BLACK SABBATH •
Live At Hammersmith Odeon [LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION]
| 1981 | Rhino Handmade | RHM2 07735
| US | CD |
01) E5150 (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
02) Neon Knights (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Dio / Nicholls)
03) N.I.B. (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
04) Children Of The Sea (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
05) Country Girl (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
06) Black Sabbath (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne)
07) War Pigs (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne)
08) Slipping Away (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
09) Iron Man (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne)
10) The Mob Rules (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
11) Heaven And Hell (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Dio / Nicholls)
12) Paranoid (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne)
13) Voodoo (Iommi / Butler / Appice / Dio / Nicholls)
14) Children Of The Grave (Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne)
Produced & Engineered
by Martin Birch
Recorded
at Criteria Studios, Miami Florida
Assistant:
Engineer: Joc C Foglia
Additional
Recording at Studio Ferber, Paris, France
Ronnie James Dio - Lead Vocals
Tony Iommi - Guitars
Terry "Geezer" Butler - Bass
Bill Ward - Drums/Percussion
Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
Released May 1, 2007
Released just weeks after The Dio Years, this single-disc Rhino Handmade edition of the original double LP, Live At Hammersmith Odeon, features Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice getting hot one December night in London during Sabbath's 1981 tour for Mob Rules. Previously unreleased, the concert spotlights Sabbath as they storm through 14 of the Dio-era's best, including "Neon Knights," "Heaven And Hell," "Children Of The Sea" and "Country Girl." The band also performs several pre-Dio classics including "Paranoid," "Children Of The Grave" and a white-hot version of "War Pigs." Live At Hammersmith Odeon is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. Live At Hammersmith Odeon completely sold out on the day of release. In the 9 years of Rhino Handmade, this is the quickest a title has ever sold out.
This was originally recorded on a couple of dates around December 31, 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England.
The album was culled from recordings from all four Hammersmith dates, this is not just "one concert".
This was a limited edition print run of 5,000 copies. No more were made. Nor are there any plans to make any more.
Breakdown of songs
As you may or may not know, the Hammersmith CD came from more than one concert. Sabbath actually played four gigs at Hammersmith at the turn of 1981 into 1982. The CD is a mix from these dates. Rob Dwyer, who runs sabbathlive.com has put together a list of which song came from which gig.
Here is his breakdown:
This is for the hardcore collectors who actually care which shows each track from the new LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH album originated from. I spent several hours this evening comparing each song against each rendition they performed in London between December 31st, 1981 and January 3rd, 1982. The key was to listen to Ronnie's vocal phrasing, since he almost always finds new embellishments to add to the songs every night.
Here's the breakdown:
01) Neon Knights (January 2nd, 1982)
02) N.I.B. (January 1st, 1982)
03) Children Of The Sea (January 1st, 1982)
04) Country Girl (January 1st, 1982)
05) Black Sabbath (December 31st, 1981)
06) War Pigs (January 1st, 1982)
07) Slipping Away (December 31st, 1981)
08) Iron Man (January 1st, 1981)
09) The Mob Rules (December 31st, 1981)
10) Heaven And Hell (January 1st, 1982)
11) Paranoid (December 31st, 1981)
12) Voodoo (January 2nd, 1982)
13) Children Of The Grave (December 31st, 1982)
It's interesting to note that NOTHING from the 4th and final show on January 3rd was used for the final album. "Voodoo" was obviously the easiest song to figure out, as they'd only played it on the 3rd night. Tony teased the audience on January 3rd with a little bit of the riff during the intro for "COTG", but played barely a fragment of the intro.
The producers really did key in on the better performances when they chose the tracks to use for this album. Although the tracks are culled from 4 different shows, they did stay faithful to the original set list order. In order to fit the songs all on a single CD, Ronnie's song introductions were edited out. I'm not certain whether any of Tony's guitar solo in "Heaven And Hell" was shortened or not, as I haven't checked that yet.