Bev Bevan Diaries - Sabbath headline Reading festival

By Bev Bevan on Aug 21, 08 11:50 AM in

Due to public demand, my diary notes this week are a continuation of last week's - my first experiences of being on the road with Black Sabbath exactly 25 years ago.

Monday August 22nd 1983

Main topic of conversation was, of course, Geezer's arrest in the early hours. He duly arrived on the bus with an expression of mischievous innocence. It was good to leave Finland and fly to Denmark.

Met by coach at the airport and driven to the Scandinavia hotel in downtown Copenhagen. Night off so we went to the Montmarne jazz club, then on to another club called Daddys.

All-girl band Toto Coelo were playing there (they had a big hit in '82 with I Eat Cannibals). We shared a few drinks with them afterwards, the Champagne flowing again! Back to the hotel very late.

Read on for more misadventures!

Tuesday August 23rd

Slept in late. Hydrofoil across to Sweden then short coach ride to Lund. The venue had a very small stage and no room for my immense drum riser. Got incredibly hot on stage and sweated buckets. Packed in crowd of around 3,000.

Ferry back to Copengagen and another very late night, getting to bed about 4am.

Wednesday August 24th

Walked around the city, shopping for clothes along with Tony Iommi. On to the gig for a soundcheck. Good show on the night. Support band were the Pretty Maids. Pete Way from UFO came back afterwards to say hello. Another late night.

Thursday August 25th

Woken at 9am by very loud drills, re-modelling the hotel restaurant. Coach to the airport for our flight back to London and the end of the Scandinavian section of the tour. Geezer and I shared a Mercedes limo to get back to the Midlands.

Friday August 26th

Picked up Tony in my E-Type and drove to Leather & Lace in Moseley to pick up our tailor-made leather waistcoats and vests, which look very cool. Nice night in at home, watched video of Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke.

Saturday August 27

Big day. Picked up in the afternoon in white Rolls Royce and along with Tony and Geoff driven to the Reading Festival, which we were headlining. Watched a couple of the bands on before us. Lots of our friends out there amongst the huge 36,000 crowd.

We played really well and I was pleased with my own performance. Encore numbers of Smoke On The Water and Paranoid got a fantastic response from the crowd. Back home along with Geezer, in the Mercedes, getting there around 4am.

Sunday August 28th

Not enough sleep! Picked up at noon by the same Mercedes and along with Geezer driven to Birmingham airport. Met up with the rest of the band and boarded 10-seater private plane for painless one-hour flight to Dublin.

Minibus there to meet us to take us to the Bohemians football ground, the venue for the heavy metal festival. Caught some of Twisted Sister's set and Motorhead's too. Chatted with Lemmy, who I'd not seen since my days with The Move, when Lemmy was with Hawkwind.

On stage about 6pm in broad daylight, which seemed weird. Went down a storm with the 6,000 crowd. Soon back to the airport and an hilarious, drunken flight back to Birmingham. Breezed through customs.

Tony playfully knocked a copper's helmet from his head, but the copper didn't mind - must be a Sabbath fan! On to the Aero club , but got some evil looks from unsavoury-looking characters in there and soon left for home.