OZZY OSBOURNE
Bercy Arena - Paris, France
September 20, 2010

It's been ages since the last time that Ozzy played in Paris. It was at a venue called La Cigale, on March 5 1992.
It was supposed to be his last tour, and well, it almost was his last time in Paris... but he finally came back more than 18 years later!

Ozzy Osbourne is a legend and he doesn't tour often in Europe. After 18 years of absence, one could expect the Bercy gig to be sold-out quickly.

Well, the contrary happened! I've never seen so little people in Bercy. According to some rumors, only 6000 tickets were sold... a third of the venue capacity.
Not to mention that a certain number of these tickets were probably bought by Korn fans (the opening band).

Who's to blame? The high ticket prices? The bad reputation of The Osbournes TV series? Has Ozzy been forgoten after all these years?

I think the problem is very simple: Black Sabbath has never been very popular in France. You can't be a superstar everywhere!

Ozzy skipped the country for 18 years. A concert was even cancelled in 1995 because there were not enough tickets sold.
Black Sabbath numerous reunion tours with Ozzy have never scheduled a date France.

Last time Ronnie Dio played here was at the very small Divan Du Monde.
It took 4 European tours to the Black Sabbath / Heaven & Hell Reunion to play shows in France. They played the Hellfest 2009, but didn't manage to sell-out the Casino de Paris.

Well, Ozzy Osbourne was back in France and proved that he's still on top!

I wasn't expecting much from this show.
First: I saw Ozzy at Graspop Festival in 2007 and his show wasn't that good.
Second: Zakk Wylde was not part of the line-up anymore.
Third: I was quite tired because I didn't sleep much the previous weekend: We went with some friends to see Steel Panther in Germany.

Ozzy started to tease the audience even before getting on stage: through the loudspkers we heard his voice asking ud to scream.

A few minutes later he was on stage, and almost two hours of madness began.

There was just a sober backdrop and very few lights for an arena like Bercy. No pyro, no screens, just music.

The sound was excellent from the begining to the end and Ozzy went as crazy as he can go!

He sang great! The first rows of the audience were wet with all the water and foam he threw.

The setlist included only one new song: Let Me Hear You Scream. Ozzy concentrated on his incredible classics like Mr Crowley or Shot In The Dark. He even surprised us with an unexpected Killer Of Giants.

Of course the Black Sabbath Days weren't forgotten: 6 Black Sabbath songs were played, including an incredible version of Iron Man which drove me crazy! Not to mention War Pigs!

Ozzy does a hard selection of musicians and the new Ozzy Osbourne line-up is really good.

Blasko Nicholson on bass and Adam Wakeman on keyboards have been with Ozzy for a while, and they keep doing a remarkable job.

As Mike Bordin is reunited with Faith No More, fomer Alice Cooper drummer Tommy Clufetos is in charge of the rythm section.
The way this man hits the drums is simply amazing.

And... who is replacing Zakk Wylde on guitar? It's Gus G. from the Greek band Firewind.

The guy deserves a lot of respect. He's standing on Randy Rhoads place, and I think he does a great job.
His style is very different from Zakk Wylde : he plays faster and has a cleaner sound.
Gus is certainly less spontaneous, but let's not complain: One of the reasons I got disappointed from the Ozzy concert at Graspop was because Zakk's guitar had a really dirty sound (which was not the engineer's fault).

Ozzy asked the audience to get crazy and that's what we did. How could it be otherwise? The Madman gave us his best!
The band played two encores, and we were still asking for more songs!

It seems like it won't take Ozzy 18 years to come back to France... Black Sabbath reunion playing the Hellfest? Oh... I didn't say that!






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Setlist Ozzy Osbourne – Bercy Arena - Paris, France – September 20, 2010

01. Bark at the Moon
02. Let Me Hear You Scream
03. Mr. Crowley
04. I Don't Know
05. Fairies Wear Boots (Black Sabbath)
06. Suicide Solution
07. War Pigs (Black Sabbath)
08. Shot in the Dark
-- Guitar Solo by Gus G. --
09. Rat Salad (Black Sabbath)
-- Drum Solo by Tommy Clufetos --
10. Iron Man (Black Sabbath)
11. Killer of Giants
12. I Don't Want to Change the World
13. Crazy Train
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14. Mama, I'm coming Home
15. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
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16. Flying High Again
17. Into The Void (Black Sabbath)

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Ozzy Osbourne Line-up: