for sure what’s really going on.  I’ve known Bill since about 1997 when I started doing his site, and if there’s one thing he never struck me as is a liar.  Those accusations I’ve seen are fairly annoying.   I know they’ve annoyed his family, one of Bill’s sons ranted last night online about the inaccuracies of what’s been said about his dad.

My point in posting here is that we all need to take a deep breath, calm down, and for God’s sake, deal in facts, not rumor and speculation.  There’s enough crap in the world, without inventing it.  Obviously, there’s an unpleasant situation going on.  If Black Sabbath actually ANNOUNCES that they’ve replaced Bill with Tommy Clufetos, or Vinny Appice, or Lee Kerslake (har har har), then we can react.  But honestly, reacting to a news rumor story is a bit over the top, and it doesn’t help anything.

Now obviously, if Tony, Geezer, Oz (& Adam Wakeman from what I believe) are continuing to work on the new album, then someone probably has to physically sit there on drums (unless they ignore that and do a drum machine in the interim), but that’s all practical matters and facts that I suspect we’ll never hear about.   But again…. Speculation.  Not fact.

What do I think personally?   I am a bit puzzled as to why it wasn’t worked out before 11-11-11, but this really feels like 2004 again.  The same thing happened then.  It got worked out then.  I suspect it will get worked out again, but I have ZERO facts behind that.  Yes, I occasionally know things before they’re announced, but not this time.  I have no inside information on this situation, I’m just going on personal speculation here.   But I present it as such.  I do not present this as fact, it’s my own speculation and thoughts on the matter.

I want Bill back there as a fan of the band as much as anyone else.  But genuine rage and being REALLY pissed off is counterproductive.  As much as we all want this to happen, it’s ultimately just about music.  There’s more important things in life to get seriously worked up about.

Now..  Come on guys.  Get it worked out.  We want a true Mk I Reunion!  :)

UPDATE: I meant to say this when I wrote the article earlier, but I was in a hurry, and forgot.

There’s also the issue of Iommi’s cancer – it’s a huge, and massive unknown variable. If you’ve ever dealt with cancer before, you know how unpredictable it can be. Even if they resolve it with Bill, who knows what kind of condition Tony might be in. We may NOT get a full tour because of Tony’s health, too – we may yet get the tour.  It’s all up in the air at the moment.   I wonder if this has anything to do with the removal of the tour date page from the Official Black Sabbath website.

Anyway, just take it easy and ride it out.  Don’t panic.  :)

UPDATE 2: Later this afternoon, Sharon Osbourne took to Twitter to post the following text:

 I am not in any position to hire or fire anyone in Black Sabbath. I don’t manage the band, I manage my husband.

I’ve been trying to tell people that for awhile now, but so many people seem hell bent on just vilifying her first, they can’t see the reality.  Black Sabbath is not managed by one single person, and when it’s not managed by one single person, there is no arbitrary “firing” capability like that.   Sharon’s done a lot of things over the years, but I tend to buy this one.

Dear Sabbath Fans,

This is Bill. I just wanted to humbly thank you all. Your support from across the world has given me further strength and hope for a positive resolve. I have been moved and overwhelmed by the thousands of messages. I love you all.

Rock forever,

Bill

We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans…we have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open… We are still in the UK with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll… See you at Download!!!

– Tony, Ozzy and Geezer

Can’t say I’m surprised at that.  I figured they’d say SOMETHING, and they weren’t gonna say “Well, that’s it then, we’re not doing this anymore”.  So this move doesn’t surprise me in the least.   I’ve also seen a few comments as to why they chose to respond like this, and especially the mention of Facebook.   A few thoughts come to mind about this..

• I’ve seen a few posts from people wondering why they issued the statement, and they didn’t just try to “work it out” behind the scenes.  Bill Ward did issue the statement on his website and on Facebook himself.   Given Bill did that, it seems logical that they’d respond in kind.  That doesn’t surprise me, really.
• As I’ve pointed out a few times in the last 24 hours, this feels like 2004 again.  My gut feeling is that this will get worked out in the end, but I have no facts regarding any of this.
• Yes, I do Bill Ward’s website for him, but I had no prior knowledge of this than the rest of the Internet did except for maybe five minutes when his manager asked me if I’d post something for him and my actual posting of it.  Despite my being involved with Bill since around 1997′ish, I have no idea what’s going on here, and have ZERO inside knowledge.  The contractual situation with the Sabs is not info I’ve asked about, nor would they share with me – so I’m about as much in the dark on this one as anyone else is.

Hopefully this all gets worked out.  Because if they don’t, I’m gonna have to update my timeline page with another bloody combination.  Sigh.

Los Angeles, CA – February 2, 2012

Dear Sabbath Fans, Fellow Musicians and Interested Parties,

At this time, I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a “signable” contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band. Last year, I worked diligently in good faith with Tony, Ozzy and Geezer. And on 11/11/11, again in good faith, I participated in the L.A. press conference. Several days ago, after nearly a year of trying to negotiate, another “unsignable” contract was handed to me.

Let me say that although this has put me in some kind of holding pattern, I am packed and ready to leave the U.S. for England. More importantly, I definitely want to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath.

Since the news of Tony’s illness, and the understanding that the band would move production to the U.K., I’ve spent everyday getting to or living in a place of readiness to leave. That involves something of a task, and as I’ve tried to find out what’s going on with the U.K. sessions, I’ve realized that I’ve been getting “the cold shoulder” (and, I might add, not for the first time). Feeling somewhat ostracized, my guess is as of today, I will know nothing of what’shappening unless I sign “the unsignable contract.”

The place I’m in feels lousy and lonely because as much as I want to play and participate, I also have to stand for something and not sign on. If I sign as-is, I stand to lose my rights, dignity and respectability as a rock musician. I believe in freedom and freedom of speech. I grew up in a hard rock/metal band. We stood for something then, and we played from the heart with honesty and sincerity. I am in the spirit of integrity, far from the corporate malady, I am real and honest, fair and compassionate.

If I’m replaced, I have to face you, the beloved Sabbath fans. I hope you will not hold me responsible for the failure of an original Black Sabbath lineup as promoted. Without fault finding, I want to assure everyone that my loyalty to Sabbath is intact.

So here I am. I lay my truth down before you. I’m good to go IF I get a “signable” contract. I don’t want to let anyone down, especially Black Sabbath and all the Sabbath fans. You know I love you. It would be a sad day in Rock if this current situation fell to the desires of a few.

My position is not greed-driven. I’m not holding out for a “big piece” of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal. I’d like something that recognizes and is reflective of my contributions to the band, including the reunions that started fourteen years ago. After the last tour I vowed to never again sign on to an unreasonable contract. I want a contract that shows some respect to me and my family, a contract that will honor all that I’ve brought to Black Sabbath since its beginning.

That’s the story so far.

Stay safe and stay strong.

I love every single one of you.

–Bill Ward

That’s because the remastering work was handled by Andy Pearce. Andy handled all the Black Sabbath remasters in the Universal remaster series from 2009-2011. So that’s a good thing. There is of course, the “second discs” (details below), and an expanded booklet with new notes, photos, and all of that stuff you’ve come to expect from this series. The releases have been endorsed by Wendy Dio, as well.

A few administrative type notes, since I know I’m gonna get asked about this:

• These are being released World wide, except for North America. That is because Warner Bros holds the rights to that material in the US/North America. Since these are being released by Universal, if you want ‘em in the states, you have to pay import prices, or order it from the UK or somewhere yourself. If you’re in the US, it’s actually cheaper to buy ‘em from Amazon UK and pay their shipping than it is to buy ‘em from the Amazon US store.
• I asked if they were going to do more Dio studio albums after these, and was told “only these for now”, which I’m not entirely sure means they’re only planning these three, or the others are later or what. Either way, we should enjoy these.

For a lot of people, the big deal will be the bonus disc. Below I will detail the materials on each of the releases. Fans of the Dio EP Intermission will be pleased with this. Additionally, you can click on any of the cover art thumbnails for a much larger version.

Holy Diver

Ordering Links: [ Amazon US | Amazon UK ]

Disc 1

It’s the album we know, remastered by Andy Pearce. Same track listing as the original album.

Disc 2

Disc 2 has a ton of live tracks, and one studio track.   Here’s the Holy Diver Disc 2 Track Listing:

1. Evil Eyes – studio recording, different than version Last in Line.  Originally appeared on B-Side to Holy Diver single.
2. Stand Up & Shout – B-Side, Rainbow in the Dark
3. Straight Through the Heart - B-Side, Rainbow in the Dark
4. Stand Up & Shout – Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983
5. Shame on the Night - Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983
6. Children of the Sea - Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983
7. Holy Diver - Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983
8. Rainbow in the Dark - Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983
9. Man on the Silver Mountain - Live, King Biscuit Flower Hour – Oct 30, 1983

The Last in Line

Ordering Links: [ Amazon US | Amazon UK ]

Disc 1

It’s the album we know, remastered by Andy Pearce. Same track listing as the original.

Disc 2

Disc 2 is all live tracks, taken from B Sides and from a Festival appearance. The source of the various tracks are noted in the track listing below:

1. Stand Up & Shout – Live B-Side from Last in Line Single
2. Straight Through the Heart – Live B-Side from Last in Line Single
3. Eat Your Heart Out – Live from Mystery Single
4. Don’t Talk to Strangers- Live from Mystery Single
5. Holy Diver - Live B-Side from We Rock Single
6. Rainbow in the Dark – Live B-Side from We Rock Single
7. One Night in the City – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
8. We Rock – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
9. Holy Diver – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
10. Stargazer – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
11. Heaven & Hell – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
12. Rainbow in the Dark – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
13. Man on the Silver Mountain – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen
14. Don’t Talk to Strangers – Live, Pinkpop Festival, Geleen

Greetings Earth people, 

Today [Jan19th] we got the engines back up and running @ Tony’s home studio. Far from being down and depressed about his lymphoma diagnosis, Tony had already written the music for two new songs, and I must say it has given us all a kick up the rump- it’s great to hear him churning out those riffs again, assuaging the Demon C. Takes more than that to stop Tony. Can’t wait for you all to hear our workings, it has been great working on this stuff. 

I want to thank the lovely encouraging emails sent to this site giving Tony love and encouragement and great vibes. It really does help, not only Tony, but us as a band- it raises up our spirits and restores our faith in this tarnished world. Sabb fans are good people, time and again you have proven your faith in us and boosted our endeavour. 

Thanks, love, peace. 

Geezer

I’ve been a CD collector for longer than I’ve been doing this site. Got my first CD in 1984 (Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA). I actually didn’t get my first CD player until a Christmas present in 1987. The first CD I bought after getting a player for Christmas was Black Sabbath’s “Eternal Idol” album. Since then, my CD collection has grown rather a lot. Over the years, I’ve had a few purges, where I sell them off, but I still have a pretty sizable collection. If I never purged, I’d probably have double what I have now.

Some years ago I made this series of pages, where I catalogued my CD collection. An old friend of mine (Hi Baskinator) suggested that. It was cool, but a pain, since it was all manually created (again, hello Frontpage!). I upped the ante a bit later on and made it a blog in Movable Type. That worked well, the automation was nice, but it was still lacking the level of detail I was wanting to put in there.

So I started looking around for software that could do this. I happened upon an ad banner for the Collectorz.com music catalog software. They actually have several pieces of software, ones for music, movies, books, videogames.. But in this case I was interested in music. So I grabbed the demo to check out. I was quite pleased with the stuff. I immediately purchased it, and set upon putting my CD collection in there.

This is one of those pieces of software that’s brilliant and shallow at the same time. What I mean by that is that you can go simple, and just catalog your CD’s, and that’s it. But the depth of information available for entry is just staggering. If you want to be that deep, you can. It’s actually beyond my level of “data anality” <g>, but obviously someone will go that far, because it’s in there. Here’s what I mean.  Look at this screen capture of the entry for the recent Deluxe Edition version of the Heaven & Hell album from my collection, and then I’m gonna delve into some of the features of this software…

As you can see, pretty basic catalogue information.  Album, cover art, track listing.  But that’s about the end of “shallow”.    Take a look at the first page of album detail for this.

Just on this page, you can see a level of detail that goes way beyond what I’ve run into in other cataloging software.  Just about every list can be customized with your own data.  The software can handle the concept of Wish Lists – stuff you want but don’t have.  It also has a “Not in Collection” option, which I use for things I sold and no longer have.  That way you can have a record of what you got rid of.  Wish I had that feature years ago.  You can get down to individual track listings with customization.  Each track can have its’ own data – That’s especially useful if you’re talking about a compilation and it’s all different artists.  There’s lyrics, you can link to audio files and play them from the program.    There’s also a lot of personal information you can put in here too.  Check out this screen.

This all reminds me, this program is not just for Compact Discs – this program catalogs mp3/m4a/whatever (just not iTunes old DRM files).  Which is cool in this day when more purchases are digital, and not physical media.    I still prefer physical media myself.

Which brings up another thing.  The way you get data into the program.  You can either manually enter it (ugh), or use the databases out there.  You can scan a barcode (if you have a scanner that can do that), or you can enter the UPC code.  The folks who run this software maintain a pretty good back end database of CD data to use when populating entries.  Goes way beyond simple Gracenote track listings.  However, the way I found that works best is to physically put the CD in the drive, and it will scan it, grab the CDID#, and match from THAT.  That way you can get your precise version (if they have it ).  This is useful when there’s something that has been pressed on CD a ton of times, and you want YOUR version, not that one from 10 years previous.   I prefer that method of data entry, although I’ve used ‘em all.

Once you get your data in there, you can do some cool reporting, provided you bothered to populate your entries with the right info.  For example,  it should be pretty obvious who I have the most CD’s from by band name.  Look at this chart.

It shows you in a bar chart (or a pie chart if you want) who the most purchased artists are.  But you can sort any data field that way.  Going down to recording studio, release year, composer, genre, conductor, record label..  You name it, it can be reported on.  But again, if you don’t bother to fill out the data, you’re gonna get some strange reports.  Look at this pie chart.   Shows you which is the most purchased CD for me by “record label”.  Other is winning that one by a wide margin.  :)

The depth of information possible in this software is staggering.   If you want to read more about the features and the data and all that, head over to the CLZ Music site, where you can read a lot more.

But that’s just half of it.  Once you have them all in there, what do you do with it?   In this day and age, you share it!  Nobody keeps anything to themselves anymore, so the CLZ guys came up with an online place to share your collection.  It’s called “Collectorz Connect”.  Basically it’s a web interface for their catalog, showing what you have.  There’s a sync button, it will upload changes, and then you can show it to the world.    The online collection doesn’t use the staggering level of detail in the local database.  It is less detailed.  Here, take a look at the entry for the Heaven & Hell Deluxe Edition in my collection.  You’ll see it has the basic information, and not a whole lot else.  I have some sort of comment for almost every CD/album in my collection, and those personalized notes are here.  But for the most part the online connect site uses their database.  It makes sense, you don’t need every bloody user uploading their own individual version of Dark Side of the Moon, eh?  :)   It’s definitely a cool way to share your database with others.  But it’s an option.  You don’t have to use that.   Also, if you want, go and view my entire collection.  Laugh at some of the entries.  Go ahead.  I don’t mind.  :)

These folks make similar cataloging software for other things, too.  Movies, Books, Comic Books, Videogames, mp3s, & a photo collector.   I bought and use the music & movies ones.   The movies one is mostly a DVD collection, but you can use it for things like digital video, too.  If you want to see my DVD collection, head on over here.  Remember – I have a six year old daughter.  That explains some of the entries.  :)

I can’t say how much fun this is for me.  I’ve entered all my CD’s & DVD’s/BluRays into this system, and I like the organization of it.  It speaks to my need to keep data in order.  It might seem weird to some people to ENJOY this kind of data structure.  But I know I do.  Even if you don’t want to fill out every last data field (and good Lord, there’s a ton), it still helps keeps things together.  They also have iPhone & iPad apps to help you access your collection on the go.  They have scanner apps, check it all out at their site.

I really love this software, and when I was putting the site together, I thought about how I could run some promotions.  The contest giveaways are a usual item here, but I wanted to do something with this software, mostly because I’m personally a fan of it.  Not like some places that are paid to push things.  I really honestly use this stuff, and paid for it out of my own pocket.  So I contacted the folks at CLZ and told them what I had in mind.  Said I’d write a review on the software, and they were quite gracious to extend an offer to you, the site visitor here.  Through February 1st, 2012, if you order CLZ Music through them, you can get $10 off with the coupon code CLZPARANOID.  Just order the software, and when you check out, use the coupon code for your discount.   You can go grab a free trial version now to check out – click the banner image below.  But if you decide to buy, do so by Feb 1st, and you’ll get $10 off your purchase using that special coupon code.

Thanks a ton to Sytske & Alwin for graciously allowing my site visitors a discount.  Hope I send you a few customers!  You can read more about the people behind the software on this page.

Admin Note: One of the things I intend on doing with this new version of the software, is write more music articles on my own.  Not strictly Black Sabbath “news”, but items of interest.  Hence the category “From Joe’s Mind”.    I’m leading off this concept with this review.