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Black Sabbath: Never Say Die Live Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Bmg Distribution (VI Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-03-04 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 "I was there!!" In aug 1978 i saw this show in New Haven Ct, opening band was then unknown's Van Halen, which in my opinion blew sabbath away, i was 16 at the time and barely remember the show but i do remember VH was alot better. Where this film was shot i cant find out, but with some shots of the crowd it def looks in usa. "4 stars for the quality from that time period" First off, I am a Sabbath fanatic. Yes, I've seen the Paris 1970 footage which is better than this footage. I guess you could say this concert if for the completist who is willing TO LOOK PAST QUALITY TO SEE WHAT IS REALLY THERE. It annoys me when people expect that the video will be 21st century quality and look like it was recorded yesterday. Yes they managed to do that with the Zeppelin DVD but the remastering for this wasn't done by the band but rather by the fledgling sanctuary records. Not sure if I'm correct on that, maybe Tony was involved. Read on for the review. First off, this concert is too short for a band that had been together for ten years. It barely clocks at over an hour with encores which is a disappointment. Tony's guitar tone is not loud at all in the mix which actually allows the viewer to see the intricate talent of Sabbath's superb rhythm section. You finally get to hear all of the bass fills done be Geezer which are a great treat for bass players such as myself. Bill seems to be the only person in the band not playing well. It just seems like he's too drugged up to do anything. His drum solo is only 1 minute long which can be attributed to his excessive drug use. My last comlaint is how Ozzy's mike is off to the left and Tony (a boring showman compared to Ozzy) dead center. Now to the more positive comments. The show starts with Ozzy flashing peace signs all throughout during Symtom Of The Universe. The song is well played and the band is tight. Next is the unbeatable War Pigs which Sabbath always seems to manage to perfectly play. This is followed by the epic cocaine influenced song that is Snowblind. It is far better then the truncated version that appears on The Last Supper. Never Say Die follows which I find to be a treat because of it rarely being played live. Great Song. Ozzy then gives his tenth anniversary speech and the band proceeds to play Sabbath's calling card, Black Sabbath. Then is one of the last classics Sabbath managed to make. That song is Dirty Women. Bill Ward's crappy drum solo follows which then proceeds into the useless Rock and Roll Doctor. Good song and all but I wish it was replaced with maybe another song off of Never Say Die like Johnny Blade. This song is followed by the yet again incomplete Electric Funeral. Would it kill sabbath to ever play all five minutes of the song. The only time you hear the full live version of the song is on Reunion. Then comes Children Of The Grave minus the Embryo intro. That killed the song for me. Without embryo the song seems incomplete. Credits then role and are interupted by the singular encore song that is Paranoid. Yet again this is a song that is impossible to do bad. Overall, great dvd for that point in time and a fun show to look at today. Go out and buy it. Sabbath forever!!! Can't wait till they make a new album. "Bit dissapointing" ok first off, the sound on the drums and guitars was awesome. The vocal sound was terrible. "Good Show old chap!" Black Sabbath, 1978. Ozzy's last year with Black Sabbath and I think this was a pretty good show for that time period. The song selection is tolerable although I would've liked Sweet Leaf and N.I.B. Overall, it's a pretty good show compared to the crap that is shat out these days. "Anything less than 5 stars would be just not right" When I was a kid back in the early 80's, I had a copy of Black Sabbath's Greatest Hits on vinyl (the one with the Breughel sleeve), and had never heard anything like it: I already had Motorhead and Iron Maiden records, but this music was so nasty, so alien, so WRONG, that it grabbed me by the guts and demanded to be listened to. My dad knew I liked Sabbath and taped this show on VHS, I watched it over and over again with my brother but it got lost or taped over as these things do. Anyway last Christmas I got this DVD of a friend, and lo and behold it was the same show! So I may be biased, but... The guy who said that Bill Ward's drumming was below par and the band were going through the motions on this recording was talking absolute bull and should be given a good kicking. I should know, I play drums in a Sabbath tribute band. In fact the whole band are giving it 100%, apart from Geezer who is off the scale, the song selection is as good as it possibly could be, there are no gimmicks, fancy lighting, extras, etc, it's just in-yer-face evil music done as only Sabbath can do it. I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough to Sabbath fans or to anyone who wants to know what heavy music is really about (no preening and posing like Zep, for a start, superior musicians they may be, but Zep were the END of the BLUES, not the originators of metal - yes it's true, Sabbath WERE responsible). Anyway, the only minor gripe I have is that the sound quality is below par, but it hardly matters when the performances are this good. Just crank it up and give it a bit more treble: couldn't they have done this sort of thing before releasing the DVD though? If you are reading this, you either have this DVD or you are thinking about maybe possibly getting it. If you are even slightly curious, I can confirm that you SHOULD buy this DVD. Repeat: you SHOULD buy this DVD. You NEED this music in your life. Oh yes.