Black Sabbath introduced their closing present this week, however the steel legends have bid farewell a number of instances prior to now too – see footage and setlists from their earlier “closing reveals” under.
On Wednesday (February 5), the band introduced they’d be reuniting with their authentic line-up of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Invoice Ward one final time this summer time.
The all-day present will go down at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, with a stellar supporting line-up that features the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff McKagan of Weapons N’ Roses, Alice In Chains, members of Limp Bizkit and KoRn, in addition to Rage In opposition to The Machine‘s Tom Morello (who additionally acts of musical director of the live performance).
Tickets go on sale subsequent Friday (February 14) at 10am GMT, and all income will go to charities Treatment Parkinson’s, Birmingham Kids’s Hospital and Acorn Kids’s Hospice – a Kids’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa. Go to right here for tickets.
Whereas it is rather probably that this can actually be the ultimate Sabbath present, it isn’t the primary time they’ve bid farewell to enjoying reside collectively.
Their first farewell got here on November 15, 1992 within the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, California on the ultimate night time of Osbourne’s solo tour, dubbed ‘No Extra Excursions’. That had been attributable to be Ozzy’s final ever reside efficiency and for the encore, Iommi, Butler and Ward joined him for the primary time since Dwell Help in 1985.
They performed 4 tracks collectively – ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘Fairies Put on Boots’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Paranoid’ – though Osbourne’s retirement proved to be short-lived as he performed the ‘Retirement Sucks’ tour in 1995. Hearken to the ‘92 reunion right here:
The core line-up would discover themselves on the street once more by 1997 for a two-year run, culminating in a blowoff present of their Birmingham hometown within the NEC Area. Dubbed the ‘Final Supper’, their set on December 22, 1999 was imagined to be their final hurrah – see the band talk about that set together with footage of ‘Black Sabbath’ under.
On the ‘99 farewell present, Sabbath performed:
‘Battle Pigs’
‘N.I.B.’
‘Fairies Put on Boots’
‘After Ceaselessly’
‘Electrical Funeral’
‘Candy Leaf’
‘Into The Void’
‘Guitar Solo’
‘Snowblind’
‘Soiled Girls’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Iron Man’
‘Embryo’
‘Kids Of The Grave’
‘Paranoid’
Regardless of saying they’d not play collectively once more, they did actually get again collectively inside a yr and continued to play sporadically all through the 2000s.
A reunion tour of the unique line-up was attributable to happen in 2011, however Ward dropped out after he was advised that one other drummer could be on stage alongside him. They carried on with out Ward, with Ozzy’s solo band drummer Tommy Clufetos filling in.
A “closing farewell” got here on the finish of a worldwide tour in Birmingham’s Genting Area on February 4, 2017, which was captured within the movie Black Sabbath: The Finish Of The Finish. See excerpts right here:
Sabbath’s setlist on February 4, 2017:
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Fairies Put on Boots’
‘Beneath The Solar/Each Day Comes And Goes’
‘After Ceaselessly’
‘Into The Void’
‘Snowblind’
‘Battle Pigs’
‘Behind The Wall Of Sleep’
‘N.I.B.’
‘Hand Of Doom’
‘Supernaut’/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’/’Megalomania’
‘Rat Salad’
‘Iron Man’
‘Soiled Girls’
‘Kids Of The Grave’
‘Paranoid’
To today, that set marks the final time Sabbath performed collectively, albeit with out Ward.
Rumours about the potential for a one-off reunion present from the steel veterans have been swirling lately. In 2024, for example, Osbourne shared that he would “leap on the likelihood” to play a closing Black Sabbath present with Ward, and Butler hinted that he and Osbourne had “agreed” to play one final gig.
Round that very same time, Osbourne’s spouse and supervisor Sharon stated that he was planning “two extra reveals to say goodbye” earlier than he absolutely retires.
After the announcement of this summer time’s ‘Again To The Starting’ present, NME spoke to Sharon, who stated: “You may’t say goodbye. Take a look at what they depart – it’s an enormous, nice physique of labor that they’ve left for the world. So long as you’ve acquired that, it’s by no means goodbye. It’s there for eternity.”
She admitted that husband Ozzy was at the moment feeling “very emotional” concerning the closing present, and that it’s “what he needs”.
“He needs to say thanks to all people. He didn’t have that likelihood due to his sickness, however now he does have the prospect.”
