Setlist: [73:49]
01) Intro-Rain & Church Bells (1st time – False Start) [0:02:51.37]
02) Intro Replay (2nd time) [0:02:15.78]
03) War Pigs [0:07:37.16]
04) Neon Knights [0:05:06.08]
05) N.I.B. [0:06:04.76]
06) Black Sabbath [0:11:09.33]
07) Heaven And Hell [0:12:07.13]
08) Iron Man [0:07:34.76]
09) Iommi Solo & Jam [0:07:33.39]
10) Orchid [0:02:13.16]
11) Die Young [0:04:59.41]
12) Paranoid [0:04:16.64]
Notes: Very good to excellent audience tape. This is an impressively clear recording, done very close to the stage. The taper may have been standing amongst a thick group of people, because the microphone seems slightly obstructed every now and then. This doesn’t muffle the recording all that much, but does block a bit of the nice high frequency response that you get enjoy throughout most of this show. Quite nice for a 1980 audience tape!
Sabbath were 3rd in billing status (before Journey and headliner Cheap Trick) at the ‘Summer Blowout’ festival at L.A.’s Memorial Coliseum, where they played for 80,000 people! Since they were allotted only 75 minutes show for this opening set, they were forced to drop three songs (“Children Of The Sea”, “Sweet Leaf” with Bill’s drum solo, & “Children Of The Grave”). Also, there is a very small cut in the intro for “Iron Man” where the taper had to flip the cassette, but it was done as quickly as possible. Other than this small 15-20 second omission, the tape is complete.
This is a good show, but not up to their usual standards. Aside from having to play much earlier than usual, there were numerous equipment problems and sound gremlins that cropped up during this gig. Instead of using the standard “Supertzar” intro tape, they opted to use a ‘Rain & Church Bells’ tape instead. But once the intro concluded, there was no stage sound! The introduction was played again and then the band was gradually turned up as they began “War Pigs”. Not a good way to begin!
Ronnie sounds slightly hoarse and seems a bit downbeat and disappointed by this gig, almost apologizing for their performance. He also explains how “the light doesn’t suit us” and goes on to say how they’d like to come back in the winter to play in L.A. again. He rambles on with this for a bit while Tony tunes his guitar for “Black Sabbath. The band seems a bit preoccupied with their equipment woes at numerous points in the show. Still, they play a really good show – just not a stellar one. It’s even more disappointing when you realize that they knew this too.