Bev Bevan : Black Sabbath, blisters, backache and pneumonia on our 1984 US tour

Saturday January 21st

Old Rolls Royce picked me up from home at 10am to drive me to Heathrow and met there by Harry. Met up with the rest of the band and boarded a rather cramped Pan-Am flight, sitting in Clipper Class.

About an hour's delay whilst we took on extra passengers from a broken-down flight to Seattle. Finally took off at 5.30pm. Dreadful meal but a good in-flight movie - Educating Rita.

Change of plan and had to fly to Seattle first. Another wait there, and a total of 13 hours on the plane by the time we got to Los Angeles.

Long wait as usual at LAX before we got our luggage. Limo from Jet waiting to drive us to the Westwood Marquis hotel. Felt quite exhausted and straight to bed about 11pm.

Sunday January 22nd

Up early with the jet-lag. Over to Don's mansion in Beverly Hills for a group meeting, then we boarded a station wagon to drive to our rehearsal studios in Burbank. All the crew there and we watched the second half of the Superbowl on TV.

My (favourite) American football team, the Raiders, beat the Redskins 38 to 9. Did some rehearsing but with the eight-hour time difference from home, soon began feeling tired and back to the hotel at 8pm.

Monday January 23rd

Woken by construction noise outside the hotel. Phoned home, where there is much snow, but around 80 degrees here in LA.

All aboard the Chrysler station wagon for the short drive to Burbank. Rehearsals went well today and we changed around the running order of the show and learnt a new number too - Neon Nights, one of my favourites and great to play drums on.

Back to the hotel, then Geezer and myself walked to the Olde Worlde restaurant in downtown Westwood.

Tuesday January 24th

Up early again and nice breakfast with fellow early risers Harry and Mickey, and we went together to the new Jet offices on Sunset Strip - very posh they are, too!

From there phoned Jasper Carrott in England, who is flying over to San Francisco tomorrow for a tour of American comedy clubs.

Back to the hotel where limos arrived for the band to drive us to the Palace theatre where we mimed to Zero The Hero and Digital Bitch for a local TV rock show. Geezer, Mickey and I strolled to the Aron record store to buy a few albums, then on to Paul Bhallas for really good Indian meal - there won't be many more of those over the next six weeks!

Wednesday January 25th

Woken again by the construction noise - but lovely weather. Packed a small bag, cars to LAX and got an afternoon flight to San Francisco and limos to the enormous Cow Palace.

My old pal Jasper arrived about 7pm, coming straight from the airport after his flight from London. Arranged for him to sit with the sound guys out front. Poor crowd of about 5,000 but a good rowdy bunch.

Several weeks since our last gig (Albuquerque on November 29th) and my fingers blistered badly. The last half an hour was agony. Real dash after the show to get to the airport for the last flight back to LA and back at the Westwood Marquis around 3am.

Good to get the first show under the belt.

Thursday January 26th

Slept well and into California time now. About 6pm Geezer and I shared a limo to Long Beach Arena. Mass of liggers in the backstage area. Show went OK but some monitor problems and I should never have done a drum solo - my hands still too sore.

Good crowd of around 10,000 who were well into it. Fair amount of champagne consumed afterwards and back to the hotel in the early hours.

Friday January 27th

Phoned Jasper in San Francisco, who was getting his head around what he has put himself up for - notably five weeks in America, playing small clubs to people who have never heard of him!

All the band, except Ian, boarded our station wagon to drive to Nike, who gave us masses of trainers, vests, shirts, etc on the premise that we will wear some of the stuff on stage. On to the Jet offices to do phone interviews with various radio stations. Dinner at Paul Bhllas again.

Saturday January 28th

Day off and went sailing. Beautiful weather, in the 80s. Geezer, Harry, Mickey, my old LA mate Kirk and I invited on a friend of Kirk's 35-foot yacht and we sailed around the coastline, drinking beers and champagne, coming back into port as the sun was setting.

Back to the hotel then out to dinner for very nice lamb chops dinner at Le Moustache.

Sunday January 29th

Woke feeling decidedly under the weather, with headache and nasty cough. Phoned home. Limos to the airport and got a flight to Salt Lake City. Incredibly, within that one and a half hour flight the temperature went from 85 degrees to minus eight!

Freezing drizzle greeted us.

Checked into the Marriott hotel and almost immediately over to the gig across the street. Good noisy crowd of 10,000. For the first time this tour I actually enjoyed playing and played really well (guess that one thing goes with the other!)

Tony had some problems with his guitars - plus a lighting gantry toppled over and nearly landed on top of him. He just laughed it off - Tony has a brilliant sense of humour.

Monday January 30th

Not feeling well. Breakfast with Geoff and Harry. Bitterly cold outside. Tony and Ian flew back to Los Angeles for press and radio interviews. The rest of us took a flight to Denver, where the weather was much nicer.

Checked into a hotel in the middle of nowhere with small, dark, depressing rooms. Dinner at the hotel and rather typically, one of those restaurants where the food looks good, but tastes like sawdust.

Sunday January 31st.

Woke feeling worse than I did yesterday and phoned home for some sympathy. Deffed breakfast and had an omelette lunch, along with Geoff.

Getting up from the table had bad pains in my lungs. Went to the gig at Denver University and checked over my kit. Had bad back pains again and the promoter arranged for me to go to the university hospital.

I was whisked into their emergency department for examination and X-Rays. Young doctor there then calmly informed me: "You have viral pneumonia - I'll prescribe some strong antibiotics and best you stay in bed for a week or so!"

To which I replied: "I'm the drummer for Black Sabbath, one of the most demanding jobs in the music business. We have a gig tonight and five more weeks on the road. The show must go on!

You had better make those antibiotics double strength. That's rock'n'roll!