“It was just us playing to a couple of sailors and prostitutes”: Bill Ward recalls Black Sabbath’s early gigs
Every band has to start somewhere, paying their dues while playing to next to no-one (or even no-one at all), and Black Sabbath were no different. Indeed, Bill Ward speaks about some of those early gigs in a new interview with Goldmine.
The band had played in their early days at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, which coincidentally, was where the Beatles had honed their craft a decade before to an audience in the single-figures.
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According to Ward, the room was always empty because “you’d only get a couple of people in there in the day time”.
“It wasn’t until the weekends when you’d actually get people in – and that was usually where they’d have a headline band,” he recalls. “During the week it was just us playing to a couple of sailors and a couple of prostitutes, and that was it. So yeah. I think we wrote most of the first or second album there because that’s all you had, that’s all you could do. We didn’t have any money to go out anyway, so we just used the whole thing as a rehearsal… and to write the songs.”
In other news, Ward recently revealed his hopes for there to be a final Black Sabbath reunion show.
Over the last few weeks, the other three in Black Sabbath’s original lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler – have all discussed a performance with all four, and Ward has confirmed that he’d be up for it too.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Ward says, “Bill Ward checking in regarding all the updates on a possible Sabbath show in England. I’m in for playing some of everyone’s old favourites. Loved playing them then, I’d love to play them one last time.”
He continues, “I’m not going to talk about my health publicly except to say, every day I’m pretty good for 76 years old, I’m active musically every day, and I have a very busy and gratifying life. Love you all, all the fucking time.”
Hey ya,
Bill Ward checking in regarding all the updates on a possible Sabbath show in England.
I’m in for playing some of everyone’s old favorites. Loved playing them then, I’d love to play them one last time.
I’m not going to talk about my health publicly except to say,…
— Bill Ward (@billwarddrums) July 25, 2024
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