Black Sabbath Deluxe Editions January 22, 2016

The wiki page does state:

"Signing to Philips Records in November 1969, they released their first single, "Evil Woman" in January 1970. Their debut album, Black Sabbath, was released on Friday the 13th, February 1970, on Philips' newly formed progressive rock label, Vertigo Records".

This passage talks about them signing to Philips (which Fontana was already part of) and then talks about the album getting released on Vertigo. I suspect not many sources know that it actually appeared on Fontana about a month before, therefore that info is absent from Wiki. I know I found a website in the past that talked about all this history and I'm going to work to find it again. I figure the fact that it even appeared on the Fontana label proves it happened before the mass release on the newer Vertigo label.

 

Tony always seems like someone you would not want to mess with -

 

I have heard this lp. It's my favorite version of the s/t album, hands down. I personally think the masters are too bright, and that's why most CD editions are too bright. But the lp tames that, which improves it a lot, imo.

 

Wow very cool. It’s rare that someone will chime in and claimed to have heard it. It has to be heard to be believed. I play it for friends and they say it sounds like to band is in the room, such a lifelike presentation. You’re right about the taking of brightness, this LP has a warmth not heard on other pressings.

Side two just slays!

Thanks for sharing!

 

The funny thing is, when I heard it, I didn't have any context. Just some random lp mastering from another country. But still, I liked it a lot. And now I learn that it might be the very first release. So I liked it even before I knew there might be something special about it. Prescience!

[Ha ha, and I know that the guy who let me listen to it hangs out here too. And I've been raving to him ever since too ...]

Brings up a question I guess: are any of the other Fontanas good?

 

Do you mean 2nd pressing Fontanas or just in general? I’ve got some Jazz records on the Fontana label and they sound good. I’m sure there must be some duds though, but I don’t have many.

Any time I find one in the wild I buy it.

 

Right you are - should have checked before putting up - however Sunbury was in Jan '72 so Momma must have been written at the latest in '71
I was lucky enough to meet Billy & have him sign his two books when he played in Canberra one time. I knew his drummer who was also Tatts drummer Paul DeMarco & he got me backstage. Billy was an amazing storyteller & very cool dude. We chatted about his trilogy & how for some time it was almost unknown here in Oz (East of Edens Gate, come on!)
Sorry - way off topic!

 

Black Sabbath?

 

Yeah but I believe the Fontana imprint issued the first album in Australia because Philips had not yet set up the Vertigo label there, as they had in the UK and Europe. Sabbath was signed to Philips. Vertigo soon became Philips idea for its progressive
wing with more adventurous music. Sabbath was quickly moved to Vertigo.

Anyway, very interesting. Would love to learn for sure as we are talking about the first release date of a landmark album that changed music. And that release date has long been established as February 13, 1970.

 

And you'd probably be right!
Tony Iommi recalls the time he beat up a journalist for criticising Black Sabbath

 

I wonder too, if in small part, the tiny amount of pressings that would have been made from the Oz master comes into play at all? The entire Oz population in 1970 was very small so the run must have been pretty limited so you'd be getting a fresh pressing off a nice crisp master rather than the ten thousandth one. (? )

 

Just played my Oz Vertigo followed by the Fontana. The Vertigo is pretty damn good but yes, the Fontana is better, even on one of my clicky & poppy copies you can hear the quality shine through. One thing I would question though is the difference between the Fontana single sleeve & gatefold pressings being different. It surely seems unlikely they would make a different stamper for such a small market when there is no change other than to the sleeve. I can understand the Vertigo being a different stamper but why the Fontana? What is the runout info in yours Vinyl Fan?

 

I need to get 1 of these Fontana records, I have a UK swirl but I'd love to grab an Aussie Fontana to compare.

The single jacket blue label is the first right? On discogs the 2nd yellow label gatefold version has "A Vertigo Production" on the label so I guess this came out after Phillips had set up the Vertigo label and the Blue label single jacket was prior to that, does that sound about right?

The next question would be were the same stampers used for both?

 

Just played all my Vol. 4's & agree with you - sadly the Oz Vertigo swirl is pretty ordinary - mine is about as thick as a sheet of paper to (well, not literally but pretty flimsy, which seems crazy for the time, thought those crappy wafer thin ones were products of the 80's) The best I have is the orig. UK Vert swirl, followed by a 1976 Dutch NEMS, thirdly a UK '76 NEMS & last the Oz. Compared with the S/T Fontana, the Vol 4 production overall seems to me like an incredible step backwards - the S/T is so lifelike & Vol 4 sounds like it was recorded through a wall of cotton wool.

 

LOL, this thread is going wild. And it is already off-off-off-off-topic. Which is fine for me given that some of the off-topics are even more interesting than the alleged on-topic.

Thanks again, keep us posted! I really hope that some evidence can be found. Pretty much everyone has settled with the "Friday the 13th" theory - proof will be needed to re-write rock history.

Many thanks for the awesome pictures. So "Changes" was played at the Hollywood Bowl '72, but regrettably wasn't recorded. Almost as tragic as with the 2 August 1973 Alexandria Palace, London show, where they played "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and the audience recording end before that song.

 

I imagine it would be pretty hard to prove, even the folks that made the albums in Oz would be at least around 80yrs old, if they were even still alive & had decent memories. UMG are pretty hard to get to talk to & the chances of them even wanting to help are slim unless you knew someone who worked in their management really well. I had some contact with a person in their legal dept. many years ago when I enquired about the Buffalo master tapes but that's a very tenuous link...... Would they have even kept that sort of info? Be nice to think the S/T master stamper still existed even - doubtful!

 

If only we were all sitting chatting in a nice biergarten in Berlin mit a stein of your best ....

 

I see your point. However, I am not just thinking of people in the business - I am also thinking of customers and listeners and vinyl nuts. Some people may have diaries with dates in them (just imagine, e.g.: "2nd February 1970: Just listened to a crazy awesome record I bought last week: 'Black Sabbath', never heard of before, band same name as the album. Guitar sounds like a jet fighter. Very strange singing, a bit like children's songs' melodies, but with an odd metallic voice. No idea what this is, but luved it! Mum+Dad shouted at me to turn it off, which made it even better!"). Some even may have taken notes specifically on their record purchases. The main reason why I am slightly skeptical about the "Fontana LP came first" theory is that we're living in the internet age, and the "Friday 13th February" has been pretty much all over the internet for years, and also has been mentioned in numerous books and such. If any notable number of LPs anywhere had been available earlier than 13th February 1970, I think there is a rather strong chance that several people had already mentioned that in posts etc. Anyway, Vinyl Fan did and saw it mentioned by someone else before, so there's a chance we will figure it out.

LOL, sounds awesome. Not a big beer drinker but I would happily take some lemonade - and today the sun is shining here, it's probably one of the very last days this year that we could indeed sit in a Biergarten without freezing.

 

Aha, keine golden Oktober?

 

Oh yes, possibly the most golden October in my life so far (and summer was definitely the craziest, hottest of the last decades). Sun has been shining for about 14 of 17 days. But the news claim that will start to change tomorrow; plus, "golden" regrettably does not necessarily mean "warm". Right now (10 PM), it would still be too cold to sit in a Biergarten.

 

P.s.: I meant 10 AM, not 10 PM of course! Now at noon it is sunny AND warm!

 

Well, his book reveals that voilence, both suffered and exerted, was a quite common feature of his childhood and youth. And later, according to Lita Ford, he came quite close to killing her.
Somewhere in the first half (I think) of his 19 August 2018 interview at Whitley Bay Film Festival, he mentions that he was dreaming of being a martial arts professional before he seriously started to get into music. When he spent more and more hours playing the guitar, he couldn't practice boxing or karate that much anymore.

Starting at min 48:27 of the aforementioned interview, he tells a little more about that show and that playing "Changes" there was a mess because the climate was very humid and the mellotron went badly out of tune. Anyway, the interview also confirms my claim that Tony is not always the most reliable witness of Black Sabbath's history (and why should he be anyway? he has always been quite busy with doing what he did in the present), since he claims that the gig at the Hollywood Bowl was the last time they played Changes prior to the Angelic Sessions several decades later. However, the Hollywood Bowl gig took place on 15 September 1972, and two recordings confirm that they played the song again during their Down Under tour in January 1973 (because, as Tim already mentioned, apparently the song was kind of a hit in New Zealand and Australia). Additionally, Changes was played a few times during the Asian leg of Sabbath's "Forbidden" tour in November and December 1995 - though I am not sure if it was Tony of Geoff who played the piano part of the song.

Another unrelated, but very interesting bit of the interview for me is when Tony is talking about doing auditions with several drummers after Bill walked out of the "13" sessions, and he mentions , at min 35:18, that "...we had Rick Rubin produce the album, never worked with before [long, grave pause], or again..."... and he goes on talking about choosing a drummer for 13. I usually don't follow the band members' interviews as closely as some others, anyway, I wasn't aware that Tony disliked working with Rick. And there are other (earlier) interviews where he sounded more appreciative of Rubin, e.g. this one.

 

He's an intense guy - that's for sure.

 

My guess is that he said "again" because he caught himself and remembered they had worked with Rubin back in.... was it 2001?

Anyway, I didn't watch it again to see, but I don't think Tony had any major issues with Rubin no matter how it was said.