Ozzy Osbourne
Birmingham Town Hall
Concert review by Ian Harvey

They call him The Prince of Darkness, but Ozzy Osbourne is not really that menacing. On this showing, though, he remains the Clown Prince of Heavy Metal.

Ozzy held court in the ornate and intimate surroundings of Birmingham Town Hall for a homecoming gig that brought the memories flooding back and with a setlist taking in Black Sabbath classics, solo hits and a solitary song from his new album Scream, released just six days previously.

This concert too was only announced just over a week ago and quickly sold out, save for the 400 lucky fans who got wristbands to get them into the show after a signing session for the new album at HMV in Birmingham.

After the frantic opener Bark At The Moon, Ozzy surveyed the sea of outstretched arms and declared: The last time I played this gig was 1972. How old am I?!”

With wife Sharon looking on from the balcony, this was a leaner, fitter looking Ozzy than we’ve seen in the past and there were no signs of the famous Ozzy shakes.

But it was business as usual as he shambled across the stage, headbanging and grinning, managing to look both deliriously happy and utterly demented at the same time. Dressed all in black he surveyed his realm with eyes surrounded by black eyeliner, whipping the crowd up with cries of: “You’re not crazy enough for me!”

In a famous Ozzy trademark, buckets of water were hurled over “lucky” audience members. At one point he even attempted to drench Sharon on her balcony perch. He missed completely and she stuck her tongue out at him.

A major talking point among the fans was the replacement of Ozzy’s long-time guitarist Zakk Wylde by Greek guitar-slinger Gus G from the power metal band Firewind.

The new man acquitted himself admirably, whether in Black Sabbath numbers including Iron Man, Into The Void and the almighty Paranoid or in solo hits, where he matched Wylde’s fretboard frenzy on the likes of Crazy Train, I Don’t Know and Shot In The Dark.

The only shame was that Ozzy didn’t manage to squeeze in a couple more tracks from the new album. We got the infectious, almost title track Let Me Hear You Scream but that was it.

Still, at least you got the impression that Ozzy not only knew what city he was in but on what planet too.

Setlist:
Bark At The Moon
Let Me Hear You Scream
Mr Crowley
I Don’t Know
Fairies Wear Boots
Suicide Solution
Road To Nowhere
Shot In The Dark
Iron Man
Into The Void
I Don’t Want To Change The World
Crazy Train

Encore
Mama I’m Coming Home
Paranoid