Question:
Greets, Anyone know how Oz did at Donington? – Hopefully he blew Kiss off the stage ! Any review?? End Greets Lee
Response:
> Anyone know how Oz did at Donington? – Hopefully he blew Kiss off the > stage ! Any review??
Well well well. Let’s see. First off, this year’s Donington was an absolute scorcher – not a drop of rain in sight, and great big clouds of red dust whenever the crowd started moving. Temperature was in the 80s with no wind. Loads of crap bands until Sepultura, minus the Cavalera brothers, who’d had to fly home for a funeral. The rest of the band played, and sounded fine to me. Shame on the idiots who insisted on shouting and screaming during the minute’s silence, though. Twats. Ozzy’s intro tape lasted for ages, and included the segment from the last tour/live album. Opener was "Paranoid". After that, things are a bit misty (too much beer), but he played "No More Tears", "I Don’t Want to Change the World", "Mr Crowley", "Flying High", "I Don’t Know" and a medley sort of thing with snippets of stuff like "Over the Mountain" and "Believer", before announcing that he was going to do some Sabbath stuff. An ecstatic reaction greeted material including "Symptom of the Universe", "Sweet Leaf", "Iron Man", Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Children of The Grave". To be heard also were "Mama, I’m Coming Home" and of course "Crazy Train", which included footage on the video screens of Randy Rhoads – a nice touch, I thought. The Sabbath material really went down a storm, and was accompanied by many buckets of water. Ozzy also had an onstage hose at his disposal, which he used several times to soak the crowd. The toned body of a couple of years ago has gone, and he was losing the higher range vocals just a bit, but he’s still got life in him yet. No idea who Ozzy’s bass player is now – he looks Polynesian or Red Indian, is barefoot and rather large with his hair done in either dreads or pigtails. The drummer was Mike Bordin, last seen with Faith No More. There was a fair wait for Kiss, during which four inflatables appeared stage left. The band arrived behind the stage in a helicopter, which hovered above the stage with searchlights and stuff – "You wanted the best etc.". Kiss kicked off with "Deuce" and played all the stuff you would expect, most if not all of it of no later vintage than "Alive II". Gene did his "difficult" bass solo spewing blood (which was pretty good fun) – "God of Thunder" saw him flying to the top of the lighting rig. He was consistenly a good performer and showman. Paul Stanley may impress the youth of America, but here he was a bit too much of a Mr Showbiz, spouting every tired old rock’n'roll cliche known to man. Ace’s guitar solo was straight fom the 70’s with smoking Les Paul and all, which disappeared into the lighting rig. He got to do "Shock Me." Peter’s drum solo was a bit dull, but proved he can play. He didn’t get to do "Beth". All in all, aside from the show, Kiss weren’t exactly amazing. I actually wandered off to get a burger and some more beer halfway through their set which can’t exactly be a good sign now, can it? They were good enough, though, just a little dated. Having said that, the encore of "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Nite" was storming and excellent. The fireworks at the end were pretty good, but totally eclipsed by a display I happened to catch at Morecambe Bay the next night while travelling home. I’m sure Kiss could afford a better display than Lancaster City Council, but there you go. Had it not been dark, thus allowing the big Kiss show, they’d have fallen pretty flat. Ozzy played in twilight with no pyro or effects, and arguably got a better reception than Kiss. So, who’s gonna headline next year? Can’t see past Metallica again myself. Cheers, Angus ANGUS MAIR is 30, Pisces, lives in Banff, Scotland. Plays bass; Gibson Thunderbird, Rick 4001, Hohner Drives: black 1984 Audi 2.0GTi Coupe A727 HSS Has a son, Robbie, nearly 3. Is a graphic designer.