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0
- Unknown 1968 to January 1969
- Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
(Official) albums from
this lineup:
Tony Iommi & Bill Ward
were in a band called Mythology (which played it's last gig on Sat Jul
13, 1968), and Geezer Butler with Ozzy were in a band called Rare
Breed. Long story short, these groups broke up and the lads
hooked up in 1968 to form a new band called The Polka Tulk Blues Band.
(Might have also been called The Polka Tulk Electric Blues Band, but
I'm not sure on that.)
During this time of the
band's history, they had a few names. They were known as the
Polka Tulk Blues Band (at some point then, they were a six piece band,
too), then just Polka Tulk, and the name that most
people tend to associate them with in the 60's, Earth. Sabbath
played a lot of blues back then, and did the club circuit thing while
touring as Earth. That led to one of the most well known stories
from this era.. Apparently, there was another band touring
England with the name of Earth as well, and that led to a club booking
"Black Sabbath Earth" when they meant to book the other band, which
played music that was NOTHING like our lads play. Led to a very
confused band and audience. It was from that gig that led the
band to change their name to something that would definitely NOT be
confused with something else, hence the name Black Sabbath was born.
Legend has it that Geezer
Butler picked the name of the band after seeing it on a movie theatre
marquee, thinking it sounded doomy & gloomy - that kind of thing.
(I'm paraphrasing there). Seems to have worked, given the
following they've had over the years.
This is a picture of the
lads as Earth back in 1968. Thanks to Joe D'Agostino for
permission to use the picture.

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I
- January 1969 to September 1977

- Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar,
Keyboards
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Rick Wakeman - Keyboards
(not a full member of band)
- Jezz Woodruffe - Keyboards
(not a full member of band)
(Official) albums from
this lineup:
Keyboard duties were
uncredited during this era. Before Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath it's
generally unknown who played keyboards, although I've heard some
stories that Tony Iommi played keyboards on Volume 4's Changes. Rick
Wakeman played on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Jezz Woodruffe played
after that (from May 1975) until the end of the Technical Ecstasy Tour. The trials and
tribulations of the original lineup are well documented (so well that
a lot of people mistakenly believe that Sabbath ended in 1979), so I
won't repeat them here. However, I'll list some of the more notable
things here.

Before
the band recorded their first album, and after they had taken the
moniker of Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi quit the band briefly to play
with Jethro Tull. He only lasted 2 weeks, and came back to Sabbath.
During his time in Tull, he did "play live" once, and a recording of
this exists on the Archangel bootleg, and on the Rolling Stones
"Rock & Roll Circus" video (however, it really
wasn't Tony "playing", he was just miming). The musical
contributions of the original lineup of Black Sabbath to the music
world are legendary. The albums they produced during this time still
hold up with today's music, and should be required listening for
everyone who has a CD player. :)
Additionally, There were
a few demos recorded in 1969 that have yet to surface (completely) in the collector's
circles. They are "A Song for Jim", "The
Rebel", and "When I Came Down". Short samples of the
first two of these are on the Sabbath
Story Volume 1 & 2 videos. Do you have the full versions? I want to hear from you.
Now. I've also heard through the grapevine that the album
that we all know as Sabbath's "first album" (aka Black Sabbath) isn't
really their first album, that they recorded an album before that
(which is where Rebel & Song for Jim come from), but it was
jettisoned. However, until I can actually get some concrete
proof, I'm not ready to revise the discography. :) Also in
2005, an alternate version of the first Black Sabbath album turned
up in collector's circles. It doesn't have any new songs, but
does have some alternate takes of various songs, and is an
interesting footnote in Sabbath history.
Yes, I know there's not a
lot written about the original Black Sabbath on this page, but hey - that story has
been told over and over again - I don't really need to recant my
version of it here, I think. :) You're better off checking
out the book "How Black Was Our Sabbath" by David Tangye & Gram
Wright. It's by far one of the best accountings of the 60's/70's
era Black Sabbath that I've ever read. (US/UK
order links)
Recently, I was forwarded an
email message from Jezz Woodruffe, keyboardist for the Technical
Ecstasy album and tour. Here's what Jezz had to say about his
time in the band...
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II
- October 1977 to January 1978
- Dave
Walker - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Don Airey - Keyboards (not
listed as full member)
Albums from this
lineup:
Ozzy left Black Sabbath in
October of 1977 to try and form the first incarnation of "Blizzard of
Ozz". Needing a new vocalist, Tony
Iommi remembered Dave Walker from their old Birmingham days and
contacted him in San Francisco to ask him to come out to join Black
Sabbath. On the flight from San Francisco to London in November 1977
and for the next three weeks, Walker had written lyrics to music the
rest of Black Sabbath (Iommi on guitar, Terry "Geezer" Butler on bass
and drummer Bill Ward) had put together for their next album (though
no Walker vocals had been recorded) and they, along with Walker,
appeared on the BBC Midlands TV program called "Look Hear" performing
what turned out to be an early draft of "Junior’s
Eyes" on January 6, 1978. I'm not entirely sure what he did
immediately after his exit from Black Sabbath, but I recently got
reports that he rejoined Savoy Brown and recorded three albums with
them from 1988-1990.
One time I was talking to
Bill Ward about this time of the band's history, and Bill Ward had
this to say about the Dave Walker era Black Sabbath...
"No, these were not the very best of times. I was pretty much numb at
that time period. Ozzy’s father Jack had died, and we were making I
guess slow progress on the album. Juniors’ Eyes was a song very much
for Oz and his dad. I mention that only because it was a song we did
live at a lunchtime BBC show in Birmingham with Dave Walker. I have
forgotten what else we did with Dave on that show, I’m pretty sure we
did Juniors’ Eyes though, and of course it didn’t work. Not because of
Dave, because the song was Ozzy’s as far as I was concerned. I felt
crap at that time while Oz was away. If I sound vague, I am vague and
very foggy about back then. We all liked Dave Walker as a mate so to
speak. We got to know him when he fronted with Savoy Brown, and
earlier when Dave played in the Redcaps, an early Birmingham band,
from 60s. I liked Dave a lot, and I thought he had a great voice. When
it came time to choose another singer all kinds of names came up, but
Dave’s stayed. So, Dave flew in from Frisco to Field Farm, where we
got on with rehearsals. Oddly enough, it was me who let Dave know that
things were not working out, “I volunteered again.” I felt awkward and
uncomfortable telling Dave this, as I liked him as a person very much.
When Oz started back at rehearsals everything felt normal again, even
though I was buried in a bottle, with Oz there it was right. We went
on to complete Never Say Die and the Never Say Die tour. It’s all
quite sad to recall actually."

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Ia
- January 1978 to Early 1979
- Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Don Airey - Keyboards (not
listed as full member)
Albums from this
lineup:
Shortly
after the appearance with Dave Walker on television, Ozzy rejoined the
band so Dave Walker was dismissed. None of the lyrics Walker had
written for the Never Say Die album were used as Osbourne preferred to
use other lyrics. One track on the resulting album called
"Swinging the Chain" was sung by Bill Ward instead of Osbourne and
another tune called "Breakout" ended up being an instrumental when it
wasn't originally planned to be such.
This album gets a lot of
negative press, and I've never personally understood that. Even
Ozzy once said Never Say Die was the "biggest piece of shit I was ever
on". I think NSD has some killer riffs (Never Say Die, Johnny
Blade), and some great musical experimentation (Air Dance). I was
too young to see them on tour (was 13), although I would have liked to -
even given the long standing story about how Van Halen blew 'em off the
stage every night.
The last date on the
Never Say Die tour was December 11, 1978, and Ronnie Dio didn't come
on board until around March 1979, so sometime in early 1979 is most
likely when Ozzy was "fired". The picture below has always been a source of discussion about where Ozzy's loyalties lie, as it said "Blizzard of Ozz". Course that's retroactive thinking, it could just not mean anything. But still... :) |
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III
- Mid 1979 to August 17, 1980
- Ronnie
James Dio - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
Depending on who you talk
to, Ozzy was either fired, asked to leave, or just quit. There's too
many conflicting stories about his departure. However it's spun,
it obviously wasn't working anymore, and Ozzy's heart didn't seem in
it (having already quit and returned in 77/78). Bill Ward has
said over the years that it was he who "informed" Ozzy that he
wasn't in the band anymore.
Also, for a brief time
before Dio joined the band, Geezer left, too. During that time, Geoff
Nicholls (ex-Quartz) was brought in to play bass. Via email,
Geoff told me he actually started on July 17, 1979. Now when
Ronnie came onboard, Geezer left, I don't have dates for. It's
kind of a hazy grey area in the Summer/Fall of 1979. Hopefully
I'll get some real dates on all this eventually.
Seometime towards the back
end of the album's production, Geezer
returned. When that happened, Geoff moved over to keyboards, and stayed there for a very
long time (till sometime in 2004). Also, at some point during Geezer's departure, Craig Gruber
(ex-Rainbow) was "used" (source was an interview
with Tony Iommi that is on this web site). How much input or what
Craig did is generally unknown. There was also an unfounded rumour
that Craig Gruber actually plays bass on the Heaven & Hell album, and
it's not Geezer Butler, but I've never turned up anything substantial
regarding this, so it will stay a "legend", I think. :)
Geezer didn't return until late in the sessions - as the story goes the
only song he actually had a hand in writing was "Neon Knights, the final
song recorded/written for the album. The main bass line for the
title track was written by Geoff Nicholls, apparently. Hell of a
start with the band, eh? :)
The band actually got on
well (at least at this point, anyway), and the inclusion of Ronnie James Dio seemed to respark what had
become a lazy, tired band. However, it wasn't to last all that
long, unfortunately - although we did get a totally
spectacular album out of this version of the band.
One other thing.
Geoff Nicholls is credited with keyboards on everything Black Sabbath
releases from this point through 1998's Reunion album. However, he's rarely ever
actually listed as an "official" member of the band, even
though he played rhythm guitar, and handled background vocals too
over the years.
Astute readers of my page have pointed out that I have some odd
combination choices in 1987, so why don't do it the same thing here with
the early days of the Heaven & Hell period? Problem is that the
timeframes for most of that stuff is unknown (Geezer's departure/return,
Craig Gruber, Nicholls on bass, etc...) If I ever find out details
on that level, I'll revise, but for now I'll go with what I have.

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IV
- August 31, 1980 to October 1982
- Ronnie
James Dio - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Vinny Appice - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
Bill Ward left the tour
in August, right before a Hawaii gig, for a couple of reasons. His
drinking and depression are his publicly stated claims (source was
the Sabbath Story Volume 2 video). Bill had also lost both his parents in
a short period of time not long before this. The tour was postponed
until a replacement could be brought in. Bill's replacement was
ex-Axis drummer Vinny Appice. Vinny finishes the Heaven & Hell
tour, and records the following album Mob Rules, as well as plays the
entire tour for that, which was recorded for the Dec 82 release, Live
Evil.
Ronnie & Vinny leave to form Dio at the end of 1982. Again,
depending on who you talk to, it's a different story as to why they
left. Seems it boils down to personalities. There is also the publicly
stated claim of Ronnie "sneaking into the studio to
mix up the vocals, and the bass and drums down". Around the time
of the Dehumanizer album, the guys say that this claim was "never
exactly true". Why the band split apart has always
been a mystery to me. Granted, that could be the naive opinion of
a young Sabbath fan at the time wondering why his band split up.
:)
On a personal note, it
was around this time that I discovered Black Sabbath. It was
during 1982 when I saw the cover art for Mob Rules in a magazine,
thought it was kick ass, and went to the record store to buy it.
I was curious as to what kind of music would go with album cover art
like that.
Heard the opening riff for Turn up the Night, and I was hooked
forever! The second album I bought was Paranoid (totally
at random). I didn't even know Sabbath had another singer
then, so it was quite a surprise not to hear Dio when I put on
Paranoid. By the end of that week, I had all the Sabbath
albums. :) I'm sure I would have discovered Sabbath anyway,
but I thank Greg Hildebrant for his artwork which got my attention.


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V
- December 1982 to Spring 1983
- Ian Gillan - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
After Dio splits, another
singer is needed. After a short search, Ian
Gillan of Deep Purple is brought in for vocals, and Bill Ward is also
brought back to play drums. Some years later, Ian Gillan states the
only reason he did Sabbath was money. There were interviews
given over the years that seem to indicate that this lineup of the
band was put together over some drinks in a pub, and then when they
sobered up, it was like "Oh shit - we have to do
this".
Also, there was a story
about the rather hideous album cover for Born Again - Sabbath were being
managed by Don Arden (Sharon's Osbourne's dad, ironically) at the time, and word has it that
he had the cover drawn up, knowing it was bad, and sent it to the band
(because he didn't give a shit about Sabbath). However, Tony
liked it, and picked it. Don't know how true that story is,
though. I also have a story online here from Steve Joule on the
Born Again page, the man who
actually drew the Born Again cover art. It's definitely worth
reading.
Unfortunately, Sabbath
seems to have forgotten this era, which is a shame, as Born Again was
an excellent album. The only post Born Again tour to have any material
from Born Again was the Seventh Star tour, when they played a few bars
from Zero the Hero. Ian Gillan released a solo album in 2006
called "Gillan's
Inn" which was to celebrate his 40th anniversary in the
industry. On the album is a new recording of Trashed which
Tony Iommi plays on. Also in late 2004, a demo tape from the
Born Again sessions turned up online. This version does seem
to sound cleaner (referencing the fact that Ian Gillan talking about
the horrible mix on the released version). But it is novel for
the reason that there's a completely new track there which isn't on
the released version called "The Fallen". For a more
comprehensive review of this demo recording check out
this page over at sabbathlive.com. Around the time of Born
Again's release, there was an interview with Geezer Butler where he
references a track called "Death Warmed Up", but whether this is a
real track, or a work in progress name for something else is
unknown.


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VI
- Spring 1983 to February 1984
- Ian Gillan - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bev Bevan - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
Bev Bevan is brought in
to replace Bill Ward for the Born Again Tour. Bill's general health
and well being was still not up to par, and he was not able to tour
with the band, mostly due to alcohol addiction. Bill has
stated in interviews over the years that Born Again was the first
sober album he ever recorded, and he was trying to stay that way.
He apparently had a weakness for drinking on airplanes, and the
thought about going out on the road and touring sober was too
frightening for him, and he went back on the sauce, and had to go
home because he got too sick to tour.
Bev is also from Birmingham, and grew up around
Sabbath, so they were "friends from back home". This is the tour that featured the Spinal-Tap spoofed
Stonehenge stage. This lineup lasted the entire tour, but not long
after it. Ian does some great renditions of Sabbath classics on
stage - he has a wonderful scream for the song Black Sabbath, as well
as Iron Man.
On tour, Black Sabbath
was playing the Purple staple Smoke on the Water as the first encore
song. There was a rumour that Sabbath was going to play ELO's Evil
Woman on tour, but to my knowledge, it never happened. Also at a
few gigs, Sabbath played the old song "Apache" by the Shadows.


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Spring 1984
- Ron Keel - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
At the end of the Born
Again tour, Ian Gillan leaves to go reform Deep Purple. Ian's stated
reason at the end of the Born Again tour was "vocal
chord problems", but the fact that he immediately did the Purple gig
tends to discount that. Bev also splits, to go work on the ELO II
project. During this time, Bill Ward is coaxed back yet again after
getting healthy while Sabbath was on tour for Born Again and the
search is on again for a new singer.
Black Sabbath was to work
with producer Spencer Proffer at this time, having come off the wildly
sucessful album "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot. Proffer's choice of
vocalist for the album was American singer Ron Keel. Apparently
Proffer had worked up a demo tape of songs with Ron Keel on it and
presented this to Tony. Apparently this material wasn't up to
snuff to the Sabs, so the relationship soured between Sabbath and
Proffer, and both he and Keen went shortly after this. Since this
didn't progress past the demo stage, I don't count this as an "official
lineup".
Here's
some text from Ron Keel about his involvement with Sabbath...
"I had been doing the
KEEL demos at Pasha in Hollywood, which was owned by Quiet Riot
producer Spencer Proffer. Quiet Riot had just sold ten million records
and Spencer was the hot producer, and he was set to do the next
Sabbath album. Ian Gillian had just quit and Spencer heard the KEEL
demos, hooked me up with Tony and Geezer, and I demoed some of the
material that Spencer wanted them to record and we hung out for a few
days plotting the future (basically Tony and Geezer wishing they could
get Ozzy back). MTV, radio, everybody announced that Ron Keel was the
new singer in Sabbath, but something went sour in their deal with
Spencer Proffer and I went with it. They went through a bunch of other
singers, but all they really wanted was Ozzy. I know for a fact that
no singer, including me, was ever "in" Black Sabbath except Ozzy
Osbourne."
VII
- Summer 1984 to January 1985
- Dave "Donut"
Donato - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
For the longest time, I was
always under the impression that Dave Donato was a minor blip in the
band's history. There was a long standing statement that I helped
push for a long time about "Dave apparently gives a very horrible
interview in Kerrang, and is fired because of it." - In late 2005 I
found new information which shows that my knowledge of the era had the
emphasis in the wrong places. The angle of my understanding was
that Donato was there for a relatively short period of time (which in
the overall scheme of things is accurate, I suppose), but it turns out
here was there for longer than I thought (which was just a few weeks).
In all Donato was involved
in the band from a writing and rehearsing standpoint for about six
months apparently. When that six months started and when it ended
I'm unclear on. There is some extreme detail as to what
happened in terms of demoing, the pictures I used here on this page, how
it fell apart, etc, etc, etc on the Rockdetector site
here. You'll definitely want to read that.
In early 2006, a recording from the
Dave Donato sessions turned up online.
Click here to hear a
song the Donato Sabbath recorded called "No Way Out", which musically is
the song "The Shining" (with different lyrics) that turned up on 1987's
'Eternal Idol' album. This appears to have been removed
from the site as of March 2007.
Also, the reason he's
referred to as "Donut" here is an interview Bill Ward gave where he
talked about Donato turning up to rehearsals and that he loved to eat
donuts during rehearsals.

GEEZER GOES:
After the band with Donato
fell apart, feeling
disgusted and quoted as being "sick of it all", Geezer Butler
quits
to work on a solo project. Geezer did play some gigs around the
UK for awhile under the moniker of "The Geezer Butler Band". This
incarnation of Geezer's solo
project never recorded, but some live tapes do exist. This is not to
be confused with the G//Z/R project of Geezer's from 1995.
Thing is there were several
attempts by Geezer to do a solo band in the mid 80's. Some of them
recorded, some didn't - I'm very unclear as to how many there were, but
there was definitely more than one of them. One involved
Carl Sentance. This version band did record, although nothing was formally released save for a
track on Geezer's
site in 2005, and some on
Carl's
site. An interesting side note to Geezer's mid 80's solo work
- he also got involved with David Donato there, too. David
apparently did some writing with Geezer outside of Sabbath.
You can tell this is from
the mid 80's - look at this picture, which is from the Carl Sentance
variant of the 80's GBB. Oh, the hair! :)

BILL WARD GOES:
Also at this time Bill Ward
left again. However, in an interview, Bill claims that when he
left after recording Born Again, he was drunk. Leaving after
this brief time, he left sober, which was important to him. He
also had left after coming back, and then telling Geezer & Tony, "This
isn't Black Sabbath, I've got to go".
Not much is known about what he did during this
time, and there were rumours that Bill was homeless and on the streets
of Los Angeles, too.
BAND
INACTIVE FROM MID 1984 to JAN 1985
Sabbath is more or less put on ice at this time until Iommi is
forced by record company pressure to make his 1986 solo album a Sabbath
album (see Lineup #8 for more info on this.) After the mid 84 attempt
to bring another singer into the band (Dave Donato, Ron Keel, etc..)
the band more or less "breaks up". I say that because
there was never an official
announcement of a disbanding or a breakup, but this is the opinion
that some fans have - at least the ones that still knew Sabbath
existed, anyway.
It was at some point in
this time that Tony Iommi bought up the legal rights to the name Black
Sabbath. Now I'm no legal expert, and I'm not privy to the
contracts of the various members up until this point, but I would
imagine that the original Sabs owned the name, and with the band
seemingly dead and gone at this point around 1985, there probably wasn't
any consideration to Tony owning it, figuring it was dead.
An article in a 1986
Kerrang said something like (I'm paraphrasing from memory) "Iommi
didn't want the Black Sabbath name to die, and bought up the rights
to it from the other original Sabbath members" (which is ironic,
considering the record label forced the Iommi solo album Seventh
Star to be a Sabbath album). The upshot of this is that now
that Tony owns all legal rights to the name Black Sabbath, no one
can put together a version of Black Sabbath without his permission.
There's been a lot of fan
speculation that the 1997 and forward time when Oz returned came with a
caveat that Oz partly owned the name Black Sabbath again. I
decided to check into this myself, and in the Summer of 2006, I emailed
Tony Iommi's representatives and asked them about this situation.
I was told my knowledge of the situation is correct. Tony Iommi is
still the sole "owner" of Black Sabbath in 2006, and there were no
"deals" made regarding ownership with anyone else for any other reason.
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January
1985 to May 1985 - Disputed Lineup
- Jeff Fenholt - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Gordon Copley - Bass
- Eric Singer - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
As if all the 1984 stuff
wasn't confusing enough, we now come to Jeff Fenholt. Before you read
this part, understand that I do not consider Jeff Fenholt to be a
member of Black Sabbath. Read all of this, and you'll understand
why it's listed here at all.
Jeff's
part in the history of Black Sabbath is in dispute. The Black Sabbath
camp has said that Fenholt merely "tried out" for the part. Jeff says
that he was in the band for about 7 months, worked on the Seventh Star
album, and is uncredited for co-writing some of the stuff on the
album, including No Stranger to Love. If you'd like to read Jeff's
side of things,
click here. I have requested that the Fenholt camp release a
picture of him with the band so that we can have some proof, but as of
yet, I have not received a response to this specific request. The
general consensus is that Fenholt wasn't really part of the band, but
is making this up to "push his cause". If I get an answer or a
resolution from either side on this, I will update this section with
that info. However, I'm not holding my breath, I don't suggest you do,
either. :)
However, other info about
this time is more secure. Tony Iommi was briefly engaged to be married
to Lita Ford during this time, and because of this (I would assume)
when Iommi started working on a solo project (what became The Seventh
Star) he used Eric Singer and Gordon Copley from Lita's band. When
Lita went to go back out on the road in the fall of 1985, Gordon left
the band to go with her, while Eric stayed. Gordon does appear on the
final version of Seventh Star on the track No Stranger To Love,
though.
There is a bootleg
floating around with Seventh Star music on it (called "Star of India"), but with different
lyrics sung by Jeff Fenholt. I've heard it, and it is definitely
Seventh Star music in an early form, but with different lyrics. I've
never been able to
formally get any kind of official confirmation from anyone as
to the sources of this recording (I don't think I ever will).
However, I believe it's a recording of Fenholt's audition to work with
Tony when Tony was working on his solo album back in 1985 (the album
eventually became Seventh Star). I've also been told that the
Fenholt audition tape shows the reason Jeff wasn't hired, which was
his inability to come up with lyrics on the fly. If you'd heard
it, you'd know what I mean by that.
This part of the band's
history is also kind of weird insofar as Sabbath didn't officially
exist as "Black Sabbath" and is the main driving force
behind my belief that Fenholt was never in Sabbath proper. During this time, the album being
worked on was officially going to be a Tony Iommi solo album.
From this point of view, it could be construed that even if Fenholt
had gotten the gig (which he didn't), was not officially part of Black
Sabbath, since this time is generally regarded as Iommi solo project
time, and that Sabbath proper wasn't reborn until SIGNIFICANTLY
later on in the project when record company pressure forced Iommi to
call this a Black Sabbath album, and not a Tony Iommi solo album.
Just for a second, assume
that Fenholt was working with Iommi (which everyone I have spoken to
or emailed about this issue says he wasn't), but assume he was for a
second. Black Sabbath didn't exist during this time period, and
even if Fenholt was involved, it wasn't Black
Sabbath, so his claim of being a former Black Sabbath vocalist is
doubly inaccurate.
Please note that I do not consider Jeff Fenholt a member of Black
Sabbath!! I've gotten several messages asking why
I even bother to put him here. The main reason is that when I didn't
have him here, and I got a lot more messages asking about him. I
figure I'll put the sum of my Fenholt knowledge here so people don't
have to ask me all the time.
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VIII
- Summer 1985 to March 23, 1986
- Glenn Hughes - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Dave Spitz - Bass
- Eric Singer - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
At some point during the
summer of 1985, Tony Iommi began work on a solo album. When he
was working on this material at the demo level, he used the rhythm
section from Lita Ford's Band (Eric Singer & Gordon Copley), due to
Tony's then engagement to Lita.
Eventually, as the project
progressed, a vocalist was needed. Glenn Hughes was brought in, and Dave Spitz replaced Gordon Copley
(assuming he was ever really a "member" in the first place), who went
back out on the road with Lita Ford. This album
was originally intended to be an Iommi solo album, but record company
pressure forced it to come out under the Black Sabbath banner, but the
band was officially called Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi.
This is another album that was excellent, but very much underrated.
The only time other than the Seventh Star tour (and a one shot charity
benefit appearance in 1988) that any material from this album was
played was on the Tyr tour in 1990, when they played one verse of
Heart Like a Wheel.
The tour started, but was
ill fated. Evidence these comments I got in email from Steven
Keller, a fan who attended one of the dates with Glenn Hughes..
"I saw the show at the Brenden Byrne Area in East Rutherford, New
Jersey with Glenn Hughes. He was really out of shape and sounded
horrible. I felt really bad for him. Sabbath did a lot of jams with
extended guitar solos that night. Glenn stated during the show that
"It's a fine time to come down with a cold!". I think that both his
weight and his vocal problem (cold / partying ... whatever) led to his
demise. Glenn is great. But that incarnation was not meant to be."
After about 5 or 6 dates
into the Seventh Star tour, Glenn Hughes was fired from Black Sabbath.
Again, depending on whom you talk to, there are conflicting reports as
to why this happened. Stories range from drug and alcohol abuse, to a rumour about his vocal cords being damaged in a fist fight right
before the first gig of the tour, or to the publicly stated claim of
"inability to properly sing Sabbath classics live" This
last bit is
backed up by the bootleg I have of Glenn in Detroit where he
completely butchers War Pigs (so much so that some guy standing next
to the person recording this concert says "Come on Glenn!").
It's a shame, as Glenn Hughes is a masterful vocalist, but it's obvious
that this was a low point in his career.

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X - October 1986 -
November 1986
- Ray Gillen - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Bob Daisley - Bass
- Eric Singer - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
-
The Eternal Idol (This version unreleased)
Before I get started on the
mass confusion that is the recording of the Eternal Idol album, I'd
like to thank Bob Daisley & Eric Singer for their help in this
section. As you read it, you'll definitely see why I needed
help putting this together, as it's terribly confusing, even having
spoken to these guys who were there for parts of it. This
section wouldn't be what it it was without their assistance, so
thanks guys.
In July/August of 1986, the
band is doing demos for a new album - which would eventually become The Eternal
Idol.
From what I can gather, the producer of the album had some problems with
Dave Spitz where he would either not turn up, or would always be on the
phone with his girlfriend, basically it wasn't working out, so he was
asked to "rest" (or took the time off himself - I really
cannot get a solid answer on this). Either way, from what I can gather, he wasn't officially
fired as such (which I believe is part of the reason he still retains a credit on
the final Eternal Idol album even though he doesn't play on it).
A short while after that, Bob Daisley was asked by
the album's producer, Jeff Glixman if he'd be interested in working on the
project, and he accepted. Work began in earnest on the recording
of the album;
all the basic tracks were laid down by this band during the month of
September. Bob was actually only
around for two weeks or so in the recording studio. He told me that he left for
Air Studios in Monserrat (where the recording was done) on September
30th, and took off to go back home on October 11th. His
total time with the band was about two months, as they worked on
lyrics with Ray and whatnot, but he wasn't in the band all that long,
really according to him.
Bob tells
me that he was asked to join Black Sabbath formally during this period
(as well as afterwards) after laying down the tracks for the album, but
was committed to the Gary Moore band, and couldn't join Sabbath.
There's two known versions of the album floating around in collector's
circles with this lineup. One was more advanced than the other
(the earlier one doesn't have all guitar solos on it). After
speaking to Bob Daisley about the album, and having him give it a
listen, he confirms that the version of Eternal Idol that is floating
around with Ray Gillen on vocals is from this version of the band.
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XIII - March 1987 - July 1987
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- No one - Bass
- Bev Bevan - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
Around March of 1987, Ray Gillen leaves the band
(according to an interview), because he felt
Sabbath wasn't going anywhere, as well as his feeling that the band
didn't really have any future. It was a foolish opinion, if you ask me
- but given the band had no formal bassist or drummer would explain
that feeling, I guess. Of
course, with an album not completed, and the lead vocalist gone, the
vocals had to be redone, hence the appearance of Tony Martin.
Actually, Tony Martin was considered for the position in 1986, but he
was already in a band at the time (The Misha Calvin Band). Tony Martin
has said that one small bit of Ray's vocals was left on the released
version of Eternal Idol, that being some laughter on the track
"Nightmare".
As production stretched on into
mid 1987, Sabbath was
warming up to play some gigs in July, most of which were the Sun City
gigs below. As such, they needed someone to play drums, so
Tony's friend Bev
Bevan (who previously was in Sabbath during 83/84 on the Born Again
tour) was brought in to play drums for Sabbath again, although when
precisely he joined up again, I don't know.
While Bev does have a credit
on the final Eternal Idol album as "percussion", what (if anything) he
played on the final album isn't known. Eric Singer was asked at
a KISS convention about the Eternal Idol album, and he said that Bev
doesn't actually play anything on the album, and that he's the only
drummer. I had
also read something around the time of the release of this album that Bev
was brought in only to "clean up" a few things on the final recording
after Eric had already left, although that contradicts what Eric said
about Bev not being on the album. Furthermore, the instrumental
track "Scarlet Pimpernel" does not exist on any of the Ray Gillen
bootleg versions of the album, so if there was any drum/percussion bits to be done, it's
possible that Bev was brought in to work on Scarlet Pimpernel, but there
aren't any drum bits on there that I can hear, so what he really did is
unknown.
As a side note, during this time, Ray Gillen had tried out for Blue Murder, but
wasn't actually hired, with the excuse of "He couldn't sing!".
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XIV - July 1987
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Dave Spitz - Bass
- Bev Bevan - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
In addition to Bev Bevan
stepping in to play drums, the band needed a bassist if they were to
play live again, so Dave Spitz returned to the stage to handle those
duties. On July 20th, 1987,
Sabbath played a music festival in Greece, which as it turns out has been
their only appearance in Greece in their entire history. A fan
who attended the show back then sent in a report on the show, you can
check that out here.
It is unknown if any other dates were played live here other than the
next entry.
The picture below was
sent to me by Australian Sab fan Ron Schroer, who received a set of
press-clippings from a South African collector back in 1987 (see next
entry). He sent me this picture, which was a scan from the
Sunday Times (a South African Entertainment magazine) dated November
29, 1987. The folks in this picture are (L-R): Tony Iommi,
Richard Cole, Tony Martin, Bev Bevan, & Geoff Nicholls. Richard
Cole was at the time the road manager, who stepped in for some
promotional pictures, because at the time they were taken, Sabbath had
no actual bass player. This isn't an actual lineup, as the
person standing in for the bassist never actually played an instrument
- was just there for this picture. Thanks to Tony Iommi & Ralph Baker
for getting me the info on who that guy was.

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XV
- Jul/August 1987 (Sun City)
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Dave Spitz - Bass
- Terry Chimes - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
Almost immediately after
the festival in Greece, Sabbath played Sun City in South Africa (the picture
here is from one of the Sun City gigs). This was before
Apartheid fell there, so Sabbath took a lot of crap about it in the
press. Tony Iommi himself said this in a January 1988 interview
about playing Sun City.. "Hopefully, it hasn't done us any
lasting damage. But in our defense I've got to say that this was
discussed with Patrick Meehan's lawyers who convinced us that Sun City
wasn't actually in South Africa...and we were foolish to believe
them!"
Bev Bevan objected to
playing Sun City for political reasons, so another member change was
needed. Terry Chimes (formerly of the Clash) stepped in to play
drums here, and shortly afterwards. That might explain why
Sabbath was without a bassist in the picture from the last entry - if
Bev bailed at short notice, they probably didn't have time to properly
set up for promo pictures and whatnot.
There were a total of 6
gigs played in Sun City. They played Saturday & Sunday over the
course of three weekends. The dates of these gigs were Jul
25/26, August 1/2, & Aug 8/9. These six dates plus the one in
Greece were the only live dates outside of the (short) formal
Eternal Idol tour in Nov/Dec 1987.
In October 2006, I received
an email from Sabbath fan Darryl Butt who had attended the Sun City
Sabbath gigs. When I asked if he had a ticket stub or anything like
that, he replied with this:
Alas no, just memories.
I knew the bass player from the house band at Sun City. After the
final Sunday gig Sabbath went and jammed with the band in one of the
pubs at Sun City and I couldn't go as I had to get back to Durban to
work the next day. Lost the opportunity to meet the band, have a few
drinks with them and get autographs. I still regret it to this day.
It was a shit job I had anyway.
The additional gig with in
a pub was an unknown thing to me, so I wrote him back to see if he had
any information on THAT, and he said:
My memory is a bit
sketchy, but the guy I knew was an accountant (!) up at Sun City and
used to play bass in a local Durban band called The Gents (a sort of
The Jam influenced band). Anyway he was working up there and playing
bass in the house band. We were a bit poor at the time (a mate and
myself who were sharing an apartment at the time) so had been
sleeping in the car park to save money when we met Keith. He offered
to let us stay at his company apartment, an offer that was quickly
accepted, as you casn imagine and it was the next morning (Sunday)
that he told us about the after party. We had watched Sabbath on the
Saturday night and if memory serves me correctly the band were
playing early on the Sunday, about 5pm and were going to meet up in
the staff pub after that. Unfortunately we left then so never had
the opportunity to stay and I have never seen the guy I knew since.
If anyone has any further
details on this jam, please send them in.
After the Sun City gigs,
final production on the Eternal Idol album was completed, and the
album was (finally)
released in November of 1987. Dave Spitz left for good during
this period. When Dave actually departed is a bit of a
mystery, but a good guess is that he was gone before the end of
October (possibly earlier, as the Eternal Idol Tour rehearsals
likely started sometime in October).

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XVI
- November & December 1987
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Jo Burt - Bass
- Terry Chimes - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
This version of Black
Sabbath was only together for the (short) Eternal Idol tour, playing
mostly in places around Germany & Italy. The final
date of the tour was to be December 28, 1987 at the Hammersmith, but
it was cancelled; Sabbath never played the UK or the US for this
album (although they were supposed to play one date in the UK, but it
was cancelled). Burt stepped in only for the Eternal Idol tour that ended in
late December. Terry Chimes stuck around for a bit longer, (see May
29, 1988 entry) but this version of the band was never intended to continue
beyond the Eternal Idol tour.
An interview with Tony Iommi talks
about the tour extending into 1988 in the US, but it never happened.
Whether Burt & Chimes would have been around for that is unknown, as
it never actually happened.
BACK ROW: Geoff Nicholls, Tony Iommi
FRONT ROW: Terry Chimes, Tony Martin, Jo Burt.
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XVII
- May 29, 1988
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geoff Nicholls - Bass
- Terry Chimes - Drums
Albums from this
lineup:
This is the only
exception to the last entry. This variant of Black Sabbath played one
time. They did a 20 minute charity show appearance in the UK in May of
'88. This was Tony Martin's first appearance in the UK while singing
for Black Sabbath. This show is notable for two reasons, one being the
appearance of Geoff Nicholls on bass, and the other being the only
time a track from Seventh Star (Heart Like a Wheel) is played in full
other than on the Seventh Star tour itself. Sabbath only played three
songs, those being Heart like a Wheel, Neon Knights, & Paranoid.
Also around this time,
Tony Martin goes off and works with John Sykes in Blue Murder, but
does not join (Martin is credited as co-author of the Blue Murder song
Valley of the Kings). Blue Murder has an interesting Sabbath
connection, as Cozy Powell was the original drummer there, as well as
Ray Gillen trying out for vocalist, too!

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XVIII
- Summer 1988 to April 1989
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Laurence Cottle - Bass
- Cozy Powell - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
During the summer of
1988, the two Tonys hook up with Cozy Powell and start writing for
what will become Headless Cross. The album was actually recorded from
August to November of 1988. During this time, Sabbath is told by
Gloria Butler that Geezer was going to join the band again*. Laurence Cottle was really only around for the recording of the album, he
wasn't here all this time. Sabbath waits until April 89 for Geezer,
but since Geezer went and joined Ozzy's band, Neil Murray is brought
in on the eve of the album's release. The release of Headless Cross
also marked the first time since 1970 that Black Sabbath changed
record labels.
The two pictures
here are promo shots taken during the recording of the album Headless
Cross, both after Laurence Cottle had done his part, and before Neil
Murray came onboard. At least that's the guess, although you
could make a point that since Cottle was never intended to tour, and
was just a session man for this album, that's why he's not on any of
the pictures. The picture above appears to have been taken in the same place
that the video for the song Headless Cross was shot.
* - In May of 2006, I asked
Gloria Butler about that quote, and she doesn't remember saying that,
but also admits "I don't remember yesterday much, either". :)


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XIX
- May 1989 to November 1990
- Tony Martin - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Neil Murray - Bass
- Cozy Powell - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Albums from this
lineup:
This version of Black
Sabbath toured for the entire Headless Cross album, and then recorded
Tyr. The band toured for Tyr, but the tour was never completed. The
tour had a few surprises, that being that Ian Gillan, Geezer Butler,
& Brian May made appearances during a few gigs. There was a
planned US Tour, but it was cancelled. I was annoyed about that, I
wanted to see them. Towards the end of the tour, there are rumors that Geezer Butler and Ronnie James Dio might be rejoining the band.
Both the Headless Cross
& Tyr tours did awesome in Europe - but failed miserably in the
United States, with the Tyr shows never making it across the
pond. Damn shame, as this version of the band was probably the
tightest the band had been since their early 70's heyday.


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