Providence 1981 (Zodiac 593)
Ocean State Theatre, Providence, RI, USA – August 7, 1981
(64:28) Carmina Burana, I Don’t Know, Crazy Train, Believer, Mr. Crowley, Flying High Again, Revelation (Mother Earth), Steal Away (The Night), Drum Solo, Suicide Solution, Guitar Solo / Suicide Solution (Reprise), Iron Man, Children Of The Grave, Paranoid
There have been a couple of recent Ozzy titles that had me chomping at the bit, this is actually the second of those titles, going a bit in reverse. Recorded during the third leg of Ozzy’s assault on North America in support of his debut solo album, Blizzard Of Ozz. This was such an exciting time, my two favorite bands in the early 80’s were AC/DC and Rush, the album Blizzard of Ozz catapulted Ozzy up to the top, soon I was digging into the Sabbath material as well…a musical awaking. I remember taping the Ozzy concert from the King Biscuit Flower Hour and was the perfect companion to my Blizzard cassette. I read the Rock mags like Circus and Hit Parader and knew who was in his band, especially his guitarist Randy Rhoads. My love for this period compels me to seek these new Ozzy titles out and plunk my cash down.
The concert from Providence comes the day before the South Fallsburg concert immortalized on the Music Mountain 1981 (Zodiac 083) and South Fallsburg 1981 (Zodiac 363) releases also from Zodiac. Thankfully a taper brought his gear and was able to capture a recording that easily falls into the very good range and is near excellent. All instruments and vocals are easily heard and well defined with the guitar and vocals being the defined, the drums and bass do get muddy at times hence the very good rating. There is enough audience in the mix to gives one an idea on the atmosphere inside the 3,100 capacity theatre, needless to say the audience are quite enthused as is the band. There has been a previous release of this concert, it was the first disc of the excellent Howling Blizzard (Shades 340), a title that also featured the Bloomington January 15, 1982 soundboard, which in my opinion, could benefit from a good remaster as well. This new title is an improvement over the older Shades title, the top end is clearer and better defined with the upper frequencies much improved. It still retains the low end and has more punch to it, this is a very enjoyable performance and recording and demands to be played loud.
In his excellent book, Off The Rails, bassist Rudy Sarzo mentions that during the day of the concert Randy Rhoads had a visit with his father but mentions nothing else about the concert itself, he does mention how far the opening band, Def Leppard, had come over the past few weeks. An opening band bringing gives the headliner a kick in the pants, not that this band needed anything. The performance here is excellent, I Don’t Know and Crazy Train are a killer opening combo, Randy’s guitar is perfectly placed in the sound spectrum, he throws in so many flourishes so effortlessly, his talent never fails to amaze me. The band are feeling it, Tommy Aldridge is meeting Randy’s challenge, thundering drummer is adding his own flourishes as well.
“Are you all high?…Are you all smoking the good stuff?…Let Me Hear You!…LOUDER!”, the Ozz man is working his magic getting the crowd riled up. A song from the forthcoming Diary Of A Madman album follows. Believer is one of those almost psychedelic metal sounding songs in the Rhoads catalog, certainly a far cry from the Quiet Riot material. The audience is very into this concert, Ozzy feels it and continues to engage them before Mr. Crowley, Don Airey’s keyboard intro is spot on and this song is out of this world, Randy played so many great solos, the two found in this song are iconic for good reason, just beautiful. A tape cut after Crowley ends leads us into Flying High Again, no music is lost, like Believer the song has a really interesting riff, when I first heard this I didn’t know what flying high was, within a couple years this would change.
The combo of Revelation (Mother Earth) and Steal Away (The Night) never fails to deliver. During Revelation, Randy seems like he is standing there waiting for Don to finish twinkling the ivories patiently, once he finishes he aggressively launches into the riff and levels the place with his solo, as the song ends the audience cheer in amazement, witnessing greatness. Steal Away leads into a Tommy Aldridge drum solo, curious is that the crowd is really into it, they cheer him non stop throughout, a true Metal audience! Randy gets his solo spot as part of Suicide Solution, it’s interesting to hear the changes to the solo versus the earlier legs, adding certain tones, even as they segue back into Suicide he throws another quick blast.
“We’re gonna finish off with some Black Sabbath material” and the audience go wild, Ozz tells the guys to grab their balls and squeeze, the chicks grab whatever they want to grab, it works the response is wild! Of course the Iron Man drum beat is there the whole time heralding the misunderstood characters arrival. Randy throws in licks at will, the fret board Wizard is putting on a show this evening, perhaps his father is in attendance. Children Of The Grave is stellar, Randy always plays this song aggressively, a perfect set ending classic. The taper pauses the tape and we pick up with the band returning to the stage and finishing the event off with a killer rendition of Paranoid, again Randy throws in little flashes of brilliance, Tommy pounds the skins like no other….”You’re the greatest” is Ozzy’s final farewell.
The packaging is great, the photos are taken from the concert itself, front, back, and interior all showcasing the event. There is also a photo of the Ozzy band along with Def Leppard taken by Ross Halfin who also took the photos of the band at Disneyworld, great stuff. Cool picture CD and the Halfin photo is used for the numbered sticker, full marks for this excellent packaging. An incredible performance, I’ve never heard a bad Randy concert, this one is certainly one of the better ones in terms of performance and sheer audience, and listener, enjoyment.
