There’s a ton of Sabbath books out there and I’ve read a lot of them including Ozzy and Tony’s memoirs. So the world needs another book on the band like a hole in the head, right? Maybe so but if Mick Wall is scribbling it then I’m in. He doesn’t write so called fan books where everything the band releases is fantastic and they all love each other and everyone lives happily ever after and so forth. He takes a more adult approach to the story focusing not so much on the albums and tours but on the cast of characters and circumstances surrounding each release.
Like his previous books a large chunk of this one focuses on the classic line-up’s upbringing, the band’s formation and first ten years. For the author here is where the story lies and the roots of everything after is traced back to this period. Four guys who just plugged in and played really fucking loud music. Pissed off about their lives but in no way educated enough to mount a plan of attack to better themselves when the going got tough the band did what most bands of that era did, do what you are told is best. Someone else always knew more, everyone else always knew better. Write, hit the studio, tour and at a fucking constant whirlwind pace. If you dared bitch and moan well here’s a plentiful supply of booze, drugs and women.
Their story is as much about management issues as anything else. Their dealings with Patrick Meehan up to the Sabotage album showed how good a manager Peter Grant actually was. Proving how out of it they were and how little they had learned the band became a pawn in a power struggle between Don Arden and his daughter Sharon that went on for many years. She got Ozzy and he got Heaven and Hell. That era of Sabbath is handled really well by the author as he worked as a PR for the band and also wrote Ozzy’s autobiography a couple of years later.
Bill was next to jump ship, now a shell of a man too out of it to care. Ronnie and Vinny too, more focused and driven then the other two. In comes Gillan over a pint for Born Again. Now the party’s on as karaoke season is upon us. Hughes in, Geezer out, Martin in and shake it all about. Tony and his coke buddy Geoff Nicholls floating with their head in the clouds. The return of Patrick Meehan and playing Sun City at the height of apartheid in South Africa proved how far gone Iommi was. Again Mick Wall was there for it all writing for Kerrang magazine.
The nineties saw Sharon giving a big fuck you to well……everyone within earshot really. Fuck you Perry Farrell look what I can do with Ozzfest, fuck you Don Arden for doubting Ozzy and me and fuck you to the big wigs in the music industry who doubted me period. Her role in Sabbath is compelling as the author argues that she and not Iommi have been in control of Sabbath since the Reunion album in the mid-nineties. Tony might have the name but it means fuck all without Ozzy and we know who controls him. All this to get one over on her dad of course.
There are no real heroes or villains in this book. All characters are both or if you listen to them neither. Everyone drugged up to the gills or too quick to blame someone else. You do feel sorry for Bill the way he has been ostracized for the 13 album and for Ronnie and Tony Martin who just wanted what was best for the name but at times they should really have known better. In summary this is not a book for the Sabbath fan who thinks the sun shines out of the members collective arses and it’s all the better for it. After reading it you do wonder how in the hell they made such fantastic and groundbreaking albums in the first place. The critics hated them but the fans loved them. The nutters loved them too. You mightn’t love them as much after reading this and you will probably never listen to them in the same way again. A must buy.
Richie.
