This handbill (and the following Hamburg and Offenbach posters) are a bit strange - clearly there was no German tour in January 1980 so what gives? How close did it come to taking place?

I have NO entries for Jan 1980... not even any scratched out ones (indicating that there had been a scheduled tour which was subsequently cancelled)...

After seeing (the posters) I called Steve Schenck to see if we could shed some light on these 'phantom' German concerts since I don't recall any bookings at that time.

Steve was BOC's agent and certainly would know any bookings during that time period. We discussed the time period back and forth for a few minutes trying to recall what BOC was doing in Jan of 1980 and came up with the following: Steve believes the poster and flyers were a scam to sell illegal tickets to unsuspecting fans.

BOC was never booked to play Germany at that time.

There wasn't any official statement to say why the gigs were cancelled. As I remember, the tour was cancelled two or three weeks before...

Just a word on dating this poster and why I reckon it was 1980, despite the fact that it gives no actual year on the poster itself...

If you compare this poster design to the rather small Hamburg one above, you'll see that they're clearly both advertising the same (non-existant) tour. Since the Hamburg image has an albeit small "1980" written on it, you don't have to be Sherlock Poirot to come to the conclusion that this Offenbach gig also must have been 1980...

Though as Sam confirms, no German dates were ultimately forthcoming.

Thanks to Eric's contribution above, there's a good chance this "tour" might have been a scam - did anyone out there buy a ticket for any of these dates...?

Another poster off eBay for this non-tour...

Flew to NYC and loaded gear out of Full Tilt (a rehearsal studio where we stored most of our gear) and proceeded to New Haven...

Was this the place I walked into a speeding taxi that drove by the truck while I was going around it? I know you were there wondering why I wasn't just creamed or dead or something.

Joe Bouchard sick...

80-02-02: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven Connecticut Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. The God Zilla :-)
11. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
12. BTBW
13. Reaper

Small theatre and cold weather. Rolled onto Syracuse...

The toilets were frozen in the building, it was so cold...

Day off in Syracuse. Tried to find hockey game...

Syracuse N.Y. - I tuned The Rocket's piano (this indicates to me that the Rockets were on this run of shows but the only one I have any note on is this one and Springfield Mass.)

The pass above is clearly dated 5 Feb 1979, but I've included it here - for the moment - because I don't see how it could have been for 1979 - Mirrors didn't come out til June 79, so the Feb date seems suspect.

The movie Slap Slot was made there a couple of years later...

Band gear late so B-cast was blown off. Fine steaks for Crew Food.

Broadcast?

80-02-07: Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Hot Rails
12. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
13. BTBW
14. Reaper

Sam mentioned a broadcast being cancelled, so if you consider that there was a KBFH radio show recorded a few nights later in Poughkeepsie, then it looks like Providence might originally have been scheduled for this KBFH recording, but was subsequently cancelled because the "band gear was late"......

However, on the back of the Columbia Albums Sampler, the version of "Substitute" on there is given as being from "Providence Civic Center 1980". If there was no broadcast from Providence, then where did that "Substitute" come from then?

And did they even play "Substitute" in Providence? I must admit, I'd heard anecdotal reports that they played an encore of "Substitute/My Generation" as a gesture of solidarity for the Providence audience because of the Who gig there that was famously cancelled in December 79...

However, Bolle's setlist (taken from GpG's soundboard tape) above doesn't mention it...?

The tape ran out at Reaper on the Providence, show, I'd say it's very possible that they performed the same setlist a few days in a row...

Well I know they played them in Springfield on the 9th and Poughkeepsie on the 11th (KBFH), so logic would suggest the most relevant place to include these two songs would have been Providence on the 7th.

Can anyone confirm or deny that they played this medley?

Providence was the first time they did.

I can confirm (they were played at) Providence...

OK - thanks: I'll add them after Reaper in the setlist...

My memory may be a little off since this was 31 years ago.

Concerts at Nassau Coliseum during hockey season are challenging for the audience on the main floor. Plywood is put down on top of the ice and metal folding chairs were set up in rows. As soon as the concert started everyone stands on the chairs. It's not the best way to enjoy a show, but it's the only way to see the band. My seat was in row 20.

The opening act was Twisted Sister. They were annoying and I wanted them finish their set quickly, so BOC could come on.

BOC's walk-on music was from an old Godzilla movie. They opened with Dominance and Submission. Here are the songs that I remember, but not in any real order.

1. Dominance and Submission -- with the prerequisite audience participation yelling "DOMINANCE" to Eric's "Submission"
2. Dr. Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities on Flame -- with an intro by Albert Bouchard talking about how the New York AM radio station WABC would play this song, but never play any other cult song.
5. ETI
6. Astronomy -- Buck's guitar extended guitar solo and the light show got everyone in the audience to sit down on their chairs. This was one of the best songs of the night.
7. ME262
8. Godzilla
9. Hot Rails to Hell
10. Born to be Wild -- with Eric Bloom riding a motorcycle on the stage
11. OD'd on Life Itself -- this was a surprise for me, and they played it differently than on the record. I liked it.
12. Don't Fear the Reaper
13. "Beatles song" possibly "I want you/She's so heavy"

That's about all I remember.

80-02-08: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Nassau, Long Island, New York Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
12. BTBW
13. Reaper

James says there was a cover played after DFTR - he thinks it might have been a Beatles song - but could it have been a Who medley?

We think they played "Substitute/My Generation" in Providence on the 7th, and we know they did play them in Springfield on the 9th and Poughkeepsie on the 11th (KBFH), so logic would suggest they might also have played them here...?

Can anyone who went confirm or deny this supposition?

Absolutely not at Nassau Coliseum! I'm a huge Who fan, would have remembered that, same with a Beatle song, sorry but just can't recall any special extra encore...

Bolle's setlist I would say is accurate.

OK, thanks - I'll leave it as it is then...

Worked on Rocket's Crown and played hockey after loadout.

A no pyro date, but I think we did the pyro anyway.

80-02-09: Civic Centre, Springfield, Massachusetts Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. The God Zilla :-)
11. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
12. BTBW
13. Reaper
14. Substitute
15. My Generation

Bangor Maine. Stayed on bus all day. Played to the Wall.

I was at the show 2/10/80 - The Rockets opened.

I really don't recall too much about the show itself. I grew up there, and saw quite a few great bands come through town (until they built the Civic Center in Portland, then the biggest names went there).

It was a good show, as I recall, although my BOC knowledge and "listening experience" was pretty much limited to the A.O.F. album and Godzilla. I do remember hearing Dr. Music (I bought the Mirrors tour shirt that night), Hot Rails, Cities on Flame, Godzilla, The Reaper (of course), and E.T.I. I remember the Godzilla head. I have a much better memory of their show here in Peachtree City, GA two summers ago (and I enjoyed it much more)!!

I'd love to have a recording of the show because I'm sure I'd appreciate it much more today.

We drove six hours in a beat up Pinto to go to this show.

Never heard of the Rockets before but they played a kick ass version of Oh Well. I remember that this was supposed to be a Civic Center but it was pretty small.

When Buck played the solo for the Vigil I thought I was going to fall over on my ass, but the crowd had me pinned to the barricade.

I have some great pictures of Buck flipping out and yanking the strings out of his Strat and wailing on one string.

Ahhhhh... the memories : )

80-02-10: Civic Centre, Bangor, Maine Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
12. BTBW
13. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
14. Reaper

I have a similar question about this gig as I had about the Nassau show - did BOC play a "Substitute/My Generation" tribute medley after DFTR...?

• Gig recorded for "King Biscuit" broadcast
• One song ["Dominance and Submission"] from this recording also made it onto "ETL" (released April 1982)

The KBFH broadcast consisted of:

1. Dominance & Submission
2. Dr.Music
3. The Great Sun Jester
4. ETI
5. ME-262
6. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

They recorded the King Biscuit Show at this gig - it sold out instantly, I couldnt go... :(

80-02-11:Mid-Hudson Civic Center Poughkeepsie N.Y. Setlist:

1. A:   KBFH Intro
   AA: Intro
   Dominance & Submission
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities on Flame with Rock&Roll (with Hoarse Voice Intro)
5. The Great Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Hot Rails To Hell
12. Bass Solo - The 5 Gtrs
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Substitute
16. My Generation

Incidentally, the "Substitute" used on the Columbia sampler disk is erroneously credited as being from Providence on the back cover - it is actually from this gig (Poughkeepsie)...

This is the show where I took that pic of Ronald Binder that's on his feature page story...

This date is confirmed by the Capitol Giglist on Moyssi's website.

Check out also Moyssi's concert programme for this gig.

80-02-12: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey Setlist:

1. D&S
2. Dr.Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities
5. Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo - 5 Gtrs
12. BTBW
13. Reaper

On the 13th we had - and I quote - "Big Day Off". The Band sprang for a crew party at Mexican Gardens (Lanier's fave mex food in Greenwich Village) and proceeded to Allentown...

I remember this party VERY well as we had pitchers of Marguritas that I swear had Mescaline or Acid in them... the most Hallucienogenic drunk I've ever been...

I spent the entire evening trying to prevent Bieser (I had him working for See Factor at the time) from grabbing Mrs. Dory Lanier's ample breasts... he would get this gleam in his eye and just make a lunge... as far as I remember I stopped them all...

I mean he never ACTUALLY got hold of one I don't think... (not that she'd of noticed anyway)... that was the HIGHEST I ever got on alcohol... never once got sick, but was absolutely hallucinating and NAILED TO THE CHAIR... if i'd had to drain a lizard, I'd have just had a soggy bum that night... poor Singleton making a wrong turn and ending up in the alley in all those trash cans...

Jeeze Louise... I believe Allen and Dory still frequent that place... there should be a Historical Marker... "At the rear door of this establishment, in the year of our Lord 19 whatever, one Michael Singleton" etc etc...

This Allentown gig was Bieser's last show with BOC... See Factor then put him in Europe with the Scorpions for a while and then he did Billy Joel's tour for a year, then started his own company...

Just a note on Feb. 14, 1980 show. It was in Allentown, but specifically in "Agricultural Hall", not at the Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds is a different, a much better venue located nearby.

Also, The Rockets opened without a doubt.

One quick note, both Ag Hall and the "Fairgrounds" are at the same site, the Allentown Fairgrounds. The other venue referred to as the Fairgrounds is bleacher seating at a race track used only in Summer. I have the ad for this show somewhere.

Here's the setlist for this show (I wrote this out on the front of the ticket envelope while I was at the show - I have a box that I toss all my tickets stubs and such into and it was in the box):

1. Dominance And Submission
2. Dr. Music
3. Mirrors
4. Cities On Flame
5. The Great Sun Jester
6. The Vigil
7. ETI
8. Astronomy
9. ME262
10. Godzilla
11. Hot Rails To Hell
12. Born To Be Wild
13. Encores: Be My Little Baby
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

The problem with the above setlist is that there's no mention of the "five guitars" - the routine at the time was that after the song prior to "Born to be Wild" (whether that be Hot Rails or Zilla) ended, you then got Joe's bass solo and that then flowed into the five guitars... and as that ended with a fade to black, there was a "whuumpppfff" as flashpots exploded, and the front row lost their eyebrows as BOC kicked into "Born to be Wild"...

Therefore I've decided to amend Karl's setlist slightly by adding the "five guitars medley" after "Hot Rails"... if I'm wrong, and BOC didn't actually do that medley at this gig, for whatever reason, please let me know...

Went to NYC AM and moved all equipment from Full Tilt to Thomas Street and then to Grammercy...

These above gigs were the last dates of me using the Mel Welch pyro board. Below the new pyro board made by MPA showed up, thanks to the band agreeing with me that we needed it.

I also never used those "flash cannons" again.

It is so cool to see these posts with my brother Michael sharing those past days.

I don't know what date they ("BOC") all came to Atlanta before we saved the Fox Theater and I was introduced to the band as the little brother! Michael took me to the bus and the band invited me on.

The BOC band made me feel really welcomed and the walk off the bus with them into the fox theater is a memory I still share !!!

Thanks to my big bro Michael, I had that opportunity! And many more !

Little bro Tim.

Returned to Atlanta AM...

What happened in March? If you know, please let me ... Probably work on "Cultosaurus Erectus" but what exactly?

What happened in April? If you know, please let me ... Probably work on "Cultosaurus Erectus" but what exactly?

What happened in May? If you know, please let me ... Probably work on "Cultosaurus Erectus" but what exactly?

14 June 1980 was given as the release date for this record on the All Things Music Plus FaceBook Page.

As usual, I asked them where exactly they got this piece of info, but they couldn't say for sure, so I don't really know how accurate it is...

For more details on this record, please visit the Blue Oyster Cult Songatorium page...

• Soft White Underbelly Show

• Soft White Underbelly Show

• Soft White Underbelly Show

I saw the gig at the Detroit Rock Club, Port Chester NY 06/80.

There was no support act - it was a SWU show, and started really late.

Eric rode the Harley all of about ten feet due to the smaller stage.

It looked like Buck was showing Allen fingering on Dr. Music...

We flew from NYC to Billings, Montana (there is also a Billings Missouri) on 6/25 to meet the buses and start the real summer tour...

We loaded in on the 26 and rehearsed... I went shopping and bought several aviation books and loaded my Prophet 5 memory banks from a cassette tape,

I worked on my Oberheim and ate at the Windmill (KILLER resturaunt not to be missed when in this godforsaken area of American Hinterlands) and we played the show... there was NO Black Sabbath on the show...

Here's a review of this show from the June 30, 1980, issue of the Retort newspaper of Billings, Montana, which mentions Riot (who apparently had many problems during their set) as opener:

• Retort || 30 June 1980

Interesting review - I too have always loved "Status Quo's "Roadhouse Blues" and "Send Me to Hell" is one of my favourite BOC tracks for sure...

Left Billings at noon and Sub Duty to Spokane... watched Saturday Nite Live and ate Pizza...

Bus spelled backwards is Sub... sub duty was when the bus only surfaced (stopped) once every 24 hrs trying to get from one end of the country to the other...

You don't have a Spokane show listed for this tour, but they most definitely played at the Spokane Coliseum in July of that year. [I originally had this date down as Portland - now corrected. Cheers!].

I note that the Blue Oyster Cult official tour database (at blueoystercult.com) lists the Spokane show as 18 July 1980, although that's the date your giglopaedia has the band in Vancouver, BC. I can't corroborate the exact date unfortunately.

The opening act was Riot. I distinctly recall buying their newly released "Narita" LP and being very excited to see them live. Your database indicates that Molly Hatchet were touring with BOC around that time also. I honestly can't remember though if they appeared at the BOC/Riot show in Spokane that year. I did see Molly Hatchet live on a couple of occasions around that time period, but my memory is sketchy in regards to who they appeared with.

I got on to BlueOysterCult.com and checked the tour dates and set list. That was the show indeed. And I am almost sure Black Sabbath was not on the bill. Then again I had my fare share of Scotch at the hotel ;) But seriously, I dont think Black Sabbath was there.

I do remember Eric Bloom, though, resting against the PA cabinet just off stage left watching Riot perform.

I saw in the 12 June 1980 edition of the Spokane Daily Chronicle the following: "The Blue Oyster Cult, with its sophisticated laser show, will be in concert at 8pm June 29 in the Spokane Coliseum. Worth more than $100,000, the laser system is capable of producing dramatic effects according to CBS Records." It then went into full details of Eric's wrist laser and Albert's laser rifle etc.

Somebody's research was a little out-of-date...

According to the following website it seems the BOC gig played 29 June 1980 got 4283 attendance!

• 1980 Spokane Attendances || Robert Schoenberg

Thanks Alessandro. I'm a big fan of context, so here's the full list they give for 1980:

Jan 02	Foreigner	na
Feb 06	Willie Nelson	7,218
Mar 21	Rush	6,972
Mar 27	Van Halen	7,948
May 29	Ted Nugent	6,679
Jun 01	Country Music Special II	3,754
Jun 09	Lawrence Welk	7,218
Jun 17	Grateful Dead	4,050
Jun 19	Kenny Rodgers	7,538
Jun 29	Blue Oyster Cult	4,283
Jul 18	Black Sabbath	Cancelled (Jul 17)
Sep 27	John Denver	7,321
Sep 29	Foghat	5,444
Oct 08	Doobie Brothers	8,500
Oct 29	Randy Hansen & Head East	1,800
Oct 31	Commodores	6,342
Dec 14	Cheap Trick	6,453

The previous year, BOC drew 8,517, pretty much the capacity, yet this year, they only got half that number!! Wonder what the reason for that was...?

The unknown band Stranger opened Gig 017 @ Pendleton, Ore

Sub duty to Oakland. Went to Hunan and Tower with Downey...

No opening act. Tasco basket fell on Jack. Rolled on to Oakland.

A Tasco basket is about a ton of PA gear... at this stage in R&R touring, most P.A. systems were modular in construction, meaning numbers of identical cabinets each containing bass, mid range and hi frequency (treble if you will) components...

It made for MUCH quicker load ins and outs, but prevented more knowledgeable sound men (like our very own GpG and all the fine tech staff of TASCO) from doing a bit of a "custom installation" for the varied shaped and sized venues... where with the fully modular systems your only choices each night would be "more" or "less" of everything, bt with our TASCO component type system, the choices were "more bass here" "more treble there"... this needs a long throw type device to reach it, this needs a shorter throw and so on... it was infinitely more variable in composition and focus as to where it was pointed ...

The biggest problem presented by such a system logistically is How Do You Fly It ??... in other words, in the large venues, some of it had to hang from the rafters or "fly" to get to the upper reaches... this was accomplished by making a large cubic basket, or box with a framework of square aluminum tubing with a plywood floor...

On this you stacked the individual Bass bins (speaker cabinets with woofers in them) Mid bins with smaller speakers, hi frequency horns, etc... these were then strapped into place with very wide cargo type webbed belts and fastened down with ratchet straps... just like you see loads secured to truck beds (lorries to you lot).. these things were made the correct width and height to just fit easily into the back of a Hi-Cube semi...

On Black and Blue, we had one truck that was just full of those for our flying gear... the advantage here is that these things could be unloaded very quickly and rolled right into the gig, where the rigging was already hanging in the ceiling to put them in the air (we pioneered the concept of having 2 complete sets of rigging and leapfrogging the riggers...

Altogether, that's at least 6 truck loads of sound and lights.. then 1 semi each for us and Sabbs back line and a cack truck that was full of odds and ends, fog machines... giant prehistoric monsters... silver spinning schwantzes and the revolutionary counter rotating giant beveled schwantze of Kunagonda... and 2 trucks leap frogging full of rigging... I wonder if anybody made any money??...

I made almost as much off charging the promoter for tuning the clavinet and my piece of the piano and organ kickback as I did from BOC some weeks... Remind me to explain how that little scam worked sometime...

Every night we played a show, there were riggers already at the next gig working thru the night to have that mush already done when we got there the next morning (it took a LOOONG time to rig some of the bigger ones... 8-10 hard hours)...

So now that we know the what and why of a TASCO flying basket, we're looking at an aluminum framed box approx 12-14 ft wide... and a little taller than that, maybe 15 ft... and about 6 ft deep I'll try to get the actual figures from my buddy Fred Bieser... he was a rigger and it would have about 1000 lbs of P.A. stacked on it and strapped down...

So one night as they are loading one of these things into the back of the truck, the lift operator didn't quite get it down enough before he backed out his forks, bringing it backwards a foot or 2 and leaving this thing tottering at the back of the truck with 1/2 wheels on and 1/2 wheels off...

Now there's at least 4 people inside the truck holding on, around 8 or 10 at the back of the truck... it quickly becomes obvious the men in the truck can't hold it, but our truck driver Jack Fisk, a man of about 60 yrs in age is standing right at the base of it, making sure it cleared the truck on the way in.

Luckily enough hands got under this thing to take the weight enough to slow it's fall to enable Jack to ALMOST squirm out from under it before it finally came down the last foot or so trapping his legs... the fork lift was quickly brought back into position and raised it up... the damage had been done, but not nearly so bad as it could have been...

We got him an ambulance (he was in some serious pain and we figured both legs broken)... these trucks have to roll so the loadout then finished up and a TASCO worker with a proper license was laid on for Jack's truck... since band gear is the last thing to load in the next day, our bus stayed behind along with R. Downey to see about Jack... lo and behold he was X-rayed from top to bottom and that old man hobbled up into that bus a few hours later on a pair of crutches... no broken bones!!..

We insisted he take the large fold-out bed in the rear lounge for the evening and until he felt like moving back into his truck... I helped him get dressed that next morning (I was the only one already up and could hear from his grunts groans that he was having a bit of a test) and his legs were the color of a ripe eggplant and just about as swollen... but he got up into his own truck that evening and didn't miss a lick... he wasn't helping load the truck for a few days, but he was driving it...

Loaded into Oakland and did soundcheck. Saw Pelican PM.

• Day on the Green #1 Show

Band played really well. Stayed after gig Forever. Big Dinner. San Francisco.

The posters sold on wolfgangsvault.com have this line-up:

1. Sammy Hagar
2. Blue Oyster Cult
3. REO Speedwagon
4. The Babys

for the July 4th 1980 Day on the Green #1... whilst their T-Shirts have this line-up:

1. Sammy Hagar
2. Blue Oyster Cult
3. REO Speedwagon
4. Triumph
5. Randy Hansen

Which then to believe? I'd think a poster might be more accurate for show info but then again they're perhaps less likely to have been printed closer to the event so it might be argued that the T-shirt could reflect the actual line-up more accurately...

The Babys were originally scheduled, but soon after the first announcement they were "replaced" by Triumph -- no idea what happened. Later still, a fifth act (Randy Hansen, a wonderful Jimi Hendrix impressionist) was added to open (Bill Graham shows often finalized the opening act in the week or two before the show).

So, to summarize: The Babys did not actually perform at this show, Triumph did; and Triumph followed the opening act of Randy Hansen.

I attended the Day on the Green in July of 1980, it was my second major concert, I was 17 years old.

As stated, the Baby's did not perform that day. I believe they ended up performing at a prior or later Day on the Green. The Line Up Randy Hansen/Triumph/REO Speedwagon/BOC/Hagar is the correct line up.

BOC did the 5 guitars routine, and Buck and Eric slid the necks of their guitars together to make wicked sounds. They performed about 4PM in full daylight, no light show or anything. Energetic, tight set. ETI was one of my favorites from that day.

Randy Hansen at that time was touring in support for one of the most underrated guitar albums of all time, his debut album "Randy Hansen" and was NOT doing the Hendrix impersonation on this tour. He closed with a 10 minute jam on "Champagne and Cocaine" It was amazing guitar playing!

Triumph had just scored a hit with "Lay it on the Line" and their short set was pretty good.

Great memories!

80-07-04: Coliseum, Oakland, California - (Day On The Green) Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In the Hills
4. Cities On Flame
5. The Marshall Plan
6. Me262
7. Unknown Tongue
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Steaks at crew meal. Sound loaded out first.

This might have been the gig of the Tom Newman pyro incident, but I'm not sure if this is the correct year. Newman went on to setting Michael Jackson's hair on fire. But, today he is a big pyro cheese in LA.

The opening act on the July 5, 1980 show in Fresno was Randy Hansen. He came out with the Hendrix afro wig on and played a half hour of Hendrix and took off the wig and played a half hour of song off his album. Great set, but then BOC came out and blew the roof off with many tunes from the fantastic Cultosaurus Erectus album. Included Eric flipping the bird to a roadie dressed up as the Iatola Khomenie during Divine Wind (I think).

Sorry no setlist but I can confirm the opening act.

From a 1980 issue of Performance (for some reason I didn't note the date of the issue):

July 5, 1980
Selland Arena
Fresno, CA

BLUE OYSTER CULT
Randy Hansen
Shakin' Street (your website only lists one opener - Randy Hansen - but this is how the listing appeared in Performance)

3,470 total tickets (7,333 total tickets available)
$31,580

Avalon Productions
$8.75 - $9.75

Day in the Dirt - Jive gig at Speedway with lots of wind and dust.

A "Jive gig" is any gig that just wasn't right for some reason... something definite (a "wierd" gig would be "jive" too... just very intangible as to just why)... as in "this gig should never have been booked"...

This one was on a dirt speedway and the crowd was generating a constant cloud of dust that was being blown into the stage by a constant 25-30 mph wind... being on that stage felt like being on a ship going into a stiff (dirty) breeze...

I blew pounds of dirt out of all my gear with compressed air over the next few shows...

I think REO was on this show before us...

You are correct about REO. Rick wouldn't let them use their huge keyboard risers and they were pissed.

I attended this show, it was my 4th BOC concert, I was 22. It was windy, dusty, and hot, we locals called that "summertime" I can certainly see your point of view, what with the equipment and all. Good call Sam, "Day in the Dirt" being you guys had just been in Oakland. I do seem remember there being issues with REO before they took the stage.

I did have to babysit my Buddie who took TWO Quaaludes, I tried to talk him out of the second one, but he wasn't having it, fortunately he didn't cause much trouble. I didn't take any myself... I was married with children after all. All in all I remember it as being a pretty kick ass concert, the T-car concerts were always fun. BOC rocked as always, but I couldn't begin to give you a set list... it was 30 years ago.

I had forgotten all about those tee shirts, what a hoot! I'd love to get my hands on one. You see there is a back story to the "City Approved". The powers that be in C.C. (the good ole boys) hated rock concerts and the filthy hippies associated with them, and did anything they could to stop them.

There was often times a law suit like when BOC played there in 78 they tried to take the owners liquor license for one day, and he said not so fast, lawyered up and won. And sell beer he did, by the six, and twelve pack, how convenient...

There was always a rumor that the crew had a tussle with the promoter after the show, and had to physically extract the bands pay, is that true?

Played Other End and Everything on Floor. Left for Amarillo.

Sub duty to Amarillo. Arrived PM.

Went to Doctor and got medicine. Hung out with Downey and O'Connell all night.

Left Amarillo AM. Sub duty all day and night to Houston. Amarillo - Blown.

As I remember, we knew about the cancellation a day or so before, but legally had to show up and document that we were there to do the show on that day to keep the promoter's money...

I don't think the band went there... most likely they would have gone to LA after Bakersfield and just hung out there...

Arrived Houston AM. Hung out all day with Downey.

This date seems to keep cropping up - it didn't happen - I don't know what I have to do to put an end to this show... Sabbath may well have played somewhere that night but BOC did NOT. BOC played San Antonio on the 14th...

According to the original schedules, Houston was scheduled originally for this date (12th) and was later moved to the 13th...

Weirdly enough, San Antonio was originally down for the 11th!! Where this poster got its date from, I have no idea - but it's wrong.

Here's what really happened on the 12th: we loaded into Houston PM. Did soundcheck sans Lanier. Talked to Bolt and All.

As manager of both bands, Sandy Pearlman arranged a co-headlining BOC tour with Black Sabbath in support of "Cultosaurus Erectus", calling it the "Black and Blue" Tour.

However, things didn't run smoothly. In his 'Iron Man' book, Tony Iommi says:

In an ultimateclassicrock interview, Eric Bloom explained things from a BOC perspective:

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

This gig throws up a couple of anomalies.

First - the venue. Everywhere you look - ticket stubs, posters, Sabbath websites etc - you see the venue given as "Robertson Stadium".

Thanks to Sam Judd, I've seen BOC electrician Ward Caryle's detailed call-sheet for this gig and he clearly states that it took place at "Southern Houston University (Jeppeson) Stadium". He goes on to give a full spec for the venue as well as band running order - which for the record was different to the advertised line-up on the posters:

1. 12.00-12.30: Billy Squire
2. 13.15-14.00: Shakin Street
3. 14.50-16.00: Alice Cooper
4. 16.45-17.30: Riot
5. 18.20-20.00: BOC
6. 20.50-22.30: Black Sabbath

The other - slight - anomoly is Alice Cooper's presence as I've seen Alice sites which had him playing Springfield on this date! Yet he's on the call-sheet list... Did Alice play?

This was the first Black and Blue show!

Regarding Alice - I would have to admit in court that I have no memory of seeing even a road case with his name on it, but my notes have him down for this gig...

I only remember BOC and Sabbath and that it was the start of that whole Black'n'Blue deal and it was sooo hot that one only left the bus to do the show...

We even loaded in the night before when it was "cooler"... probably only 98 or so... I have a note of 106 degrees for the show date...

BOC did one of their very rare sound checks and I think I even remember Sabbs stuff being there as well...

I saw this show 10 days before I turned 15. I remember it well. Jeppeson Stadium on the University Of Houston campus was renamed Robertson Stadium at this time, thus the confusion.

Alice Cooper did play that night. He had his hair tucked back the whole show and during the last song, I think it was "School's out" he untucked his hair. We all thought he had cut his hair and gone "punk". I remember him bringing out a huge boa constrictor and had it around his neck.

I don't remember Billy Squire being at that show. Sabbath headlined and was mesmerizing.

I've heard others talk about the heat, but I don't remember. I think when you're 15, you're not focused how hot it is or how loud it is upfront. Hmm... I wondering what that ringing sound is in my ear??

I was in the crowd for this show. Just turned 18 two weeks before. Traveled to Houston with a couple of friends from Lake Charles, LA.

Damn, it was so hot! I do remember them spraying the crowd in the infield w/ fire hoses to cool us down.

Had to sneak into the shade quite a few times under the bleachers to cool off. Also remember Alice Cooper being there and performing.

My favorite memory was when boc had a harley ride up on stage for the "Born to be Wild" performance.

I was at that show at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston, Texas. It was without a doubt the best show I have ever been to. It was a really hot day. This is back when we still had festival seating and concerts were actually a place where you could hang out. Not like today's "Herd em' in, get they're money, and herd em' out", shows. We were not frisked prior to going in. No one felt up our girlfriends. We were simply asked if we had any glass bottles in our cooler. The only rule was no glass bottles allowed.

We arrived with a cooler with a few beers, a wine skin full of Southern Comfort, and herbal remedies and assorted paraphernalia. My friend James and I , along with three young ladies were in top form. If I remember correctly, There was an opening act that did not show up. James swears that it was Bon Jovi. I don't remember, it would be great trivia if it was. Alice Cooper was there on his Clones tour. BOC on Cultesourus Errectus. THe Rockets, man i love they're version of "Oh Well", and of Course Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio. It rocked all night long.

I was still in High School, this was my very first show. I was there primarily for Blue Oyster Cult. What a show, Buck was at the top of his game. I was all sweaty pushed up against the stage. It was awsome. Wasn't it a great time to be young and alive then?

I long so much for those days I was young, had my health, and the world was mine. What more was there. Oh well, decided to drop you a line. Don't you wish shows were like that again?

I was at this show... still have the t-shirt, somewhere, with all of the bands listed on the back. I can remember Black Sabbath (with Dio, as headliner), Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Billy Squier, Riot, Shakin' Street, and Bram Tchaikovsky (I can't remember them playing, so they could have been the cancellation.)

It was played at Jeppesen Stadium (renamed Robertson Stadium) on the U of Houston campus. I was 19 years old and having the time of my life.

You could bring anything with you, as long as it wasn't in glass container, so in our wisdom, my roommate and I brought two gallon jugs of Vodka and Orange Juice. Did I mention that it was over 100 degrees???? After about a pint of this concoction, we were wasted and dehydrated.

Fortunately, some lovely lasses sitting in front of us were thoughtful enough to bring lots of water and sandwiches... it made for a wonderful trade! I recall having to go indoors into the concourse to cool off, around 2pm. One of the empty concession stalls was opened by some local "entrepeneurs" and one could buy anything you needed... acid, weed, Quaaludes, speed... wow, times have changed!

This was one of the best concert experiences of my life; an all-day rock extravaganza with the monsters of rock, chill crowd, hot summer... and LOUD.

Oh to re-visit those days...

I have seen thanks to Americanradiohistory website vintage BILLBOARD issues of 2 August 1980 where promoter told about the August heatwave brought little attendance (only 16500 instead of 30000).

• Attendance || Billboard

• "Summer Jam '80"
• "Black'n'Blue" show #

Bimbo-Rama indoors gig in San Antone. Got loaded after load-out. Begun Sub Duty to Canada.

Ahhh San Antonio... world famous in the R&R community as a serious hotbed of the Bimbonic Plague... lots and lots of little underage (usually 14-17... by the time they were 18 they were in a "serious" relationship/first marriage) hispanic girls...

So many dressed all alike that George Geranios and I termed them "Spandexicans" ... there's probably a whole book to be written on that one damned venue...

I saw on TV the footage of it being destroyed a few years back... they built a newer place mid 90's I believe and the former "groupie hotbed" became a gigantic CHURCH !!... one of those black/hispanic mega-things... but instead of a new "battleship Jesus" they just took over a facility that had probably seen drunken orgies that would embarrass perverted Romans flare up in every nook and cranny... never mind the "team showers"... once the girls figured out that after the show these spaces filled up with horny hardworking men getting naked and soapy... it drew them like flies...

The scene during the day was the minor functions these young ladies had to perform just to secure the aftershow pass that would be their ticket to the showers later... most would NOT get naked early in the day... (is that a catholic thing?) but would perform any oral services imaginable... they didn't know that the pass was a certain color that was only good AFTER the show... sometimes if the weather was bad, a thinking production manager would actually let them in a room (usually supplied with snacks and drinks... no alcohol... remember these girls were under age... wouldn't want to break any laws)...

Some of the other bands were aware of this enterprise as well, many roadies would even "pick something out" for their employers... I never did... had to draw the line somewhere didn't I...

Even though by this time I was a little long in the tooth for these little girls and even more married, it was quite an entertaining bit of drama to try and guess which ones would actually ever actually even SEE a band member (although again sometimes an effort WAS made to arrange a space where these samaritans COULD watch the show, but still did not actually have backstage access until after the show...

Here's some info on the BOC gig on July 14, 1980.

It was supposed to be an outdoor gig but there was a huge heat wave that year. There had been some deaths in the city so the promoter was encouraged to move indoors. That somehow caused some of the listed bands to cancel.

The line up I remember was Sabbath (with Dio on vocals), BOC, Mother's Finest and some version of Humble Pie.

Because it was an all day gig, the fact that it was indoors removed some of the buzz. Do not remember it being a very good show.

Does anybody know the exact running order for this gig? Did Sabbath or BOC headline?

I was at this show and have a stub, if you want a scan. My memory is iffy, but I recall that Black Sabbath didn't make it to that show.

I remember BOC and Riot, but I'm all but positive there was no Sabbath. Could be wrong.

I've looked for reviews online to confirm it one way or the other, but I've never been able to find anything.

Well, Sam Judd's notes on the gig didn't mention there being no Sabbath and that's the sort of thing he would have included if had been the case...

Also, black-sabbath.com lists the show, so my inclination is to assume the Sabbs played this gig.

Can anybody else who attended Summer Jam '80 chip in on this one to confirm or deny that Sabbath played this gig...?

Sub duty - Ate weird chicken and Cedrone woke me up to see plane.

I wish I could remember the chicken or the plane... our bus driver knew I was a plane nut, so whenever we were about to pass a roadside plane or boneyard (there are many of those out west) (note Pima Air Museum on the 26th July), he would alert me or have someone go back and do it as there was usually one person awake at all times...

Some Sabbath sites have BOC playing Billings with Sabbath on July 16th. I asked Sam Judd to check over his road diary for this date to see if it could have happened...

The 16th is second day of sub duty between San Antonio and Vancouver BC... look at it on a map... it's gotta be 2500 mi. I have down "Sub Duty all day... Stopped in Montana" (could we have popped in on Sabs and played a show??? not fekking likely) to buy squirt guns (we were BORED) and I almost left my wallet in truck stop...

Arrived in Seattle and showered at Edgewater. Went through Customs and ate Chinese food after arriving.

Vancouver B.C.- no Sabs... Prophet died and got Rent-a-Prophet. Took pictures of buses.

Seattle was originally scheduled for this date...

Again, Sabbath sites have BOC playing with Sabbath in Spokane Coliseum on this date...

I remember the Vancouver date well... Sabs may well have played Spokane that night but it wasn't with us - anyway, we had just played there on 6/29...

Besides the gig in Spokane would have been a bit small for as massive a production as B&B... it's a tight little procenium stage...

The venue in Vancouver was the big place where the Hockey team played... I actually have some pics I took of the beautiful new tour buses we had then sitting by that arena and mountains in the background... I remember doing a gig with Molly Hatchett there but can't say if it was this one... do they have a site???

That was the first time I saw BOC. Molly Hatchet and Riot were the opening acts.

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

Outdoors gig - fine Rent-a-Prophet. Lights were in trouble. Rained on load-out.

Sabbath sites have BOC down as headliners for this sold out show, playing to a whopping 28,000 people...

Just to let you know the boc show in seattle included Riot as the first band of the day - this was the running order:

1. Riot
2. Molly Hatchet
3. BOC
4. Sabbath

I would yield to Howard... only thought that BOC closed cause I remember actually helping some lighting types on the load-out and we were usually only around for that if we closed...

That was an AWESOME gig... crowd energy very focused and intense...one of those days when it was all worthwhile...

That seems to place Hatchett at the Vancouver gig too... I had forgotten about Riot... they did not go to Vancouver... they stayed in Seattle and we left all our contraband with them to cross the old "Douanes" and they smoked most of it by the time we got it back!!!

My second concert. We were on vacation visiting relatives in Seattle (I lived in El Paso, TX at the time). Sixteen years old. I was all bummed out that I would miss Blue Oyster Cult while on vacation (they were playing EP).

The day after I got there while at a family get-together, my cousin told me that Black Sabbath and BOC were playing THE NEXT DAY!!!!! Along with Molly Hatchet and Riot!!! I went and asked my mom for some money and surprisingly she forked it over! Enough for me AND my cousin to go!!! I was so stoked!

It was quite the experience for that 16 year-old kid. By the time BOC came on, I was stoned to the bejeezers. I had never had the kind of weed that they had up in the northwest!!! Growing up in a border town, you know all we got was the crap from across the border.

Needless to say, I had a great time, fell in love with Blue Oyster Cult for kicking ass and Seattle for being such a cool town. Moved there immediately after graduation.

It was one helluva day for me, though. And I still have the T-shirt! LOL It is threadbare as hell, but I still have it. It has Satan battling Godzilla on the front.

Just seeing two of the biggest bands in rock and roll on the same day blew me away. I really wasn't "into" Blue Oyster Cult like I have become over the years, but always liked them when my older brother played them, so I thought it would be cool to check them out, and it was. They freakin' ROCKED. And I knew that I'd definitely have to check these guys out again!

24 years and about 24 shows later...

That was the last concert they allowed in Memorial Stadium for about 12 years, I think. Too many complaints about how LOUD it was!!!

7/19/80. This was a huge show in an outdoor high school football stadium known as Memorial Stadium. 30,000+ at show. Opening bands were Black Sabbath, Molly Hatchet and Riot.

I was at the Black & Blue show at Memorial Stadium in Seattle on 19 July 80. I'm now applying doses of good German beer and Jim Beam to try to get my memory working.

The only thing that has shook loose so far is that the show was so loud that there were so many complaints that it was the last rock concert allowed in Memorial Stadium. Of course I haven't been in the NW for 15 years and that might have changed since then.

Oh yeah... and the freeway was so jammed with concert-going traffic that it was slow enough for us to get out of the car and walk along passing beers and stuff back and forth between the other cars.

Then all of a sudden things sped up as we neared the middle of the city and a friend almost got left behind. He was running full tilt between the cars to catch up and just made it. People were going crazy cheering him on.

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ BOC Headlined ]

Salem/Portland ore. - Outdoors and I believe this was a B&B show. No real Brain Damage - VERY late load-out and leaving... Sabbath stalled big time and was the first sign of trouble whenever they were meant to play before us...

The July 20 1980 show at the Oregon state fairgrounds in Salem did not include Black Sabbath. BOC headlined and B.S. was nowhere around! I was there.

Sabbath were there all right... they took forever to get onstage (stalled about 45 min and then played over by 30 min...

There were also a few actual dust-ups when their crew people (on orders from RJ Dio) actually tried to prevent BOC crew from accessing the stage during their show (we had T/P to do, synths/guitars to tune things to get ready... very eye opening day...

This was an outdoor gig known as the Oregon Jam. Along with Molly Hatchet and Black Sabbath, the group Riot also played.

This was one of the wildest concerts I have ever attended. The Fan Club site has the city down as Winston Salem, but I can confirm that it was Salem. There is a Winston, Oregon, but it is nowhere near Salem. By the way, BOC was the headliner at this show...

Sub Duty to Ventura. Arrived late PM and partyed all night with Ralph and Tony.

Shipped Prophet and checked out gig.

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

Another dirty nasty show... Serious Brain Damage with Rude Fans, False Prophets and Dirt...

"False Prophets" refers to the fact that my Prophet 5 synth was ill and kept having to fly back and forth to S.F. for repairs... no one else could fix them at the time...

I was renting them and some of them had the capability for me to load my programs in via a data port/cassette interface... some did not... That meant I had to sit down and frantically program about 20 sounds worth of presets in there...

The one in Ventura was to be one with an interface and it not only was NOT one of those,it belonged to a CHURCH and came with a woman whose orders from God were that it was not to be let out of her sight, nor were ANY of the presets to be changed in any way... I grabbed it and ran for the bus and locked the door and got on the walkie talkie to the Stage manager and got him to deal with her whilst I reprogrammed it and she didn't see it again till I was done with it that night... and I put all her sounds back in as that bank was all very basic diagnostic stuff from the factory anyway...

Highlight of the day for me was hanging out with Martin Birch and Glenn Hughes all day in the back of the bus while I programmed that synth... Glenn remembered me from the Hydra days (we did a load of shows with Trapeze and Martin had been a hero of mine since In Rock and Fireball)...

They had actually come down to see Davy Kirkwood who had been on the tour, but had left so they just hung out in our bus as my guests waiting for the show (I had a pocket full of Peruvian Marching Powders which I'm sure added to my Charm that day...)

By the way - Davy Kirkwood was a Scottish sound tech who worked for Tasco and was out as Sabbath's Front-Of House assistant (set up all the FOH gear for Gungee... sabbs soundman...) for a while... Sabbs had a set of consoles and FOH effects and we had our own... they just moved the multicore from one set to the other during the changeover...

Mini-moogs to the World and Dead Prophets. Hot...

I ran into a poster on ebay for this gig (see above). It confirms the location of the BOC show as the Las Vegas Convention Center, not Aladdin Theatre. The year is most defintely 1980 as Shakin' Street was the opening band used exclusively most that summer.

In the interest of accuracy, I'm 99.9% certain that the concert in Las Vegas in July 1980 was not at the Aladdin, but rather at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Judging by the poster above, it looks like you're right...

80-07-24: Convention Centre, Rotunda, Las Vegas, Nevada Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. Roadhouse Blues
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• BOC were rained out, but Shakin' Street, Molly Hatchett and Black Sabbath did play...

• BOC played a make-up Phoenix date on 3rd September

Incidentally 7/25 was to be Phoenix but was rained out during the intro music... HUGE downpour flooded the area where the dimmer packs for the lights were and so much rain built up in the roof that Downey climbed up and cut a hole in it to keep the whole thing from collapsing... the staging company was still suing him years later...

I think that's the closest we ever got to doing a show and didn't play it... we spent a day in a hotel parking lot in El Paso opening up gear and testing and drying things... I had several pieces of gear that had gotten REALLY wet in the deluge caused by downey cutting the roof... but if he hadn't the whole stage might well have collapsed...

I believe the date of July 25, 1980 is correct. The venue was called Phoenix Municipal Stadium (outdoor baseball stadium where the San Francisco Giants AAA minor league team was playing it's games).

The line-up and show order was: Shakin' Street, Molly Hatchet, Black Sabbath(Dio), and Blue Oyster Cult.

By the time BOC was ready to play, a summer monsoon storm came whipping up with heavy lightning. Rain then started to pour and due to that lightning danger, they cancelled the BOC set.

If I mentioned I had a stub, I was incorrect. I looked through my collection and realized I don't seem to have it. But I'm 95% confident that the date was on a Friday, so it had to be the 25th.

Visit Mark's vegas4boc site...

I was at the BOC & Sabbath Concert at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, July 25th, 1980. The one that was rained out. It was my yearly birthday concert and I was 18.

Oh, but let me tell you, It was and still is, the most extraordinary concert I have ever been to, bar none, for this +45 yrs of concert going gal. As the summer monsoon storms is common every year here in Arizona, it is also concert season.

The day was a blistering 109.0°F, with 67% dew point - perfect recipe for a storm.

Sabbath playing in the rain, with lightening streaking across the sky was the perfect stage setting for their music. And the venue reminded me of a mini Woodstock in the aftermath.

Sub Duty to El Paso. Went by Pima Air Museum. Arrived PM and Combat in the Bar.

One of our lighting guys named Jonathan Wyman would frequently get very drunk and act out scenes from 50's and 60's TV shows... that particular nights selection was "Combat" a BandW 30 min WWII deal that followed a small squad thru their travails...

None of them ever got seriously hurt and they never missed anything they shot at... I can still see Jon body rolling himself over tables and booths all the while flinging "grenades" of empty soda and beer cans and screaming in his best Vic Morrow baritone... "Kirby!!, Get that B.A.R. set up and send for the medic!!!"

Day in El Paso.

El Paso. Everything broken. Prophet still not working. Alan rode on bus to Austin.

Although I think they might have played it twice, I can only remember goin thru all the hassle to play Monsters once... I had to move one of the mini-moogs so Bloom could cover the horn parts on it and it was in El Paso Texas..

According to the stub from this show, the concert was held at the El Paso County Coliseum, with Sammy Hagar opening.

Admission was $8.00 and the concert was sponsored by KPAS FM-94 (The PASS), there in El Paso.

Despite Bert's ticket info regarding Sammy Hagar being on this bill, I've since designated this as a gig with Krokus. Here's why...

First of all, here's a listing for this gig from the Friday, July 25, 1980 edition of "El Paso Herald-Post":

Then, thanks to Alessandro Borri, I read with interest the following in the 23 Aug 1980 issue of "Amusement Business":

So, no mention of Sammy Hagar, but if he was on the tickets, then he must have originally been on the bill for the El Paso concert. But what happened...?

A slight clue comes from Austin TX, in the Saturday, July 26, 1980 edition of the "Austin American-Statesman":

This indicates that both Sammy Hagar and Krokus were originally scheduled to be in Austin in this time-frame, but further insight comes four days later, again from the "Austin American-Statesman":

So, it can be seen that Sammy Hagar cancelled his Austin show, leaving one of his support bands, Krokus, casting around for an alternate gig.

It looks like something similar may have happened in El Paso, but whether or not Krokus were originally set to open the BOC/Hagar bill or were simply drafted in afterwards to replace the cancelled Hagar is currently unknown...

80-07-28: Civic Centre, El Paso, Texas Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Monsters
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Arrive Austin AM. Shipped Prophet and ate Szechuan with Downey. Later went to Willie's Place.

• "Black'n'Blue" show

I only found out about this cancelled gig thanks to the following article in the 23 Aug 1980 edition of Amusement Business [Vol 92 #34] - I'll quote it in full as it's pretty interesting:

This seems a strange one to me - wouldn't both bands' gear/specs requirements have been made available prior to the promoters booking the gig and selling all the tickets etc...?

• No Allen Lanier - Steve Schenck filled in on key boards for him.

Austin would appear to have been a "fill-in" gig when the date became available after the cancellation of the Albuquerque "Black'n'Blue" show (see previous entry).

Austin Tx. - Armadillo World Headquarters (It was a LARGE club) - no sabs. No Lanier, so this show was the first one where Nasty Nick stepped in to play keys...

These next few gigs document the ONLY times I am aware of that Shenck filled in on keys... it is reported several places that he did this on the "Albert's Back Tour" in Feb 1985 but I was there and can assure you that it did NOT occur...

Oddly enough, Allen was there right up until showtime... he came down in the afternoon and showed SS some of the stuff and I handled all the synths for him so far as getting them on the right settings... Steve is a decent player and stood right next to me over there most nights, so he knew all too well where all the parts went... It worked a lot better when Ross started doin the guitar parts as Schenk tried those and it was weak...

He gave the guitar bits his best shot, but it was pathetic... unlike his keys which were more than adequate... he even joked to me that his Hebrew side was thinking about how much money could be saved by him moving to that gig permanently... just a joke... he even began to dress for the part at the Band's request... jeans-T-shirt and leather vest... sure wish I had a pic...

I also wish I still had the T-shirt I had made that said "I Roadied For Nasty Nick and All I Got Was This T-Shirt"...

People were never told squat as to Lanier's absence... not the stagehands... nobody - not even the promoters... some of them figured it out and showed up over on my side during the show, fucking with SS and trying to crack him up...

By the way: Nasty Nick Shannos was the "wrestling" name that Pearlman/Dictators put on him...

Murray Krugman gave me mine... "Schoolboy Sam"...

The naming was totally random... like "Handome Dick Manitoba"... Krugman wanted to pair me with Handsome Dick as a tag team... his plan included me wearing a cap and gown into the ring and bringing an apple for the referee... OY!!

Your 1980 info is only partially correct. Allen played the Austin show.

Damn - I hate conflicting info... on the one hand, Steve Schenck didn't play that many gigs with BOC, so you'd obviously grant a great deal of credence to his personal testimony as to which gigs he did play, but on the other hand, Sam's never wrong... this is a toughie...

Could anyone who went offer any insights on this one...?

I've read the above (about the possible absence of Allen) and was surprised by it after all these years. I can't honestly say I remember Allen being there and I was not under any influence that night.

In my recessed memory I think I may have recalled that I was wondering who was on keys that night, so its quite possible.

My overall memory was it was a performance triumph from them and I was quite happy how good that show as. The reason being: I saw them in '78 at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Ft. Worth, (Spectres/ Some Enchanted Evening tour)... they were fabulous. Lasers in full glory.

One of the best concerts I ever attended and I've seen the big acts... Zeppelin, The Who, Stones, Yes (in the round), Tull, etc...

Jump forward the next year, June of '79, where they closed the show at the 2nd "Texxas Jam" festival at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas... they followed Nazareth, Boston, Heart and an explosive and hungry Van Halen (wow!).

I was ready for the crowd to witness their brilliance, but unfortunately no lasers... they came on late... a northern storm had blown in and it went from a day of miserable hot temps to a chilly windy night. It effected the sound.

They didn't play their best, so when I saw them the next summer in July '80 at the Armadillo, they really redeemed (no pun intended) themselves.

• No Allen Lanier - Steve Schenck filled in again on keys as well as Ross the Boss on guitar

Norman OK - Decent gig - Nasty Nick on keys again and Ross The Boss from Shakin Street (and Dictators) played guitar parts from behind the amp line... obviously Shakin Street was on this show and probably many more of these...

I was at this show and they had a great laser light show. I thought the music was great, but the light show was the most memorable part of it, he shined a wrist laser at a mirror ball suspended in the middle of the arena and it reflected all over the crowd. That light show was legendary. I don't remember much else of it.

I just happened upon your website/history of BOC when I was commenting on the drum forum that I am a member of... Someone brought up BOC.. Here's a copy of the url to the Drumforum.org topic:

• http://drumforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30974&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Have a great one, nice website/archive!

80-07-31: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. Maserati G.T.
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• No Allen Lanier - Steve Schenck filled in again on keys as well as Ross the Boss on guitar

Convention Center - Shenck and Ross played...

According to the promoters' website - stonecityattractions.com - the openers at this gig were Shakin Street, then Riot and then BOC...

After the Dallas show, if memory serves me, I played some other shows - one was Lacrosse, WI, and another was Erie, PA.

This is a bit odd - the Minneapolis "Star Tribune" was running full-page "Schon Productions" adverts at the end of June/start of July for two separate Met Center gigs - one by BOC on 3 Aug and one by Sabbath for the 19 Aug.

However, by 20 July, the Tribune ads were announcing a combined "Union of Heavy Metal Giants" gig featuring both bands under the "Black and Blue Tour" banner on the 19 Aug.

The Sabbs name was in bolder type than BOC's, and was on the top line of the ad, subtly indicating just who was the boss in this "Union"...

• No Allen Lanier - Steve Schenck filled in again on keys

La Crosse - I believe it was Wisconsin. But not sure... I tend to think Wisco cause we went to Chicago and hung out the next 2 days - Lanier is back

Opening Band... Savoy Brown... If my memory is correct this was an offshoot of Foghat...? To be honest I really dont remember a whole lot about the show...After all I was 19 years old then and a lot of memory is gone...

I do know that I have a ticket stub for the show and have seen posters from it here in town as well

This was my 2nd BÖC show, and I was pumped up! C.E was the new release of the day, and my friends and i spun it and the other disc's of the time for the whole day. I remember we got a $40.00 bag of lumbo from a dude down the hall and had a ton of booze! Yea! BÖC is in town tonight! Rock and Roll!

General admission was the rule of the day... dem were da day'z! We got beer, and a seat in the 2nd row Balcony, dead center wich was a basketball court away from stage...Time to rock! Savoy Brown., dont remember much of them... ;)

BOC took the stage and it was PANDEMONIUM! Screw the spelling... A typical 1980 show, Rockin! Marshall plan, Hungry Boy'z, Devine wind, and the hits of the day (Reaper), and Zilla...Zilla, with Albert in mask under the strobe lights...still etched in my mind.

Lazer show was not to be had... saw that a year before... 1st BOC show and another story...

This one is not on the "list" of shows... I have contacted Bolle a number of times, and no reply...

This show went down as one of the classics for me as it was the last rock show at the old venue... BÖC finally came back here on Oct. 5th, 02...Albert and the Brain Surgeons here on July 25th...Al commented that it had been 20 years since he had been here.!

Let us hope this is not the end of the BÖC and tBS in La Crosse, WI...

Wish I had more to offer, but many brain cells are lost and friends gone...

Peace!!

'Cap

Cultosaurus Erectus Tour in La Crosse, WI Aug. 4, 1980 at the Mary E. Sawyer Auditorium (was the last concert in this building) Savoy Brown did open...

Regarding who was playing the keyboards, I was thinking about the gig and yes, I do believe Schenck was on keys that night... but I am fairly sure of it.

• No Allen Lanier - Steve Schenck filled in again on keys...

Erie Pa. - indoors Hockey Rink

Click the link from the Erie County Fieldhouse Concerts Facebook page to see a ticket stub for this gig:

• 07 August 1980 Ticket

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

Albany N.Y. - Outdoors...

Regarding that Sabbath that described this gig as being "marred by violence": I don't remember any violence,other than my having to threaten to whip the piano tuner's ass if he didn't tune my fucking piano... (he was demanding 10 passes or he wouldn't tune it... after 4 or 5 roadies surrounded his car (with his girlfriend in it), he changed his mind and did a really good job... the wanker...)

BTW the name of that race track is Lebanon Valley Raceway... it's still in business and I watched a race on TV from there just a few weeks back...

I went to this concert with my brother and 3 other friends in an orange VW bus from our house in eastern Massachusetts and it was the most memorable concerts I have ever been to.

We got an early start that AM and I remember parking the van in a field with hundreds of other vehicles and thousands of people.

The concert was absolutely fantastic. I can remember trying to get to the chain link fence with my buddy and you would literally be lifted off your feet from all the people pressing against you. In the thick of it, the crowd split (some how) and made a path for a person who was pretty badly hurt coming from the very front. His/her head was wrapped with a white t-shirt wet with blood.

We continued our fight for position and eventually made it to the fence where the roadies used bats and sticks to hit the knuckles of anyone trying to hold onto the fence. Blue Oyster Cult then played Godzilla and it was definitly the climax of the concert. I'll never forget the drum solo.

The event was "marred with violence". As I recall, three people were killed... one I know was hit by a car. I was only 17, so I was completely shocked by what some people were doing. After the show, one guy was pushing anyone that walked by him just for a fight while about a dozen others flipped a car in a pit and torched it. Everyone was whacked out on mushrooms, acid, mesk, weed... you name it.

I now live about 20 miles from Lebanon Valley Speedway and I have spoken to some that lived in the area and he said the guy that owned the speedway didn't realize the concert would be so huge and crazy and refused to attempt anything like it again.

I made a road trip to this show, about a 2 hour drive, with a carfull of crazies. AC/DC's Back In Black had just come out and we blasted it on the way out to the show.

We actually left our city with plenty of time to spare, planning to get there an hour before showtime. Well, the speedway is out in the cornfields and had a single lane road going to it. This caused a huge bumper to bumper traffic slowdown and we crawled along for miles and miles.

As we neared the site, we were still about an hour earlier than the advertised start time. I could hear music coming from inside and I remember panicing because it was Sabbath already playing.

So by the time we got inside and parked, walked to the grounds and got our beers it seemed to take forever before we could watch the band. So missed a good half of them. Beers were selling by the thousands as it was a hot, humid evening and the place was full of yahoos wanting to go off.

I do remember at least 2 deaths, possibly 3 after the concert. We nearly made it 6 or 7 when our car approached a Y, 2 roads turning into 1 and came upon another car speeding along on the left to merge onto this sudden one lane road. Neither driver thought to ease up and let the other pass and we came within a hair of a major accident, two cars barrelling along side by side for a couple hundred feet until one pulled ahead. Like I said, they sold a lot of beer that day.

This racetrack is actually named Lebanon Valley SPEEDWAY and not Raceway, as can be seen on the ticket scans. It is called the Albany stop on the tour but is located about an hour southeast of Albany, NY in West Lebanon, New York.

It was amazing, and unfortunately there was chaos and (2) deaths of what I remember... one being an individual hit by a car and the other a car wreck hitting a bridge...

i went to this show with a few friends of mine from wlliamstown mass. i was 14, we ate lots of acid, we wound up in the back bleachers, it was crazy...

there was a fire in the bleachers, and i remember there were about 5 or 6 bonfires in the center of the speedway, people had poles with flags with the boc symbol and someone brought in a cross about 30 ft tall painted black,

during sabbath i saw the cross lowered into one of the bonfires and brought back up... then it fell over into the crowd...

i saw countless people being dragged out by us as we were close to the exits, i remember the guy "mark d" mentioned with the bloody shirt wrapped around him being carried out, they stopped the show a few times and the bands kept saying to step back from the stage or they would leave.

as we left to go to our car there were a bunch of people standing on a ridge throwing rocks into a ditch, me and my friends got closer and they were yelling" fuck iran" as they were throing the rocks, we went to the edge of the ditch and there was a cadillac down there, someone went down and lit a rag in the gas tank, and i remember the car exploding and people still throwing rocks at it,

remember this was the time of the iran hostage crisis, and in willimastown where i lived the shah's son went to school there, so it might have been one of his guards or something, people said he hit some girl with his car, thats why they flipped it in the ditch, i remember a few cop cars coming in the lot and people threw rocks and bottles at them and they just left.

as we left we saw the accident where the guardrail was bent, and the emt's were pulling up a gurney and i remember it was soaked with blood, i thought it was a red sheet, but i saw a few spots of white and realized it was soaked in blood. we got home and it was all over the news, they cancelled all shows at the speedway after that show.

quite the experience!

I remember the show, three of us from the Springfield area went. We climbed to the top of the track fence on the back side of the track, had a great view till it came down.

I remember the the burning car it was about 20 yards from where we were parked. We pulled some drunk kid out from under our car when we called it a night.

What a show the only other show i had been to prior was the Moody Blues - talk about contrast.

This was my first concert ever. I have read a few of the entries and I do recollect trying to make my way to the front and being pressed up against the chainlink fence in front of the stage.

I remember security men posted on the other side pushing for all their worth against the fence, trying to keep the crowd from pushing through to the stage (although I think the individual members of the crowd were just trying not to get trampled).

The most vivid memory I take away from this concert happened after the show was done and I was a passanger along with my cousin Shawn in the back seat of a Dodge Aspen station wagon belonging to the parents of, and being driven by, my friend Scott.

We were trying to leave the parking area when our back tire went partially into one of the ditches between parking areas. The parking area was just loose dirt and the tire just slipped into the ditch. I don't think Scott realized how close he was.

He panicked a bit (all three of us panicked, I think) and he tried to gun it, but the car was stuck. I think a few people tried to rock us out of the position, but it was no use; we were stuck. Eventually, the rocking became more aggresive until it was apparent that the purpose was no longer to free the car from being stuck.

My cousin and I were able to get out of the car and we watched as the car was lifted by a few people onto the passenger side. I remember seeing Scott behind the wheel, stiffly upright in his seat but sideways in relation to the ground. Someone yelled, "Let him out of the car before you flip it!"

The car was put back on its wheels, Scott got out, then the car was flipped. The three of us walked away as rocks and beer bottles were thrown at the, now upside down, car. We pushed our way back to the track, to the general vicinity of where the concert took place.

We saw a policeman trying, with no success, to direct traffic. We told him that our car had been flipped and that people were smashing it with rocks and beer bottles. He was frantic, waving his arms, yelling at people. He said, "What do you want me to do? Look at this! What do you want me to do??!"

Then he took a deep breath and asked us calmly where the car was. The three of us turned around and then back to the cop. We said, "See those flames?" Our car had been torched and flames were shooting up high above everything else in the area.

I called my mother and waited for her pick us up. The crowd thinned to nothing but a few people still passed out on the ground. My mother arrived at dawn.

Just as we were about to drive away a tow truck pulled into the parking area with the charred, blackened, still-smoldering chassis of the Dodge Aspen that brought us to the show.

I do remember the car being on fire. There was a levee separating fields and it looked like that car got stuck or couldn't make it up the ramp going over the levee and ended up upside down and on fire.

80-08-08: Lebanon Valley Speedway, Lebanon, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # [ rescheduled from 9 Aug ]
• Gig recorded for "King Biscuit" broadcast

Check out the two stubs above - the first shows the date of the originally scheduled date of 9 August. The second shows the re-scheduled 10 Aug date.

Paul sent me a letter offering me a third row seat for the BOC show at the Hartford Civic Center, how could I refuse?

So I hopped on a Greyhound bus for what was supposed to be an "Express" from Montreal. Little did I know that I would be spending the next twelve hours stopping at seemed to be every little town in Vermont, picking up the locals with their little suitcases and the chickens in the cages and depositing them in the next burg

By the time we got to the Mass. border I was numb. Got into Conn. late on Friday and found out the next day show was postponed till Sunday ( they must have had a hard time getting out of Lebanon Valley Speedway ).

But when Sabbath left the stage and the lights dimmed and the announcer said "Hartford, are you ready for the King Biscuit Hour?" I realized my trip through hell was worth every agonizing minute because I would be rewarded with a bootleg of my Favorite band. I can even hear myself on the tape on at least two occasions.

It was the first concert to be held at the re-built Civic Center since the roof collapsed the preceding year. Eric mentioned the fact and then Buck proceeded to make some falling roof sounds on his guitar. Hilarious.

80-08-10: Civic Centre, Hartford, Connecticut Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. Roadhouse Blues
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I saw them in Portland, ME where all they had was an opening act; The Blend (anybody remember them-local Portland legends). One thing I remembered about the show... The Blend had a double neck guitar, but one facing right and the other left, and had two people playing it at the same time (righty/ lefty).

This was my second concert ever, and just happened to be the second time I saw BOC, and the last with the original lineup (I think). I'm not sure if Al had left when I saw them the following year (Boston Garden, 81 w/ Foghat and Whitford-St. Holmes Band opening. There was also a live FM broadcast around this time (New Haven), which represents this time frame pretty well.

The show was $8.00!...

This was a great show for both bands. The Blend never quite made it out of Maine although they put out a few decent pop/rock LPs. I think they even opened for the Who at their peak as well as having an appearance on Good Morning America that I recall.

Here's a link to some photos from this gig:

• photobucket.com

This gig is confirmed by the Civic Center venue website and gives the attendance as 3761 (out of a maximum "sell out" capacity of 9500): click here... Actually, it gives the attendance in 1979 as 5477 so that's a big drop from last year. The only other attendance it gives is from the next time BOC played at this venue in 1984 - then the attendance was 2602... (the venue capacity being 9500) :-(

80-08-12: Civic Centre, Portland Maine Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

From the 28 August 1980 "Morning Sentinel" newspaper:

Asbury Park N.J. - Convention Center with Shakin Street...

It was at this place a couple of years earlier in 1978 I joined BOC for the first time. I think the crew meal was better this time. The time before the caterers were forced to give everyone money for fast food from somewhere.

A few of my friends turned me on the BOC in the late 70's but I hadn't had the opportunity to check them out until the Summer of 1980. It was the year I graduated high school and also was lucky enough to see Pink Floyd the Wall Live, Rush, Genesis, Van Halen in the months before the BOC gig.

When I had heard the BOC was going to play in Asbury Park I knew it was worth the 3 hour drive through New jersey to see them so I snatched a couple tickets and one of my friends went with me to check it out. I already had their albums and was totally into them - but never knew how they would be live (although I had heard).

The clearest memory I had of the concert was that during the first song (Dr. Music) a couple came in with a baby. The women with the baby sat right in front of me.

The baby's face was beat red and it was screaming/crying. The music was so loud that we couldn't hear the baby at all - but it must have been in agony. The parents sat there smoking pot, trying to ignore the poor babe... my friend tapped the guy on the shoulder finally and said he'd kick ass if they didn't get the baby out of there. They left; I can't imagine how the baby felt - but my ears rang for 2 or 3 days!

I remember they played Cities on Flame, and then Black Blade and blew me away! After that: Godzilla, the 5 guitars, DFTR, and Born to be Wild (don't remember the order). They rode a motorcycle on stage at the start of Born To Be Wild... the place was so small you could smell the exhaust!

Anyway, I was sold on BOC... so when they announced the Black and Blue Tour I bought tickets to BOTH Nassau Coliseum AND Madison Square Garden... then I went out and bought a portable cassette deck to capture both gigs live!

Check out Moyssi's concert programme for this gig.

80-08-14: Convention Center, Asbury Park, New Jersey Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I found a full line-up for this gig in the 2 August 1980 edition of the "Chillicothe Gazette" [Chillicothe OH]:

The Thursday 14 August 1980 edition of "The Summer Kent Stater" gave this listing:

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Huge outdoor show at a race track - Sabbs closed...

This was the debut of the BOC black powder loaded concussion cannons. It was discovered if they weren't placed at least 5' apart, the shock wave would set the others off.

I saw Black Sabbath at the Rockford Speedway, Rockford, IL supported by BOC, Molly Hatchet and Shakin' Street.

I was at the 8/17/1980 Rockford Speedway show, and my lysergic inebribriations notwithstanding, I know without a doubt they played Unknown Tongue, Black Blade, 5 Guitars Mach III (Golden Age theme) DFTR and Born to be Wild.

My only Black & Blue show was at the Rockford Speedway (Illinoiz). I remember camping out there the night before, getting totally drunk, and tossing a string of lit firecrackers in the back of Commander Twit's car while he was trying to have sex with his girlfriend. He wasn't too happy. Sorry Art.

Oh yeah, BOC was there, and they were great (even have the bootleg thanks to my buddy Redcap), and Black Sabbath was there, and they sucked because they were sans Ozzy.

I just discovered this massive history list of BOC getting ready to see them next Friday - I was also at the August 17 Rockford Speedway show and 100% remember Dominant performance on hot sunny day and no Sabbath was no comparison and I remember Dio walking off stage ticked off...

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]
• BOC were rescheduled from 3 Aug

Minneapolis Minn. - Sabbs closed

I remember going to this concert, but I don't remember Shakin Street.

Brian Wilson opened as a solo act and was booed off the stage. I don't remember many warm up bands, but I will never forget this because it was just so wrong! Brian Wilson was a big name, but completely the wrong genre to open for Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult.

Anyone got any info on this? It seems a bit unlikely... I wasn't there of course, so I can't say for sure - I mean, it's not impossible that a solo Brian Wilson was on the bill.... just rather unlikely...

Well I was there and I can categorically state that Brian Wilson never opened that show or any other for BOC during the time I spent working for the band... Jan & Dean, Chubby Checker... but not Brian Wilson...

Cultosaurus Erectus Tour (Black and Blue Tour) Aug. 19, 1980 at the Met Center in Minneapolis, MN - they opened for Black Sabbath that night (I know it was a co-headlining tour and they rotated) - Shakin Street did open...

• Intended "Black'n'Blue" show - but Black Sabbath fired drummer Bill Ward and cancelled

Sabbs fired Bill Ward and did not appear... we used their lights too and played a long set...

Lets see here... I distinctly remember cruising down I-25 from Ft. Collins and hearing the DJ on the radio saying there was good news and bad news about the show. The bad news was Black Sabbath wasn't showing up. Bummer! But the good news was BOC was doing a double set! Even freaking better! Hell, I never really got into Sabbath anyways.

I was only 20 years old at the time, and drugs and fast women were the only thing on my mind. McNichols arena in Denver was a large venue. Probably held 15,000 people. Our seats were to the right of the stage, above stage level not more than 50 feet away. Excellent seats.

As far as a setlist, I cant remember. I do recall Eric riding out on the stage on a Harley with a red headlight and the band did Born to be Wild, which was much better than anything I ever heard Steppenwolf do.

It was a helluva show, and everyone rocked hard. I recall the 5 guitars and the boys had mirrors on the back of their guitars to reflect off the spotlights.

The only other thing I recall about that night was the brawl I got into because some racist latino made a remark about my 'On your feet or on your knees' t-shirt I was wearing at a local fast-food joint. We both went to jail, but he was the one with the black eyes and bleeding all over the place.

I was at that show, too. Sabbath cancelled, for some reason (and I was SOOOO happy about that!) so BOC picked up the slack. (even happier!)

The reason for the double set was the departure of their drummer Bill Ward... I remember it looked really cool too cause we used all of their lights and effects as well as ours...

Shakin Street opened up at this show.

• Intended "Black'n'Blue" show - [Sabbs cancelled - presumably auditioning Vinny Appice]

Sabbs were no-shows the next day in Salt Lake as well...

We almost were no-shows also, as our band gear truck had probs and showed up just as we were about to make a go of using Sabbs stage gear...

I remember the chain link fence used as a barricade and tons of people smushed up against it.

It wasn't pretty... outdoors at a dragstrip wind constant around 20, gusting to 40 plus and lots of sand in my eyes all day...

Ahhhh the glory of rock and roll...

8/22/80 - The unknown drag strip was known as Bonneville Salt Flats. Sabbath was slated to play that one, but was forced to cancel due to Bill Ward's departure.

Bonneville Salt Flats is where they do the World Land Speed Runs... it's near Windover Utah... about 120 miles west from Salt Lake... this Dragstrip was/is in Salt Lake and is called something else...

Sabbs were not there, but BOC played (we even used some of Sabbs gear, cause our truck was late and theirs was there... I don't guess they ever knew...)

Sabbs did not play Denver the night before either...

There were two opening bands, as well as a Black Sabbath that never happened.

I was right up front, against the chain-link barricade. My leg was in a cast up to the knee because it was broken, and I required a cane to walk.

The first act was a band called "Shakin Street" with a girl singer, of whom I never heard anything about before or since. I remember they were quite good, and the guitar player made it his task to impress me, because I was hanging out with the usual guitar nerd "I could play that better" look on my face, standing there with my arms folded. He eventually played something that kicked my ass and I smiled and nodded- he smiled back and flipped me off.

The second band was called (I think) Axe, and they were really, really heavy and good, and I caught the guitar player's pick - which I still have somewhere.

Sabbath was supposed to come on next, but they kept delaying and delaying, and then told us that somebody in the band was sick. I didn't believe them - I thought God just didn't want Black Sabbath to play Salt Lake, and rumors were circulating in the crowd about how many times Sabbath had had to cancel Salt Lake before.

Blue Oyster Cult finally took the stage, and they were fantastic, but they played a very, very short set. Seems like the opened with Doctor Music.

The wind started to rip and dirt was flying through the air. Eric said something about the lighting screwing with the instruments (he didn't say "screwing") and the band ran off stage.

We were doubly pissed at Sabbath now because they farted around with good time we could have spent listening to BOC.

There was almost a riot, but the storm put a damper on that. Pretty soon everybody was running for their cars, and climbing over tall chain link fences rather than take a chance on getting lightening struck waiting to get through gates.

Luckily I'm a big guy or I would have been trampled trying to get out with my gimpy leg. I scaled a fence myself somehow, found my Datsun pickup truck, and dejectedly made the long drive back home to a tired little town in the middle of the West (four hours away in southern Idaho) with my best friend.

Splendid adventure for a teenager, for sure.

By the way: this concert was held at the Bonneville Raceways, near Salt Lake City, Utah, and not to be confused with the Bonneville Salt Flats down by Wendover.

After a buyout in 1995, the raceway is now called Rocky Mountain Raceways, and is located in West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Here's a history website for the track:

• Rocky Mountain Raceways

I attended this concert at Bonneville Raceway.

We had heard Black Sabbath were not going to show up for what had been sold as a "Black & Blue" concert, having heard about it on the radio prior to heading out to the venue.

At the time, we understood the Sabbath cancellation to have resulted from the drug problems of their drummer (Bill Ward).

The Sabbath absence was a bummer, but our enthusiasm was buoyed when Eric Bloom came to the mic early in the BÖC set and announced that the band would do an extra set to make up for the gig line-up change.

I remember there being a lot of wind and blowing sand, and I vaguely remember Bloom announcing at the end that the band would be unable to do as much extra playing as they had intended due to the weather.

But my recollection is that BÖC did at least play some extra songs. My memory has long been that one of those songs was a Beatles cover; I swear I can still picture Eric Bloom that the band "used to play the song a long time ago" and asking us all to be patient with any mistakes as they pulled it out special for us.

The truth is that I now doubt the memory some however and wonder if it might not have been their more usual cover of The Animals' We Gotta Get Out of This Place instead.

I know Shakin' Street opened - a band which I had never heard of at the time but remembering being introduced as "from France."

This gig was rescheduled for 8 Sep 1980.

Here's a preview for this gig date from the 14 Aug 1980 edition of the "Bay Area Reporter", again clearly showing that there was no intention of this being a "secret" gig for the 'hardcore' only:

This date was originally scheduled for a San Francisco gig at the Old Waldorf...

Hung out ALL day at air freight (shipping a whole DC-10 FULL of shite to Hawaii for the 31 Aug show) and then went for excellent Korean BBQ...

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

Outdoors in stadium with Sabbs - I THINK they closed...

It was later called the "Summer beat up festival" due to roving gangs of Samoan punks finding lone houli kids to beat the shit out of. We had a week off to enjoy Oahu before the show. I had a great time renting a motorcycle and going all over the island every day. Didn't see much of the rest of the crew that week. They were all just hanging around the hotel. The lighting system was suspended by a huge crane.

I did this festival three times. Twice with BOC, 80 and 81. Once with Foreigner, 82. Each time there was a week off to enjoy the place. I ran into Shenck at the hotel in 82.

LOL this was one of those all day sweat fest that i was able to attend while stationed on DDG 22 in pearl harbor. The ship was going thru a yard period so for about a year it was like shore duty and i had lucked out and was placed with a group that basically took all the spare parts on board , inventoried them over and over and got all the new stuff into stock for new equipment being installed.

Now and then we would have a lot of time on our hands and i was always trying to win concert tickets from the local radio station. well one afternoon i lucked out about a week before this show and was able to awnser a couple of questions of some sort and won two tickets to this show.

although i got pretty toasted it was overall a fun day as i knew better than to go down on the field for long cause it was like being in a dam frying pan. I was looking forward to molly hatchet and was very dissapointed when they came on and Danny Joe Brown wasnt singing wich i felt really detracted from there sound.

The guy that replaced him just couldnt cut it in my opinion but i was rewarded with a good set by boc and my first time to ever get to see Black Sabbath after years of missed opportunities was a treat. They actually surprised me with there power and drive of there set wich mr dio was a high point of along with mr iommi and his monster riffing.

I witnessed quite a bit of problems on the field, the locals and the haouls always seemed to butt heads at events like this. another reason to sit in the stands and hopefully in the shade.

This was also the last time I was to enjoy BoC in concert after catching them off and on since my first show with them back in 73 in wichita kansas when they opened for Alice Cooper on the Billion dollar babies tour.

Buck Dharma was always the one that most impressed me as i was dreaming of playing like that someday wich of course never happened. and eric bloom was always one of the most ominus lead vocallist to crack a whip on stage lol

These guys always put on a good show and I thank them for all the fun i had over the years watching them. And the hair on the back of my neck still stands up when i hear Those opening powerchords of ME 262..

lord have mercy... Are you ready to Rock?

The running order of the bands that day were 1st Shakin Street Followed by Molly Hatchet Then Black Sabbath (Followed by a huge Torrential Downpour of rain which put out a plastic seat in the loges area of the stadium that was set on fire during Black Sabbath's set)

If memory serves me that was also the first gig that Sabbath did with Vinnie Appice. The rain was followed by an hour long wait while the stage was dried off and prepared for the headliners Blue Oyster Cult.

80-08-31: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii Oahu Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. Roadhouse Blues
17. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I found a listing for this gig in the Fri 29 Aug 1980 edition of the "Los Angeles Times":

And this in the Thu 28 Aug 1980 edition of the "Times-Advocate" [Escondido CA]:

Shakin' Street weren't mentioned but the Billboard stats above have them listed, so I'll go with that until I find out different...

80-09-02: Sports Arena, San Diego, California Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. Roadhouse Blues
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Phoenix AZ - Outdoors at a baseball stadium - Make up for rain out on 7/25

I went back and now recall that the make-up date was September 3, 1980 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum (indoor arena where the NBA Phoenix Suns played their games). The only act that opened up was Shakin' Street.

It was a Wednesday show, remember that because I had just started my Freshman year of college at Arizona State University and it was in the middle of the school week. Shakin' Street was pretty much boo'd off the stage after only 2 or 3 songs...

Visit Mark's vegas4boc site...

80-09-03: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Then Came The Last Days Of May
9. Divine Wind
10. ME262
11. Hot Rails To Hell
12. Black Blade
13. Godzilla
14. Bass Solo
15. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
16. Born To Be Wild
17. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

80-09-05: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. Roadhouse Blues
17. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I found a preview for this gig in the Friday 5 Sep 1980 edition of the "Santa Cruz Sentinel":

The preview reports that Shakin' Street were scheduled to open - did they?

Santa Cruz Civic Center probably holds about 3,500 people max and it was sold out for BOC. Myself, brother and high school bros headed down Hwy 1 from San Francisco to catch this show.

We were all excited by the new album "Cultosaurus Erectus" and at that time digging the Mirrors album.

My two friends were dead heads, but after many months of having them listen to BOC on the way to school in the morning and keg parties they become converts.

When we got to Santa Cruz there was a line about a mile long to get in. so we stood there and drank our Budweiser's with everybody else, and waited approx. 1 hour to get in.

What I remember from the show most was the song "Unknown tongue" that just ripped....and Eric cutting the palm of his hand in sync with the songs lyric.

The sound was amazingly crisp and the crowd was really into it. I also remember it having an early start time... 4-5 pm.

Also many bikers were there and I remember one guy hoping to hear "Hot rails to Hell."

We had so much freedom back then... todays kids don't realize how much concerts meant to our generation...it was like going to a different planet. MTV ruined it all!!

80-09-06: Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, California Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. Maserati G.T.
17. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

San Bernadino CA - Fairgrounds show with AC/DC - I have noted in book - Last outdoor show of season - Thank God!!

The Swing auditorium was on the grounds of the Orange County Fairgrounds... Swing was the site of a very historic Jimi Hendrix show where a section of the arena floor collapsed and injured many people... it was destroyed in the late 80's when a business jet (Lear, etc) crashed into it...

Bands HATED that place as the load in was a bitch and there was NO room on a small stage...

This was a "no-lights" day show.... so AC/DC showed up late and played over so we went on in the dark, facing a huge union bill for the overtime... It was supposed to be a "Co-Headline " show... those never seemed to work out...

Hatchett probably did open the show as they were on our tour @ the time....

In the end, we actually punted and paid some union stagehands an outrageous amount of money to run get some gear that they knew a guy had close by... we set up and focused lights from the sides and rear of the stage during the set, paid the Union overtime and had it looking fairly decent by the end of the show...

The band and management swore we would NEVER appear on another show with them... and we didn't... until Donnington...

AC/DC Molly Hatchet and BOC. Angus was fresh and new. He BA'd the crowd.

Albert and joe were still there and Eric road his Harley out for Born to be wild. Festival seating. We were way up front. My girl didn't pee for 12 hours!

Greetings, Attended concert on 7 September, 1980 at San Bernardino, Ca. Orange Pavilion. Show was held outdoors at the racetrack.

Order was Molly Hatchet, AC/DC, BOC. Don't remember other band on your list. Angus took over and killed the place. We didn't want them to get off the stage. And yes, he did bare ass the crowd.

The Harley did come out on the stage and the BOC set was very good. Especially Godzilla. Interesting note, a fellow (quite intoxicated) climbed up one of the light towers, they were about 100 feet high, and fell. Don't know if he survived or not.

Peace folks.

80-09-07: Orange County Speedway Fairgrounds, San Bernardino California Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

There was a short piece on this gig in the 8 Sep 1980 edition of the "San Bernardino Sun":

What a show! Molly Hatchet singer tried drinking a bottle of JD and puked on stage. Hey CDC is encore Angus Young was on top of speaker laying down spinning like a record.

And best of all Blue Oyster Cult encore started with Eric Bloom riding on stage with a Harley...

BTW: The show did not feature Shakin Street...

Well as you can see from BlueSkyBag's stub above, the original date for this gig seems to have been 25 August. However, Sam's diary leaves no room for doubt that this gig took place on 8 September.

Some Sabbath sites also have Black Sabbath as being on the bill, but this was not the case.

Incidentally - George Geranios has written some interesting notes on the recording of this show for the KSAN simulcast - click here to read it.

Old Waldorf - 2 shows, 2nd was broadcast...

There would have been two shows at the Old Waldorf, one earlier that evening at 8:00pm, and the one represented by my ticket stub at 11:00. That's the way the Old Waldorf used to operate, two shows per night, as it was a rather small nightclub.

Black Sabbath most certainly never played the Old Waldorf however, either with or without BOC on the bill.

Here are some links to a few of Larry Shorr's great BOC photos taken at this gig and which are available for order from his My Pix Rock site:

• Eric, Buck and Joe
• Buck

Home to Atlanta...

Flew to NYC and onto New Haven by Bus...

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Blue Oyster Cult Headlined ]

Sabs drained the audience coming on first. BOC had a lot of feedback issues...

I remember the cops calling me up telling me they had an arrest warrant out for me that afternoon. Nothing would have ruined that night though.

I have a bootleg of the sabbath set from that night. The comments around the taper were: "Where's Ozzy?", a lot of "fuckin asshole" which I think was directed at RJD. And a comment after about an hour of the set saying "Dude this is gonna be a long fuckin concert man".

Naturally, after the pyro on the song Black Sabbath, and the explosions and a lot of narcotics, it felt like it was time to go home. When the lights went up between sets it looked like a smoking war zone.

I don't know if it was just us or BOC, but everything seemed kind of draggey. I've seen BOC at the New Haven Coliseum touring with Rainbow, I think Molly Hatchett and a couple of other bands who I don't remember. Those shows were great.

I read about the feuding going on between the bands. Was it the bands or the roadies or both?

I can't speak with any degree of authority - I wasn't there - but my impression is that a lot of the trouble seemed to stem from the fact that Sabbath did NOT seem to want to support BOC - it was SUPPOSED to be a co-headline tour, with them alternating the headline slot, but Sabbath - apparently - just didn't want to play ball and devised a whole series of shenanigans to ensure that there would be problems when BOC DID headline...

Sabbath were the bigger band, of course, so you can sort of understand their attitude a bit, but what they failed to realise is that those shows are supposed to be about the fans - and if you start delaying so that the other band goes on late and plays short - maybe with scaled back FX, lights etc - then it's the fans who are being short-changed.

80-09-19: Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. Roadhouse Blues
17. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

As it always was, no pyro...

This show was the first concert I went to. Black Sabbath closed the show.

Kinda funny I don't remember the opening act. I was 16 and both bands sounded awesome.

Here's the review from the 22 Sept 1980 edition of "The Boston Globe":

So, no mention of Riot, and it doesn't really say who headlined. I mean, if you take the review as dealing with the bands in the order in which they appeared, then Sabbath would appear to have headlined, but it doesn't actually say so...

My memory is clear. There was either no opening act or I wasn't in there in time for it. I was a fan of both bands. Blue Oyster Cult definitely came on before Sabbath and did their usual great show. They had the crowds full support.

Black Sabbath came out and didn't sound good from the beginning. The Boston Garden was a hard enough place to sound good in and it wasn't going to happen for them that night. I part because they were just playing too loud.

I remember Ronnie James Dio brushing his hair back with his hands over and over again. After about four songs they just walked off. if Blue Oyster Cult had not given the crowd such a great show it could have been ugly. but I think people were satisfied, but disappointed with Sabbath. I had seen them with Ozzy and Van Halen in 78 and it was a great show, but this was a disappointment.

I don't remember an opening act, but I don't remember an abbreviated set from Sabbath either.

This was Fall of 1980 (I was attending Berklee at the time) - I'm sure if they had played only four songs I definitely would have remembered that. And that Boston crowd probably would have rioted if that had occurred. Lol.

If I remember correctly, I do believe that Sabbath headlined that particular show.

OK, so that makes three people who don't recall any opening act, and who all reckoned Sabbath closed. Despite Billboard reckoning it was a BOC headline gig, I'm going to change this designation to a Sabbath headline show, in keeping with the three eye-witness testimonies.

However, I'll keep Riot down as the designated opener for now, because it's not definitive that they weren't on the bill. People often miss the start of gigs and so it's often a grey area...

If anyone knows for sure if Riot played, or not, please let me know...

By the way, I've never heard or seen anything about Sabbath doing a shortened set that night anywhere else, so if anyone else can chime in on that aspect, please do so. I don't normally quote setlistFM, but they do have a 16-song setlist featured on there...

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

I saw this Black and Blue tour date on sept 21 1980 at springfield civic center. BOC was sooooo great way better than Sabbath and Sabbath was very good anyhow!!!!!

80-09-21: Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Unknown Tongue
4. Cities On Flame
5. The Marshall Plan
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Westwood Mass - some military school with 100 little boys for Stage Hands... Jacko would have loved it...

The September 23, 1980, show in Westwood, MA, took place at Xaverian Brothers High School, as reviewed in the school's student newspaper, The Witness.

Here is a link to the front page of the paper.

• Witness Front Page

80-09-23: Xaverian Brothers High School, Westwood, Massachusetts Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Divine Wind
8. ME262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
14. Born To Be Wild
15. It's Not Easy
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Poughkeepsie NY - Fought a gallant battle with the case for the grand piano... lost said battle... got 12 stitches over my eye

Here is where I slightly scorched the ceiling above the ETI flash pots I think...

The Hudson Valley NY has always been a huge BOC area, they used to play MHCC in Poughkeepsie in the late 70s/early 80s at least twice a year. It was usually soldout and a wild time.

For years, they had flashpot burns on the MHCC ceiling from the pyrofx during ETI in 9/80.

80-09-24: Mid-Hudson Civic Centre, Poughkeepsie, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Unknown Tongue
4. Cities On Flame
5. The Marshall Plan
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. It's Not Easy
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Riot were opening act for Blue Oyster Cult gig played 24th September 1980 Poughkeepsie - Mid-Hudson Civic Center

Wilkes Barre PA - Nat Guard armoury - Big Riot outside, I tussled with Singleton inside... Schenk arrested...

I saw the following report in the 26 Sept 1980 issue of the Pittsburgh Press:

Recently, I saw the following retrospective piece on a website - it seems to be from the "Times", but didn't specify which Times:

And here's a clip of some of the aftermath of the trouble:

The footage was shot by Scott Dobson, and he included this description with the clip:

80-09-25: Kingston Armory, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Lips In The Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. The Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. ME262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. Bass Solo
14. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
15. Born To Be Wild
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• Intended "Black'n'Blue" show: [ Black Sabbath cancelled ]

Binghampton Ny - same old place...

Hottest Buffalo wings on the planet from pub nearby...

80-09-27: Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, Binghampton, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Unknown Tongue
4. Cities On Flame
5. The Marshall Plan
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. It's Not Easy
15. Roadhouse Blues
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Kansas City - Sabbs closed

I drove over from Ft. Riley KS for this show. My seat was in the rafters. I was so far from the stage I couldn't even see Sam Judd, so he didn't flip me off for this show.

It was a great show, nonetheless. I was glad BOC opened because I had to get back to the base. I didn't stay for the Sabs.

Lotsa stuff from CE. Opened with Dr. Music.

For the record, the opening act on this bill was a local band called The Nice Guys. I think they had a gal as their singer.

Some polite applause and they were actually pretty good. Not a particularly appropriate opening act for Blue Oyster Cult or Black Sabbath, but they gave it a go.

We were really hoping they would have played "Lips In The Hills", but no such luck.

80-09-29: Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Billboard had clearly been smoking some good stuff when they came up with "Bob Seger" above. Obviously, it should read "Black Sabbath". As for the opening band, Billboard reckons it was "Troupe", whilst others further down this entry say it was "Whitford, St. Holmes" or "Gulliver"...

However, if you scroll to the newspaper review, you'll see that the reviewer names the opener as local band "Truth", but if you read past that, you'll see that I've come to the conclusion that I'm currently going with the Billboard version of "Troupe"... so I'll go with the local knowledge for now, until I hear definitive information to the contrary.

St.Louis Mo. - Sabbs closed - abbreviated version of Zilla assembled Xperimentally (we had him cut down 1/2 the size he was at the New years show so we could put him in a truck and use him every night)

Was this before or after I was ordered to amputate Zilla's arms? I know I did this chop at See Factor, but was it before the 1981 tour or sometime during this one???

It looks like I now began making an entry on the date of either a cult logo or a cross for sabbs denoting who was closing (this meant several hours difference in when I had to wake up and when I would be done...)It looks like the dates where I made neither note, that it was just a BOC show (no sabbs)

Sabbath had the cross. It was a production add-on during the tour.

On 9/30/1980 At the Checkerdome in St. Louis, Missouri, the order the bands played was as follows:

1. Whitford, St. Holmes [Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) & Derrick St. Holmes (Ted Nugent)]
2. Blue Oyster Cult
3. Black Sabbath

I'm positive Whitford St Holmes was the opening band. Concerts in this area always tend to have started at 8:00 pm local time. The Black & Blue show that night started at 7:30 to allow for another act... What was different about this night is that it didnt end until 1:00 am in the morning. BOC took the stage about 8:45 that night and didnt finish until 11:00.

Never seen a show where any band played longer than the headliner before. I'm not aware if they were on a co-headliner tour or not. But for some reason it ended up backwards that night... my suspicions are, is that Sabbath was late for the gig?? It was a great night no matter what order the bands came in. Ronnie James Dio did a fine job with the Sabbath tunes they just didnt play long enough...

You're a year out - Whitford St. Holmes opened for Foghat/BOC here in 1981...

On 30 Sep 1980 Gulliver (of "Ridin' The Wind" fame) was the opening act before BOC, not Whitford St. Holmes, so IF Whitford/St. Holmes played then they were the second act of that night.

This concert was the loudest I have ever attended. During the break before BOC performed, the music being played was "Scorpions - The Zoo", which the soundman cracked up to concert level, so when BOC came on the P.A. system was close to full blast and it stayed that way for both BOC & Black Sabbath sets!

80-09-30: Checkerdome, St.Louis, Missouri Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I found a review of this gig in the 01 Oct 1980 edition of the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch":

Although, according to the above review, "an excellent local group called Truth" opened, as far as I know, the opener's name was actually "Troupe"...

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Chicago ill. - Sabbs closed...

Hi there love your site! It's really cool to see fans from another part of the world who dig B.O.C. just as much as we do in the states.

At any rate Black&Blue 1980 October 1 Chicago, the first warm up act was called Black Cat (they were pretty bad) then Cult, then Sabbath. Most of the crowd left about halfway through Sabbath.

Chicago is definitely a B.O.C. city!

80-10-01: International Amphitheatre Chicago, Illinois Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ BOC Headlined ]
• Shakin' Street replaced by Saxon

Pittsburgh Pa - BOC closed - I believe we used zilla that night as well...

No way this show lasted until 2:45am. I worked the next day and that would of been a huge memory from the show. Maybe 1am at the latest. The police in Pittsburgh and City were VERY STRICT and would've shut the show down if it lasted past 1am. Yes the show ran late, but 2:45am?!

There was major tension between the Sabs and BÖC. Being right near the stage you could smell the hate and hear the vulgar quips going back and forth. The time between the Black and the Blue was easily an hour plus.

Don't really want to piss off the Sabbath fans but Tony Iommi's guitar solo was way too long and short on substance. Dio was awesome and carried the Sabs all the way.

BÖC was as expected. Amazing! Always are out of the 100 plus times I've seen them. Unlike some of the other hardcore fans I really liked Mirrors but CultÖsaurus translated better live.

Here's a review from the 4 Oct 1980 isue of the Pittsburgh Press, which confirms Cultjacket's timings quoted above are a bit out:

• Ratt cancelled

Early press ads had Ratt down as the openers. However, the above Billboard stats list "The Cats" as the support, so I've gone with that. Ratt must have cancelled.

Also, the "rememberthespectrum.com" site also listed "Cats" as the support for this gig... However, that site is now offline, but media.philly.com has the same information.

Obviously, if you can't get a Ratt, you've got to get a Cat...

This was another killer BOC show I attended. Another year, another hockey barn to see my all-time favorite Oyster Boys on their Cultosaurus Erectus Tour. At the time I was living in New Jersey, not far from Atlantic City. My girlfriend and 3 of my best friends all drove to Philly in my 1970 Pontiac Bonneville to see Buck and The Boys blow us away. It was even better than I expected. I had 3 hits of acid with me. Thinking this was going to be a religious experience, I dropped 2 hits and gave the other to my girl. It turned out to be beyond religious! Awesome show!

I'm sure they opened with "Dr. Music", always a great opening song. "Cities On Flame" was killer! I will always remember Buck playing that 16th-note riff during the first solo (same riff as the one in "Diz-busters"). It's etched in my mind forever. Also loved the swirling echo solo before the end boogie part, where Buck stops and stretches his fingers. I always loved that part!

The acid was kicking in pretty strong by this time but I managed not to lose it. I was completely tuned in to the sounds. Inside of them, even. "Black Blade" was just great. Even though they had dropped the laser show the previous year, the light show was still spectacular. "Godzilla" of course was full of strobe light madness and a killer drum solo from Albert (him and Neil Peart are my two fave drummers of all time) complete with the giant Godzilla blowing out smoke. Too cool for words!! Great bass solo from Joe Bouchard. I gotta tell ya, I still love BOC to this day and never miss them, but I still wish the Bouchard Brothers were in BOC. In my mind that is where they belong. Still hoping for that reunion.

Anyway, the show had many more highlights like "Divine Wind" complete with roadie donning an Ayatollah Komieini mask and guitar, flipping off the audience and Eric Bloom. It would be so funny if they did that song today and used the current Iran leader's likeness or Osama. It seems that song is just as relevant today, wouldn't you say? Other great songs followed such as "ETI" "Unknown Tounge" "Hot Rails To Hell" and "ME-262". The 5 Guitars this time was the Mark III version which was "Golden Age Of Leather". Magnificent. The encore was of course my all-time fave "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Born To Be Wild" with Eric doing that Harley thing he does so well. Also dug the chainsaw guitars. That was always an amazing thing to see.

This show was great for me because of the fact that a year earlier I saw the "Mirrors" tour at the same Philly Spectrum and was a little disappointed that BOC lacked the energy of the very first time I saw them (Buffalo, March 1978). Rainbow actually opened for them during this "Mirrors" show and they really gave BOC a run for their money. Ritchie Blackmore was ON FIRE that night (Sorry, Buck).

So, this 1980 performance was indeed redemption at the highest level. Buck retained his status as my all-time favorite guitar god and BOC remained my number #1 band forever.

Well done!!

By the way, I made it home to New Jersey without incident, still peaking from those 2 hits and laughing our asses off all the way home. Killer Times!! Long Live BOC

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Detroit Mi. - Sabbs closed

80-10-05: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind - (New Different Ending)
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

The october 7, 1980 show in Kalamazoo, Michigan Saxon opened for them. I was at the show. Most of the people I knew thought Saxon blew BOC off stage.

The show was pretty close to sold out because my friend and I got our tickets that day and we were in the last row of our section. Wings stadium had concerts ALOT back then

One summer we had Ted Nugent, Rush and Judas Priest all headlining in a 10 day span. My friends and I took a keg of beer to the parking lot at noon for the AC/DC back in black tour and the next concert they made new rules that the parking lot wouldn't open until 5 o'clock (or something like that) and you could no longer consume alcohol in the parking lot.

It still happened but they really cracked down on it after that AC/DC show. I'm going to see BOC Friday night.

I was at this show. It was my first concert. I had never heard of Saxon but they were amazing. I agree that they blew away BOC. Great show.

I remember it was snowing and the drive home on I-94 was a thrill ride! Did a 360 in the middle of the highway!!

I attended the October 7, 1980 BOC show and wrote down the setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Last Days of May
7. Divine Wind
8. ME-262
9. Hot Rails To Hell
10. Black Blade
11. Godzilla
12. Bass Solo
13. 5 Guitars
14. Born To Be Wild
15. It's Not Easy
16. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Still have the ticket stub, tour booklet, newspaper ad, and newspaper review!

I'm not sure where it is, but I ordered lyrics from the band around this time, which were printed on that large green printer paper with sprocket holes on the edges.

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Indy IN - Sabbs closed

Blue Oyster Cult - October 8th, 1980 - Indianapolis, Indiana @ Market Square Arena

Other Bands: Black Sabbath. Regarding your in inclusion of Shakin' Street: I don't recall any warm-up band playing this gig...

Band Performance Order:

1. Blue Oyster Cult
2. Black Sabbath

I was VERY scared that evening. A gigantic Godzilla monster towered over the stage and the crowd. It had spooky red, glowing eyes and was breathing out smoke and fire.

I had a dumbass attack and sneaked past security to get backstage for some pictures during the encore by Black Sabbath. Unknown to me at the time I sneaked into the roped off area reserved for the pyrotechnics and percussion bombs. I almost lost my hearing that evening when everything started blowing up around me. I only got to snap one picture before the minefield exploded all around me (check out the comments by Mike Singleton from the October 18th show. Ha!)

So - did Shakin' Street play this show?

I was at this show. Black Sabbath was supposed to headline but there was some kind of mix up. There was an opening act. Then an hour break and Black Sabbath came on. Then another hour break and BOC came out.

I remember this very distinctly. It was a school night and I lived about 1 hour away. I went with a friend who was also a big BOC fan. We were going to leave during Black Sabbath if they played last.

Since BOC came on last we had to stay until the show was over. The crowd got very rowdy during the long breaks between bands. I still have the ticket stub somewhere.

OK - Dave's post suggests Shakin' Street did play - but his contention that BOC headlined contradicts Twilight's post above. Plus Sam reckons Sabbath closed also.

Can anyone else who saw this gig chip in here?

BOC headlined. Not sure of opening act.

Me and my friend where there. We sat on the floor, Ronnie James told everyone to flip off the security. So my friend did and the big black rent a cop said he should through his ass out.

What a close call I wanted to see the show. Was very good.

80-10-08: Market Square Arena, Indianapolis. Indiana Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Milwaukee Wi. - Sabbs closed - BIG time riot after Geezer was hit with a Heinekin bottle and they left the stage on the 2nd song... fine...

But THEN their ass-wipe road manager got on a mike and told the crowd off for a bunch of asshole "Colonials" who weren't worthy of a decent show... that's all it took... (I was in the basement of the building showering and it sounded like the building was being destroyed... when the noise died down I came upstairs to find almost like Hiroshima... )

It doesn't really show in that pic, but there was a lot of smoke in there too as they had set a couple piles of those wooden seats ON FIRE!!

Even though BOC had finished playing over an hour before and all our gear was already in the truck and the band gone, we were banned in Milwaukee for many years... guilt by association with a bunch of tossers like Sabbath... an absolute misery of a tour... all because of those prima-donna jerks...

I think every emergency vehicle in Milwaulkee was outside the arena at some point. I have pictures (back in Atlanta ???)

Black and Blue Milwaukee arena show. BOC opened for the Sabbs, which we thought sucked at the time.

This was the Ronnie James Dio version who played 3 songs when riot started with thrown bottle which we did not see happen as with most people I believe. The riot started cause the Sabbs split. Good ridance I say.

Anyway set list I have is:

1. Dr. Music
2. ETI
3. Marshall Plan
4. Cities
5. unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. HRTH
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla [complete with Alberts Godzilla head, which in late '90's he told me after signing a pic I took of it "looked like a horse"] 'Zilla also had his drum solo/bass solo that went into
11. 5 gtr jam
12. BTBW (I took pics of this show and have one of EB driving a Harley on stage. I believe this was during the BTBW and a pic of EB battling guitars with Buck,very cool. They rubbed their guitars together to create distortion with the flash pots going off and Buck pulling strings off his guitar)
13. Encores: Roadhouse Blues
14. Reaper

80-10-09: MECCA - Millwaukee, Wisconsin Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Here's what "The Milwaukee Journal" made of it on 10 Oct 1980:

The Journal recently published the following retrospective on this gig, together with photos:

And here's what it said in the 10 Oct 1980 edition of the Desert Sun:

Here's a 9 minute audio clip of the riot:

• Black Sabbath - Geezer Hit with Bottle... Riot Ensues || blacksabfan

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ BOC Headlined ]

Louisville KY - BOC closed - Fairgrounds? I believe Freedom Hall is the place downtown... this place was a HUGE shed type place at a fairgrounds... we definitely closed and a Topless girl rode out on the Harley with Eric...

You remember that??? I think this was also the date LeeAnn rode the bike out with Eric on stage quite bare breasted... a very nice sight indeed. I have the picture (back in Atlanta ???)

Sam, above, reckoned this gig took place in a "HUGE shed type place at a fairgrounds" but the only printed evidence I have found to date (that small stub above) indicates that it does seem to have taken place at Freedom Hall, after all...

Can anyone else confirm/deny this, as Sam is usually spot on with this sort of stuff...?

• Scheduled as "Black'n'Blue" show - no Sabbath?

Love your BOC site. I attended this show and have some information regarding it. It was my first Blue Oyster Cult show (I was 16 at the time) and to say it was awesome is literally an understatement. Now a lot of people are not too fond of the Mirrors album (I had it on 8-track if you can imagine) but for me it was the BOC album I cut my teeth on so when they opened up with Dr. Music I was on my feet.

I'm not sure of the exact playlist after that but they were promoting Cultosaurus Erectus so we got to hear a lot off of that album (one of my favorites as I think the album is very cohesive both with its music and lyrics). The play list was very similar to the show in Minneapolis though there may have been some substitutions.

1. Dr Music
2. ETI
3. Lips in the Hills
4. Unknown Tongue
5. Cities On Flame
6. Marshall Plan
7. Hungry Boys
8. Divine Wind
9. Me262
10. Hot Rails To Hell
11. Black Blade
12. Godzilla
13. 5 Guitar Medley
14. Born to be Wild
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

The highlights for me were when they played Divine Wind and one of the boys came out looking like the freakin' ayatollah and Eric "attacked" him. Also loved Marshall Plan (Who is the mysterious Suzy we keep hearing about in BOC songs?) and Black Blade.

The highlight was when all of the guys were out playing guitar, even Albert. The encores was either Born to be Wild or Roadhouse Blues, I'm not sure exactly which one and they finished with DFTR.

Black Sabbath Did not play on this date. They appeared in Toledo a week earlier on Oct. 4, 1980 with Dio on singing duties. That too was a great show. Saxon opened up for them.

As for an opening act for the BOC show - I can't recall if there was one or who it may have been.

80-10-11: Sports Arena, Toledo, OHIO Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Cleveland Oh. - Richfield Coliseum - Sabbs Closed...

Sam's note about Sabbath closing this gig can't be right - here's the review from "The Akron Beacon Journal" published on 07 Jun 2018:

This was my second time seeing BOC - at the Black & Blue show on Oct. 12, 1980. I had seen Dio before with Rainbow, and now he was the new singer for Black Sabbath.

I loved the Heaven & Hell album. Now I had a chance to see them, and to also see a Blue Oyster Cult show without sleeping.

I have no idea what B.O.C. played, but I do remember that they really put on a high energy show, and I was impressed enough to start listening to them more closely. Still have the ticket from this one.

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Buffalo NY - BOC closed...

This was one of the Black and Blue series with Sabbath. The only thing I really remember of the show was the giant 50 foot Godzilla with red eyes that lit up from behind a cloud of smoke and pyrotechnic effects. Totally blew my young mind away. I was 15, and went with a couple neighborhood friends. Awesome stuff.

The Cult are playing in my town again this coming 12 January 2007. Maybe I will write a review or snag some digipix if they allow it.

I was at this gig and I can assure you that Sabbath - not BOC - closed/headlined the show. I remember how disappointed I was when BOC come on stage second. This may be another one of those gigs where Sabbath was running late because there were very long delays between bands.

We were 7th row floor for BOC and when Sabbath took the stage the volume was so loud, we moved as far away from the stage as possible. As usual, in my eyes at the time, BOC could do no wrong... they sounded great. Ears were ringing days later...

Is this feud between Sabbath and BOC summarized/documented anywhere? Sounds very interesting.

Also, do you have any photos of BOC tour buses or aircraft used while on tour? Any close-up or promotional photos of Albert's drum kit used in the 70's?

The most vivid memory I have of this gig was two dudes holding up a "Fuck Iran" sign that Eric acknowledged during his introduction to Divine Wind.

What a great website, brings back some great BOC memories. Never in my life will i never forgot this show, Being both a crazed Cult and Sabbath fan it was the best of both worlds.

I was 16 and me and some school buddies camped out in line for tickets and walked away with 5th row tickets.

We had our party supplies and were ready 2 rock. The dude next to us had an arsenal of fine cannabis and kept passing us what were cheech and chong numbers that were as big as cigars!

Needless to say when Godzilla jumped into action we were blown away. Just got finished watching the 'Black and Blue ' video. Got to find a time machine and program it for October 13th, 1980!

80-10-13: Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

My brother and I were at this show (we travelled from Toronto, Canada) and I'm pretty sure Black Sabbath came on first.

We weren't Black Sabbath fans at all and they were so loud that I remember that we left the auditorium to go walk the concourse to save our hearing for BOC!

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Largo MD - Cap Center - Sabbs Closed

Although the gig was videoed, I don't think any footage from Cap Center was used in "Black and Blue"... that is a place where they had BIG video screens and there was always video of the band shot there (there's even a DVD for sale of the band there in 77 or 78... the audio on it unfortunately is very bad as no multi-track was made)...

A video shoot was quite a hassle for us crew types as many things had to be done differently and I remember none of this happening there... I'll ask Rick Downey... he edited the damn thing...

I don't think the opening act was Girlschool, I think it was Shakin' Street with Fabienne Shine. Wasn't really impressed with them, but it could have been the terrible acoustics that the old C(r)ap Centre had. All I remember was the tight black spandex she wore, little else.

This was one of my first concerts so forgive me for not recalling the BOC setlist, I remember Dr. Music, Divine Wind, Reaper and Godzilla- many of their deep tracks I still hadn't heard.

Black Sabbath did not hit the stage until midnight which was a drag for a HS freshman who got into curfew trouble, I believe the show was a week night. I am sure that Jumbotron footage exists, but honestly the quality was pretty poor and I think they only used two cams.

That entry never did look right to me - "Shakin' Street" always seemed to be a much more likely prospect as the opening act. Where I initially got the "Girlschool" info from has unfortunately been lost as a result of a hard disk crash a while back, but I'm now happy to accept this more recent endorsement of "Shakin' Street" as openers for this gig and have changed the entry accordingly.

80-10-14: Capitol Center, Largo Maryland Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. Roadhouse Blues
15. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

I wish I could remember the warm up act, but alas, my memory fails me at my advanced age. I had 'floor seats' for this show... meaning in fact, there were no seats but just the open floor.

This was back in the day when you could bring your own booze into the show. I wasn't old enough to enjoy any at the time but I do remember at the end of the show, the floor was covered in empty beer cans, broken beer bottles, and a few intact bone dry hard liquor bottles.

In the mess I found an Allen Lanier guitar pick with a nice notch on one side where he must've scraped it down the low E string. Still have it to this day.

This was also the time when you could take pictures at the shows. I have quite a few from my vantage point on the floor. The large Godzilla behind the drummer, the prop knife cutting into Eric's palm, the pyro effects, etc.

All taken with a cheap 35mm camera I had gotten that summer. Not the best quality, but good enough to bring back some great memories. No one told me I couldn't, so I did.

80-10-15: Civic Theatre, Utica, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Note the incorrect date given for this gig in the Billboard stats...

Rochester N.y - Sabbs Closed

16 October 1980 Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath. Shakin' Street was the opening act, a French band with a female lead singer.

Great site thanks for the hard work.

I'll tell you a story about Eric Bloom. About 10 years ago Ralph "Duke" Gillotte, whom I had met through his daughter, passed away. Eric went to school in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York in the '60s and knew Ralph who was keyboardist for Wilmer & the Dukes.

When Eric heard of Ralph's death he sent an email to Ralph's son Ralph Jr. Eric really cheered this guy up, who couldn't believe he got an email from Eric. I hope to see Eric sometime they are in town to let him know what it meant to the kid.

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ BOC Headlined ]
• "Black and Blue" movie video shot

Nassau County Coliseum - BOC closed - Shot "Black and Blue" movie footage... starring Joe Lauro as the Ayatollah of Rock & Rolla...

That whole thing started out as a joke... Joe was the dressing room/guitar tech... once the band started doing this song in the set, it was determined that there was a sorely missed guitar part, so Joe was tasked to stand over next to me on the side of the stage and play the missing part thru Albert's amp (for the 5 guitars)...

Then one night just to mess with the band he turned up with the ayatollah mask on... Bloom urged him out onto the stage and then messed with him... so it became part of the show....

Now since I was the one that hooked him up and switched on the amp, I even got a T-shirt that said "I Roadie For The Ayatollah!!"...

After seeing BOC in earlier the year at Asbury Park in August I was very excited about seeing BOC with Black Sabbath. I loved both bands - but BOC more. I remember I wasn't to thrilled when I found out Ozzie wasn't there...I hadn't heard he was gone.

Anyway, I had bought a very expensive SONY portable stereo cassette deck earlier in the year JUST to tape concerts so I took it to the gig. When Shakin' Street cam out I set all my equipment up but didn't tape them; honestly wasn't expecting another band anyway.

I was excited to see all the filming equipment there (they were filming the Black and Blue movie) when Black Sabbath came on. I enjoyed the Black Sabbath show but thought the new guy (Dio) sucked. It's just not anywhere near the same without HIM. Anyway, I was there to see BOC!

BOC did not disappoint. Eric waited until after ETI to announce they were filming the show and "you might see it someday... somewhere". Overall, I thought the show was awesome but a little subdued...I think they were concentrating more on the music and the stage show for the camera (see my review of Madison Square Garden 18 October 1980!)

The show was killer none-the-less! The crowd went nuts when they did Divine Wind and Eric started busting on Iran. I think the highlights of the show were Black Blade, ETI, and the 5 guitars...I don't know why it all didn't make the movie... Does anyone got the outtakes from the flick? Long story short: They blew Black Sabbath away!

80-10-17: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Nassau, Uniondale, Long Island, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

NYC Ny - Madison Square Garden - Sabbs closed...

Sabbs blew the place up at the end of the first song. 17 speakers in main pa ruptured due to 4 huge and overloaded concussions going off at the same time fired by their manager. Sabbs were doing their pyro under my license. I pulled my license after that. So much of a shock was given to the building that years of dust up in the rafters came floating down as snow would.

Leeann was there, too. I had flown her up. We went to the empire state building the next day. Never saw her again after I sent her back home.

My ears were still ringing from the Black and Blue show the night before. I had my trusty cassette deck again (see 10/17/80 review) and was ready for another awesome show! This show through me for a few curves though... Blue Oyster Cult opened this one...and no Shakin' street, either.

They played the same set as the night before but in this show Eric rolled on stage with [his?] Harley at the beginning of Born to Be Wild. I think the show was looser than the night before. They seemed to be stoked after coming off an awesome filming the night before (the Black and Blue Movie).

I was 15th row in the orchestra and everyone was standing on their seats to see the show. When Black Blade came on the pyrotechnics went off and the guy next to me fell off his seat! Earlier the same dude kept telling me that "Black Sabbath is gonna blow them away"... but that shut him up for good... especially when he saw Ozzie wasn't there and heard how shity Dio sounded.

Overall I think the MSG show was better than the Nassau Coliseum show - maybe because my seats were better... but I think it's because Buck, Albert, and Joe seemed more relaxed and at ease.

80-10-18: Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, New York, New York Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

• "Black'n'Blue" show # : [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]
• Sabbath were rescheduled from 6 Aug (see stub above)

If you examine the above stub, you'll see that Black Sabbath originally had a date here on 6 August but that was clearly re-scheduled to 22 Oct when the Black'n'Blue tour came up on the radar...

Wheeling W.V. - Sabbs closed...

80-10-22: Cow manure Exposition Hall Wheeling, West Virginia Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

• "Black'n'Blue" show #

The ticket stub and handbill all say "23 October" yet Sam Judd's road diary says "24 October" for this show!!

10/23 - Athens OH... BIG college gig with the Outlaws opening...

Oct 24 80 - Ohio University Convocation Center, Athens Ohio. Molly Hatchet opening act. This was during the Black and Blue tour with Black Sabbath. I remember thinking I was lucky to catch BOC without Sabbath (i saw Sabbath later on without BOC) because i thought id get a longer set. Now they had replaced the Godzilla mask with a giant Godzilla.

I also think this was the tour where Eric started riding a motorcyle on stage during Born to be wild, but i might be a tour off. Great show.

Regarding the possibility of this show taking place the day before the printed show date (i.e. on the Thursday 23rd instead of Friday 24th) - I hate to disagree with Sam Judd's notes above, because I understand they were written at the time, but I dont think the Athens date was moved to the 23rd.

And here is my reasoning: I did not live in Athens; i lived in Columbus Ohio, which was around 90 minutes away. And at the time of that show, i had just turned 17 and was a senior in high school. This is significant because I had gone to Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati the previous year to see the Who, where 11 people got killed. I snuck out of the house to see that show and, as punishment, was no longer allowed to go to out-of-town shows on school nights.

And if Sam is correct, the Athens show would have been moved back to the Thursday, which was a school night. There is no way that show was on Thursday (i only attended two weeknight concerts on school nights that were not in Columbus -- Bad Company and the Who, both in 1979).

I would have only been allowed to go to Athens on a Friday or Saturday. In that regard, I suppose it's always possible that it was moved to Saturday.

It would also have made more sense to play Athens immediately before Cincinnati. Hope this helps.

Regarding the support bands - my gut is that it was only BOC and Molly Hatchet - but its slightly possible that I missed the Outlaws - i was only interested in BOC and it was a really strong BOC show, so that is what stuck with me through the years -- Molly Hatchet was boring as ever.

The ticket stub says "24 October" yet Sam Judd's road diary says "23 October". Anyone got any info?

This was definitely on the 24th, Friday night.

Also, Jonathan is right. Molly Hatchet opened (and kicked ass) but the Outlaws were not there.

OK - I'll go with the flow on this one - but it's weird - Sam's diaries have never been wrong before.

Just a thought - he might possibly have filled in the wrong side of the diary page for each of these two gigs - I've lost track of the number of times I've written stuff down on the wrong page of my diary.

That's all I can think of...

I was there on Friday, October 24, 1980 for the Hatchet and BOC show at the OU Convocation Center.

While going through some old concert ticket stubs recently from my collection I found this one. Seat 6, Row 13 in front section #4 (Right front center).

I'm from near Chillicothe, Ohio and my sister was at college in Athens at OU. I remember this show because some of my HS friends were heading to the BlacknBlue show in Cinci on Saturday.

In fact, I saw Dio and the Sabbath guys hanging out near the stage and walking through the aisle to the sound platform.

Yes, Eric did ride the motorcycle on B2BWild during this show. Godzilla was huge. It was an awesome show and I often recall events in my mind from this one.

The summer following... in 1981 BOC was on a cable TV concert channel. I watched a show from this tour on TV.

I was there, it was a friday night. Molly hatchet opened up. Yes, Bloom rode the motorcycle on stage. I too lived in Columbus and remember the chec and chong drive there. I lived in Whitehall at the time.

A bunch of us caught Black Sabbath around that time at St Johns Arena. We wondered why BOC and Sabbath weren't playing together. The Rockets opened for Sabbath. Both shows were great. Molly Hatchet played a heck of a set too.

The gig is mentioned here:

• Spectrum Green, 1981 || Ohio University Yearbook

80-10-24: Ohio University, Convocation Center, Athens, Georgia Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities on Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

• Final "Black'n'Blue" show (# ): [ Black Sabbath Headlined ]

Cincinatti Oh - Sabbs closed... I believe this to be the last Black and Blue show...

What a wild night, almost Halloween with a huge Harvester (of eyes) Moon that showed up around 7:00 pm big, full and orange. The animals and demons were definitely out that night. It was BLACK AND BLUE BABY. Our huge group started partying early and hard.

This was the 2nd concert I had been to at Riverfront Coliseum since the 11 fatalities at the Who concert in 1979. What a different atmosphere. I think a lot more than 11 people died...I think the freewheeling, rock & roll craziness that was festival seating at big shows died here first and then spread to the rest of the country and into other areas such as no smoking and so on. I miss the craziness. I was NOT going to miss BLACK AND BLUE.

Now on with the show. I think there may have been 4 bands that night. It started early and went real late.

The first band was some kind of glam, Stones lite kinda thing that I really hated and had no idea who they were, (listed as Spike on Sabbath's site).

The second band I know for a fact was MOTORHEAD. You can't forget Lemmy belting out Ace of Spades. We all thought the Hells Angels had taken the stage, (not listed on Sabbath's site).

BOC were up next. WOW!!! This was my second time in the Cult and I was touched. From the opening notes of Dr. Music till the fading echoes of Roadhouse Blues, this was the BEST of the 20 or so concerts I had seen up until then (including some really big names) and it is still in my top 5.

I think the set list was really close to the Madison Square Garden show.

1. Dr Music
2. ETI
3. Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. Me262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. 5 Guitar Medley
12. Born to be Wild
13. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
14. Roadhouse Blues

This must have been the last show of the Black and Blue tour like Sam Judd suggested. I say that because a T-shirt I got at the show listed Cincy last, (can't find shirt, I'm sad about that) and because BOC played like a huge weight had been lifted off of them. They played like their asses were on fire and only the speed and energy of a freakish performance could keep the flames from spreading.

They pulled out ALL the stops for this show. The only thing missing was a virginal sacrifice, and it probably happened and I just missed it. (just kidding all you PC freaks out there)

Every thing they played was good, but here are the highlights:

• The powerful sound and light show during Cities on Flame blew me away and resembled a war on stage.
• A huge response to Evil Wind when someone came out in an Ayatollah mask and Eric had the stuffed to the rafters crowd, ready to string his towel headed ass up right there. I saw a lot of F_CK IRAN type signs and shirts there. Signs of the time that are still relevant.
• Black Blade...the best of the new stuff and my favorite underplayed BOC song. It is almost Sabbath-like in it's theme and sound, but a lot hotter.
• Godzilla had both the huge red eyed lizard that breathed smoke and Albert with the green dog head, I mean Godzilla head on during the drum solo from the Gods. The strobes and effects were real trippy man.
• Born to be Wild started with Eric coming out on his Harley like in most of their shows, but this time he had a very beautiful, very HEALTHY, very TOPLESS woman on the back. She got off the bike and ran from one corner of the stage to the other waving (her hands and other things) at the fans. Now that's ROCK and ROLL.
• Don't Fear the Reaper had one of the best bass solos I've EVER seen... even today, and I play bass and pay a lot of attention to bass players. Thanks Joe.
• The most amazing thing happened on their 3rd and final encore. Eric brings out Robbie Krieger from the DOORS to play on Roadhouse Blues. WOW WOW WOW OMG WOW! Oh sorry that was a little girlish...but true.

After a very long break, remember you could still smoke inside back then, so we did. Black Sabbath came out and were really really good. Vinnie Appice had been with them almost 2 months now and the grooves he and Geezer worked up were thick and powerful.

I had seen Black Sabbath about 2 months earlier in Dayton and they were good but not real tight. Bill Ward left 6 shows later and you could tell things were not great. This night they were tight, and menacing and Ronnie James Dio was wielding an amazing voice that cut through the pot smoke and grabbed you by the...soul.

His elfness in front of that evil rock machine was a beautiful thing. I can still see Ronnie leaning out off the stage, (hanging onto the huge lighted crosses in each corner), belting out Heaven and Hell and all the hair on my arms and neck standing up.

Where BOC was like Raiders of the Lost Ark (lots of adventure and excitement) the Sabbs were like the Exorcist (dark, foreboding, scary) and touched me in a deeper more primal way. They did invent this shit.

BOC was the better show by far but the difference of the two bands made it so incredible. I didn't understand for years the appeal of this kind of show until it happened again.

About 10 years ago I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd (before half of them died of old age) and ZZ Top at the Civic Center in Savannah, GA. Skynyrd was breath taking. They played every hit you can think of in grand fashion and took all of the oxygen out of the room with a fantastic version of Free Bird.

I had seen the Top 3 times and REALLY LOVE them, but I did not think they could compare to what I had just seen. The BEARDED ONES took the stage and put on one of the most seductive, tight and tasty performances I've seen. These old geezers playing their little ditties ended up with the largest pile of bras and panties I've seen on stage in 35+ years. You could not see either mic stand.

The Black and Blue show left me the same way, exhausted, content and completely amazed at what I had just seen. Oh I forgot, My ears range for 3 days after B & B, (worse than the Who).

Thanks Gary. Regarding Motorhead - I think maybe you might have seen them with somebody else, though, and mixed that memory up with this show. Lemmy & Co started their UK tour on 20 October 1980, and so couldn't have been in Cincy on the 25th - check this link out:

• www.imotorhead.com

Well I did say we started partying early and hard in the first paragraph, so a few faulty memories are to be expected.

I also saw both of these band at other times along with aprox 50 + ticketed shows, and a few completely lost episodes with no ticket and very few memories.

Though the Motorhead and BLACK & BLUE memories are really tight together in a lot of ways, I probably crossed a wire somewhere. If my memory was perfect I'd be a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist or something!!

I will keep looking in to this and other dates and send the correction when I have one.

80-10-25: Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. Divine Wind
7. ME262
8. Hot Rails To Hell
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. Bass Solo
12. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
13. Born To Be Wild
14. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
15. Roadhouse Blues

I know Gary above said that local Boston band, Spike, were listed as openers on the Sabbath site, but I originally decided to put "Shakin' Street" down as the openers, not just because they're mentioned in the ad posted above, but also because of this listing in the 23 Oct 1980 edition of the "The Cincinnati Enquirer":

Then I got the following info...

Oct 25 Cincinnati Oh, local band Spike was the opener, not Shakin' Street...

This was my first BOC show. I came as a Sabbath fan and left a BOC devotee.

My guess is that Spike was a last minute replacement as I was amazed that a band would do a set of mostly covers at a gig that big.

Also as a footnote during Born To Be Wild Eric rolled onstage on a Harley with a topless girl on back. Good times...

That's all I have in the book (no venue name)... but I know we went home for a day or two and then returned to NYC to sort out the gear and do the Marshall Plan Video... then we did a week of shows between Xmas and New Years...

Being a Bloomington, Indiana resident, I can confirm that the band played at the Assembly Hall when they visited our city in 1980.

Check out my blog:

• Groping Towards Grace

Here's a Wiki-based page that lists the acts who've played this hall, together with support acts:

• Assembly Hall Gig List

... and here's a short review that appeared in Arbutus, the 1980-81 Indiana University Yearbook:

What happened in November? Possibly the Marshall Plan video by the sounds of it. If you know, please let me ...

I'll always remember Dec 8, 1980 as I was on the phone speading the word of the birth of my 1st daughter when I heard the news... the band (BOC) was off at the time but when we went back out for the week between Xmas and New Years they closed each night with a KILLER version of "She's So Heavy" dedicated to John...

There's even tapes of it that hopefully will show up on a re-issue some day - I've been asked NOT to make any dubs of mine or I'd send you all one...

Well I can help you with one. Have my ticket stub from Dec 26, 1980 (is that REALLY 26+ years ago?) at Fayetteville, NC. Support was Nantucket and the Henry Paul Band.

Can't give you much of a review as I was only 13 at the time. I knew Reaper and had a Spectres 8-track so knew those songs but no others.

Do remember it being a good visual show. Great lights, seem to remember Bloom doing a staged cutting of his palms with a knife at some point (?).

Sorry that can't give you more but at least you know the support acts now.

I joined the Air Force in 1978, getting stationed at Pope Air Force Base, just north of Fort Bragg and about 20 minutes from Fayetteville. Seeing concerts there was a mixed bag. Fayetteville by itself did not have the population to draw in the big bands, but with Fort Bragg there, it added 40,000 to the pool.

The venue, however, was the pits. Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium had terrible acoustics.

The boys had put out "Cultosaurus Erectus" that summer, one of my favorite Cult albums. I was also catching up on the first three albums, and discovering just how good they were. Some Enchanted Evening had come out in 1978 and showed how good they could sound live.

As far as the show, I have a hazy memory of Eric bringing out the motorcycle.

The support group was Nantucket. To those not from the area, they must have seemed an odd pairing in that Nantucket was a regional band. But they were very popular in North Carolina and hot as a firecracker at that point. I remember seeing them at The Cellar in Fayetteville.

Wish I could remember more, but it is what it is. At least I have the ticket stub!

This was my first real concert. Several things stood out about this show:

• I Want You (She's So Heavy) was a big surprise and they blew it out of the water. I was taking guitar lessons and had been working on Tenderloin and IWYSSH before Lennon was shot, so it was especially powerful when they played it
• Eric Bloom was clean shaven and I wasn't sure it was him until after the middle of the first song (can't remember what they opened with). It wasn't until years later that I found out they had done a video for The Marshall Plan and Eric had shaved and grown his hair longer to look more like a high school kid
• Like others said, Eric rode his motorcycle on stage and did the staged palm cut for Unknown Tongue

Awesome concert to have been my first.

The warmup act for this gig was New England. Their 2nd LP had just come out...

80-12-27: Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. ME262
7. Hot Rails To Hell
8. Black Blade
9. Godzilla
10. Bass Solo
11. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
12. Born To Be Wild
13. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
14. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
15. Roadhouse Blues

80-12-28: Civic Center, Dothan, Alabama Setlist:

1. Dr.Music
2. ETI
3. The Marshall Plan
4. Cities On Flame
5. Unknown Tongue
6. ME262
7. Hot Rails To Hell
8. Black Blade
9. Godzilla
10. Bass Solo
11. 5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
12. Born To Be Wild
13. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
14. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
15. Roadhouse Blues

One of the coolest pranks was played on the audience in Huntsville/Muscle Shoals AL in Dec of 1980...

The band came out and opened with Dr. Music as usual but the part of Eric Bloom was played by Joe Bouchard (complete with mirror shades); Bloom was on drums, and I believe Allen played guitar and Albert was on keys... Did Buck play Bass?...

I remember Joe (as part of his Bloom act) announcing to the crowd "Hey we came down here to Alabama for just one reason...THE MONEY and to get DOWN with some rock'n'roll"...

Wet Willie was the opening act at this show. Nice work on this gig list!

According to "The Montgomery Advertiser" (December 19, 1980) the opening act was "Louisiana's LeRoux", so I'll go with that for now until I get more confirmation that it wasn't...

I don't recall exactly who opened... LeRoux is on my listing as well. Don't think I was in my seat for the opening act since they did not interest me.

The next night was New Years Eve and we played a VERY late show in Memphis (after a really kewl air guitar contest) and everybody went home for a nice long rest and during the first part of 81 the band went into the studio to record what would be the Fire Of Unknown Origin album...

The Mid-South Coliseum Facebook page gave the following stats for this gig:

Also on the page was some discussion over who the opening acts were. There seemed unanimity that New England opened, and then two people reckoned Head East were second on the bill - this despite the fact that Head East were second on the bill when BOC played the same venue the previous year.

Can anyone confirm or deny that Head East also definitely played this gig?

I think also that these date(s) were played in 1980 - if you have any info, please let me know:

There are some BOC gigs that seem to have slipped through the cracks for some reason, like the Old Waldorf gig of 80-09-06 in San Francisco.

The night before they played under the name Soft White Underbelly in San Jose at a club near my house. It was cool that only those of us who knew were onto them for awhile, and it was a small club, so the impact was intense.

I lived in the Bay Area for about 11 years, and there were so many venues there to see bands, and as BOC came through the area they would gig at several of the smaller places.

I'm afraid Dick must have his years mixed up as there was NO gig at the Waldorf on Sep 6 1980 and there was NO San Jose gig the night before as we were in San Bernadino taking it up the arse from AC/fucking/DC...