Moshing With Black Sabbath!

By Greg and Trenna

Reliving the Experience

Looking through Trenna’s iPad I came across the document she wrote to review/record the Black Sabbath concert we went to along with a friend, Adrian. It was the first time I had read this piece since 2016.

It immediately brought back memories of a really fab night. I also found some of the turns of phase pretty entertaining.

I will put her writing below, in the main body of this post but also embed a PDF of her writing as it appears in her iPad.

A few things to bear in mind as you read it.

It was in 2016 and Trenna’s heart failure was already starting to take it’s toll. She talks about the physical effort required.

Also, her eyesight, bad her whole life, was continuing to deteriorate. It’s therefore heart warming to me to hear how much she was able to take in.

In 2016 Trenna was about 46kg in weight – about 100 lbs – so agreeing to be in the mosh pit was an ambitious undertaking. She talks about it below.

And of course, like all her iPad jottings, it was not written for general publication. Just for our own personal use. I think you’ll agree it deserves a public airing.

Here’s what Trenna wrote….

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BLACK SABBATH, THE END TOUR

EN ROUTE

Drove to city 5:30, heavy traffic. Parked opposite PERTH Arena, paid up front. Walked slowly up hilly Milligan St to Murray St to meet Happy Ade at 6pm at the Generous Squire pub on the corner of Shafto Lane.

spirited Black Sabbath T-shirt clad blokes our age – long hair, grey hair, thinning hair & a variety of bearded faces … also some younger Sabbath goers including a smattering of lardy ladies.

THE PUB

Greg did a circuit of the noisy pub, while I checked out the punters, chockablock! Predominantly, spirited Black Sabbath T-shirt clad blokes our age – long hair, grey hair, thinning hair & a variety of bearded faces. There were also some younger Sabbath goers including a smattering of lardy ladies.
The gate statue bouncers were predicting that “there would be too much drunk tonight & they would be in for trouble”! Really?

DINNER

When Ade arrived we decided not to go into the pub, instead we walked down Shafto Lane to a tapas bar & restaurant, The Belasyse. We ate inside sitting on nicely padded seats. We ordered a wine & beers & shared an assortment of tapas plates, mostly not overly healthy (no trace of greenery – oh, only some parsley garnish & limp celery sticks). It was, in any event, an enjoyably, convivial start to the night. Used the loos. Paid. Meal OK, but over-priced for what it was.

WALKING

We walked; thankfully downhill, to Perth Arena amongst a parade of ebullient fans. Ade was impressively vigilant at guiding me – better than my ‘walk ahead’ husband, Greg!

AT PERTH ARENA

Greg knew which gate to enter, he had to empty his bag at security check-in & as usual remove the lids from our unopened water bottles, all good. Ade wasn’t stopped. Gave our tickets over & were cuffed with wristbands, went to the bar, bought booze then went in.

FRONT OF STAGE

We positioned ourselves as best we could while juggling our assortment of plastic drink containers so Greg could retrieve from his bag our smuggled in water bottle tops.
Greg offered earplugs to Ade, he declined but we both used ours. Unfortunately, I dropped one of mine on the; already grimy, concrete floor, gross! Nevertheless, I brushed it off & stuck it in my ear. We listened to the support band, ‘Rival Sons’. They were good!

INTERMISSION!

THE SPIGHTS

Greg received a text from Cindy which he mis-read as her wishing us a good night. When later read, she had written that they were seated up back & ready for the concert. Later email: they also were impressed with Ozzy’s strong voice & saw the crowd surfing wheelchair.

BLACK SABBATH ON STAGE

@ precisely, their due time 8:45 – blimey! The set dark, sound of rain, a bell tolls, a drum beats forebodingly – Ozzy starts slowly singing Black Sabbath; the perfect choice to kick off the gig as the tension built to …”oh God please help me” – the crescendo! The crowd jumped for joy, moved forward, got bouncier, louder, slightly intimidating – no more personal space!

LINE OF SIGHT

At various times depending on songs, we were 8-10 rows [of people] back from stage. We were close enough for me to see both the action & inaction of the band & well & truly feel the pulsating throng.

OZZY Osbourne & THE LADS

Ozzy’s vocabulary was limited, repetitive & slurred – “How are you? I can’t hear you! Louder for Sharon at home, she can’t hear you! How are we? Jump!” The audience willing responded.
On the other hand, Ozzy’s singing voice was strong & in tune. It’s what he’s made for! The guitarists remained in the same positions all night. Bassist, Geezer Butler, right of stage, closest to us, did an impressive guitar solo (faultless & fast finger work – which I was able to see on the large back of stage screen) & lead (left handed) guitarist, Tony Iommi was on fire even when War Pigs had to be restarted due to tech issues with his guitar he had no trouble getting the crowd pumping! Tommy Clufetos’ drum solo during Rat Salad was fabulously manic, about 14 drums in all including 2 bass drums. He’s younger & the most recent replacement for original drummer Bill Ward – he & Ozzy are not on good terms! A long bearded, keyboard player was also on stage – he was unknown to us.
Noticeably, during the entire stage performance there was no exchange or conversation between any of the band members, hmm!

PERTH SET LIST – 8:45 – 10:30pm *

Song 1. Black Sabbath Song

Song 2. Fairies Wear Boots

Song 3. After Forever

Song 4. Snowblind

Song 5. Into the Void

Song 6. War Pigs – Song restarted due to tech issues with Tony’s guitar

Song 7. Behind the Wall of Sleep – with ‘Wasp’ intro

Song 8. N.I.B.

Song 9. Hand of Doom

Song 10. Rat Salad – with brillo drum solo

Song 11. Iron Man

Song 12. Dirty Women

Song 13. Children of the Grave

Encore Song:

Paranoid

Zeitgeist – song played only as a recording

* [GM: Trenna got this from this site – a very useful resource. In her original version, see the PDF below, she took the trouble to sort the songs according to the album they came from. She then colour coded the album title and songs as that would help her see it. Meticulous!]

THE CROWD

We experienced the expected kind of argy-bargy, trod on toes – (which I would excuse later in the night), knocked about, shoved, generally jostled, booze splattered…

DANCING

Comical to watch guys dancing – they mostly don’t! They remain inanimate, watching with an occasional nod of their heads. There are the headbangers & lively jumpers but mostly the blokes our age stood still, watched cross armed. I of course danced!

WHEELCHAIR MAN

A rolly-poly, mostly disrobed woman, stagger-danced to our area

First time for us, f#*k & duck!!! We were startled by a guy in a wheelchair who was lifted up & over us by Slayer T-shirt wearing dudes to crowd surf or (Slayer ride) to front of stage where security carefully brought him down. We were ready for him the 2nd time during the encore, this time, he was sat next to Greg then lifted up directly in front of us – too close for comfort!, but he did get a better view & a bit of a chair dance until he was again brought down.

THE CLONES

Bare chested, bald headed, tattooed young dudes who were on something that made them need to hug & pose for selfies with everyone especially the blokes! They became unwanted mates with Ade & when one of them caught my eye, Greg pulled me closer to avoid contact.

HELICOPTER WOMAN

A rolly-poly, mostly disrobed woman, stagger-danced to our area swinging her discarded heavy, thick, long sleeved jumper atop her head unbeknownst to her, thwacking me in the face on each rotation until I grabbed hold of the damn thing. She then sidled up to me, biting her front lip as she drunkenly grinned, giving me the two thumbs up, doing an annoying (on & off) not so gentle but well cushioned, bum-bump dance with me, 2 thumbs up!

BOUNCY BOYS

The bloke who had earlier trod on my toes as he barged in front of us, was a heavy set, feet firmly planted, arms- crossed, bearded, dope smoking, brick of a “don’t mess with me” kind of a man. Well, he became my personal barrier between the young, mop-topped, head banging, jumping, air guitar playing, ‘wired’ boys in front of him. As they became ever more out of control with ‘off their face’ dancing, they precariously fell back onto MY solid as a brick barrier bloke, I felt thankfully protected. 👍

BUCKETS NOT MIST

As concerts progress & body temperatures rise the crowd often gets a cooling fine mist of water sprayed over them. Nothing fine tonight, we got ‘rafter buckets’ up ended on us – 3 times, drenched!

LEAVING

As we left front of stage we had a slow but orderly & good spirited shuffle to the exit door. Clambering on/over hundreds of plastic bottles, glasses & trays on the sodden concrete floor. The three of us were in consensus on the concert, it was classic metal, better than we had expected, an all round entertaining & amusing night out.

LADIES LOO LINE

There wasn’t one! Man band! There were though, some extremely large, sweaty women mostly disrobed to their bras bellowing to other gal-pals in the loos. They were happy!

GOING HOME

Swift, & easy departure. We drove Ade home, thanked him for his company, but didn’t go in for “a drink or whatever”. We went home, me – water & TV wind down, Greg, Scotch & camera – laptop photos transfer.

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And Tren’s iPad Original (same content as above)