REVIEWS:

BLACK SABBATH: Meadowlands, NJ 3/24/1986
View Ticket Stub
At the young age of 16, this was my fist ever show to see Black Sabbath. A young and upcoming Anthrax opened the show followed by WASP. Both bands put on a good show with WASP having four huge heads of each band member on poles that rotated.

Then the real show started…NOW bare in mind this was quite a few years ago and my memory is not all that great. Here's what I remember: The lights dimmed and Superztar opened the show. Set list, I cant remember. It turned ugly very quickly with Glenn butchering each song. About 4 or 5 songs into the set, he disappears and Tony took over. The laser light show was amazing. Tony did and very long solo and medley's of different songs. A circle or lasers and smoke encircled him which was very cool. I did by 2 cool shirts, 1 shirt with just Tony on the front, and the other being a cool jersey with the dragon above on the front and tour dates on the back.

If anyone else who went to this show & would like to refresh my memory, please feel free to contribute.

BLACK SABBATH: London England, 2/06/86
Hammersmith Odeon
This is a bootleg CD I just received and wanted to review it. Its 2 CD's that take place on Black Sabbath's Seventh Star Tour in Europe.

BAND: Vocals: Ray Gillen / Guitar: Tony Iommi / Bass: Dave Spitz / Drums: Eric Singer / Keyboards: Geoff Nicholls

TRACKLIST: Intro, The Mob Rules, Children of the Sea, Danger Zone, War Pigs, Heart Like a Wheel, Symptom of the Universe, Sweet Leaf, Seventh Star, Turn to Stone
Die Young, Black Sabbath, NIB, Neon Nights, Medley (Heaven & Hell- Orchid - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath), Children of the Grave, Paranoid

Ray Gillen does such a great job signing from a selection a Sabbath tunes. Songs like COTS, SOTU & NEON NIGHTS really shine. This was the first time I've heard Ray sing live for Black Sabbath and his voice really stands out. The songs from Seventh Star sound great and I can only imagine how happy Tony must have been when Ray was signing. Its unfortunate that Ray left to jon Badlands (even though the 2 Badlands CDs were and still are great. You can go to my article section above to read more about Ray's involvement in Black Sabbath

GLENN HUGHES: Old Bridge, NJ
Birch Hill Night Club 3/22/01
View 7th Star signed LP by Glenn Hughes
Glen sounded incredible and made up for his last New Jersey appearance way back in 86 on the 7th Star tour (he also mentioned that and how Ray Gillen had replaced him do to his inability to sing at the time). His band was amazing. The drummer from Ozzy's (Brian Tichy) touring band was simply amazing. I was lucky enough to be right on the side of the stage like 5 feet away from the guitar player. They opened w/Stormbringer, played some solo stuff and stuff from Trapeez. Glenn voice was really amazing as he hit a lot of high notes.The highlight of the evening (for me anyway) was about 4 or 5 songs into the set, he mentions writing a song with his good friend Tony Iommi. I thought it would be something off of 7th Star but he played I'm Gone from 8th Star. That's friggin awesome. Sad thing was nothing from 7th Star. They ending with another Deep Purple classic Burn. I also was able to get my vinyl 7th Star record sleeve signed and told Glenn how amazing 8th Star is. He shook my hand and said he'll mention that to Tony.

GARY DEAN FROM GARY'S BLACK SABBATH:
04-12-86 "The Spectrum" Philadelphia, PA.
I went to the Philly show & was a bit confused at the beginning as I think we all were in the Spectrum, where was Glenn? Local radio station I think WYSP didn't announce any word of Glenn's sudden departure. Ray introduced himself with an over whelming welcome from the crowd & well deserved if I might say. But gotta admit, I was there to see Tony.

A real quick remembering..................lasers beaming through out the Spectrum, Tony performing his 15min solo inside a laser cloud......That was really wild looking back then & the rest is blurred.
 
WASP was ok, but I was trying to catch the posters he was throwing out to the crowd ,  I missed Anthrax. Man, thinking back as I can, late 70's into the 80's were for me some great times going to concerts.

Thanx Gary…

 

FROM TONY DECECCO…

I was at the Meadowlands show...I was 25 at the time...had seen Sabbath w\ Ozzy, Dio and Gillian previously (many times)
 
The Glenn Hughes show of 1986 was the worst Sabbath show I ever went to. He was horrible. He kept leaving the stage to drink water, his voice was shot.
 
I don't remember the set list specifically...but I do remember two things....
 
When the stage was unveiled during Superczar, Iommi was in silhouette within a circle on a platform slightly above and to the right of the drum kit. He stood there as the crowd cheered for him...as the smoke cleared, he walked down the platform onto the stage...acknowledged the crowd, and then the other members took stage.
 
The other thing I remember...there was no encore....I think they finished the set with Paranoid...but they did not leave the stage & return...I guess Tony wanted to end the gig as quickly as possible, so they played Paranoid without leaving the stage first.

 

FROM MITCHELL FOY…
ACETATE MASTERS OF SEVENTH STAR

I just came across your site regarding Seventh Star and thought I'd share a story.

It was 1985, I was 19 and in community college in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. As was habit I was drawing a Black Sabbath logo on my notebook during class. This caught the attention of a nearby student, who happened to be English.

He informed me he recently met said band at his place of work, a hotel in an area called Buckhead. It seems they were staying there while mixing the 7th Star album here in my city!

I got the name of the place from him and went there one afternoon with a friend, also a Sab fanatic. The English fellow told me the actual number of their room, and my friend and I nervously went up to find it. We had absolutely no idea what what we were going to do once we did.
On the second or third floor we found the room and stood outside of it shitting our pants. Voices could be heard inside but neither of us had the balls to knock so we walked back over to the elevator.

As we stood there like idiots who walks up but the man himself, Tony fucking Iommi, along with someone I think was Geoff Nichols but who at the time I didn't recognize.
We all got on the elevator together, and I managed enough nerve to speak up. Exactly what I said I can't remember, but it was something about being a huge fan, and Tony suddenly realized why these two kids were at his hotel. He also perked up when he saw the Black Sabbath necklace I was wearing - a cheap metal and enamel cross with logo. He even reached over and touched it!

Of course by this time I was completely in knots and unable to say another word. My friend and I walked back to our car in the parking deck. Iommi and company went to theirs and waved as they passed us. I'm pretty sure they saw the Black Sabbath stencil (the same one I used to deface my high school the year prior!) we sprayed onto one of the conrete supports.

And that was it, my meeting with Tony. I would love to know if he remembers it. I wish now I was mature enough at the time to offer him out for a drink or something.

The hotel no longer exists, but it was called something like Roundtree. It was only a few stories high, located on Lenox Road directly across from Lenox Mall.

I'm sure the local studio where the record was mixed/mastered is listed in the album credits. I don't have a copy handy at the moment.

Interesting aside: sometime later I was at a flea market looking through stacks of used records and came across a real find. It is a two-set of acetate masters of Seventh Star. Each album side occupies one disc, the flip being completely smooth. They are house in a manilla record sleeve with the studio logo embossed on the front. Also on the front is a sticker that says 'Tony Iommi, Seventh Star' leaving no doubt that it was indeed supposed to be a solo record.