Ozzy Osbourne is alive and well in Whistler… sort of.
What: Wizard Of Oz, The Reunion Concert
Where: Buffalo Bill’s
When: Sunday, Aug. 10
Ozzfest, the summer concert tour criss-crossing the U.S.A. for its seventh year as we speak, has been such a success not only in terms of ticket sales (3.5 million stubs and counting) but in terms of sticking the finger up at those who said "it can’t be done".
Who said hard and fast heavy metal was dead? Who said Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were has-beens? Certainly not Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne who created one of the biggest rock camps in history with the "Godfather of Metal" at its helm.
Virtually every band that has meant something in the loud rock universe this past decade has been featured on one of its bills: Tool, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, Queens of the Stone Age, Pantera, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, the list goes on. Ozzy and Sharon and the legacy of Black Sabbath have built an empire the fans have come to love and their subjects, the loyal head banging masses, arrive, without fail, in droves every year. No other touring festival comes close to matching that impressive benchmark.
In honour of all things Ozzy and Black Sabbath based, a group of long-haired, black T-shirt and tight-pant-wearing Canadian madmen have once again formed their favourite tribute show, called Wizard of Oz.
The six-year-strong collective of hired gun musicians with an appreciation for heavy metal mayhem decided it was time to bring back the dead.
"We haven’t played as Wizard of Oz for about 18 months now," said drummer and Whistler-based member, Bart Ings. "But it was time for a reunion show in light of Ozzfest doing the summer rounds and Whistler was the only place we all wanted to do it in. It's always a good time there for us. People really know how to party."
So what is it about Ozzy and Black Sabbath that keeps the fans coming back more than 30 years since they started?
"It’s music that will never die. It’ll just get stronger because it’s aggression, it’s loud and it’s powerful. Once you’re a heavy metal fan, you can’t turn back," explained Ings, who said the Wizard of Oz crowds range from regulation heavy metal fans to closet moms and dads and geeky teenage kids.
"Everybody loves Ozzy. He’s such a legend. It’s pretty amazing when you see him, he can barely speak, but once he hits the stage, he blows it away time after time."
Ings said anybody who merely has a fascination with Ozzy from the MTV cult reality show, The Osbournes, should definitely come to the gig this Sunday night.
"You have to see the other side to Ozzy. The TV show just doesn’t do him justice. On stage he is so high-energy and captivating, it’s incredible to watch."
Taking on the Ozzy persona in the Wizard of Oz is singer Gary Wood, who along with the rest of the band has been involved in cases of mistaken identity for the real Black Sabbath.
"We were playing in Winnipeg a few years back and this Japanese girl came to the show and went nuts. She wanted us to sign her Black Sabbath posters, so we did. It was pretty clear she thought we were actually the real band and so when someone told her we weren’t she went ballistic. She screamed abuse and ripped up the poster right in front of us. It was a compliment but also very funny," said Ings.
Catch the Wizard of Oz Tribute Show Sunday night, Aug. 10, with the first set being all Ozzie’s solo songs and the second set all Black Sabbath. Tickets are $6 at the door.
Ozzy Uncovered
Favourite Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne song and why:
Bart
: Over The Mountain, because the guitar solo is killer.Dave
: Symptom of the Universe, because it has such a classic heavy metal riff. Just about every Metallica song is based on it.Favourite Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne song to perform:
Bart
: Fairies Wear Boots, because it’s got a great groove.Dave
: Into the Void. It’s so brutally heavy and repetitive. It’s groany and simple to play but super effective. A good song to bang your head to.Song that the crowd seems to go nuts for:
Bart
: Crazy Train was the biggest song ever and everybody knows it. The crowd goes wild.Dave
: Crazy Train was the biggest single off his first solo album. It was 1982 and most of the crowd were in high school when it came out so it really gets ’em going. If the show’s not going well, we always pull this one out to fix it.Hardest song for you to perform:
Bart
: Mama I’m Coming Home, because there’s so much going on you just have to get it sounding good to pull off. We still give it a go though and will either get yayed or nayed, we never know.
