Bev Bevan Diaries - my Black Sabbath birthday bash

By Bev Bevan on Nov 27, 08 05:16 PM

This week's blog takes us up to this time of year 1983, as my first tour of the USA with Black Sabbath came to an end.

Thursday November 24th

Slept well - I do like this hotel (the Westwood Marquis in Hollywood, California). America is closed today, being Thanksgiving.

I went to my pal Kirk's house to eat an excellent, traditional dinner of roast turkey, pumpkin pie, etc, along with his family. Drove in torrential rain both to and from his house in Van Nuys.

Friday November 25th

Well, what do you know, another birthday has rolled around and time to admit I'm closer to 40 than 30. Tour manager Harry delivered around to my room a pile of presents and cards from back home, which was lovely.

In the afternoon we boarded a beautiful little 8-seater Lear Jet for the half-hour flight to Las Vegas. Checked into the Aladdin Hotel, where we were playing on the night. Seems weird Black Sabbath playing the Strip in Las Vegas.

Sold-out gig. Being my birthday, after the show, I got well and truly "pied" with an evil-smelling concoction of cream, soft cheese and salad dressing , by the rest of the band - and cleaned off with squirting bottles of champagne.

Well-needed shower, then a takeaway Chinese meal and more champagne - this time to drink! Back to the hotel to play a little roulette then it was the hotel bar until 3am, with the guys, celebrating my birthday.

Saturday November 26th

Felt a little fragile. Greasy bacon and eggs breakfast in the hotel coffee shop helped me feel better. Soon at the airport for the 1pm flight on Republic Airlines to sunny Phoenix and checked into the Hyatt Regency.

A convention of over a thousand Mexicans there too, on some church convention, who took great delight in travelling up and down in the glass elevators.

Wild gig on the night to 13,000 Arizonians at the nearby Coliseum. Back to the hotel, which was extremely noisy, and ended up getting a couple of sleeping tablets from Tony, to knock myself out.

Sunday November 27th

Good kip. Several cups of tea (using proper English tea bags ) and phoned home as always. Beautiful sunny day. Short "United" flight to Tuscon, another fine city in the heart of the Arizona desert. Checked into the Marriott and watched some American football on the giant TV screen in the bar.

The Community Centre gig was right next door. Capacity crowd of 9,000. Good show and played well, my drum solo one of the better ones (never been a great soloist, I reckon). Back to the hotel bar until it closed.

Monday November 28th

Up early to get a "Frontier" flight to Albuquerque and checked into a Best Western motel. Lovely sunny day.

Day off and went shopping with Geezer and bought several albums, including ones by Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, Hall and Oates, Waylon Jennings, Eddie Money, John Cougar, Ricky Lee Jones, Juice Newton and B B King.

Tuesday November 29th

Last day of the tour. Repacked my mountain of luggage. Over to the gig, the Tingley Coliseum. Good sell-out show to end the tour.

As is traditional, being the last night, the crew had fun - custard pies for keyboardist Geoff and masses of streamers and balloons rained down upon as on stage and we walked off to the strains of "White Christmas".

Said goodbyes to Tony, Geezer, Geoff and the crew then Ian (Gillan) and myself set off on one of the most involved (and expensive) journeys of my life.

Wednesday November 30th

What a day of travelling!

Around 1am, Ian and I were driven by limo to Albuquerque airport to get a private Lear Jet for the one and a quarter-hour flight to Dallas. Cabs then to transport us and our huge amount of luggage to the International airport.

One hour wait before our one and a half-hour flight to Atlanta. Another one hour wait before boarding a flight to New York La Guardia. From there needed to get a bus across to Kennedy Airport, where we waited 3 hours before boarding the majestic Concorde to London Heathrow.

The plane was only half-full (and Peter Ustinov was also onboard). At Heathrow in a little over 3 hour! Said goodbye to Ian, and got a limo to drive me home to Warwickshire, getting there about 1am English time.

What decadence! What a journey !