Product Description

Black Sabbath are the ultimate heavy rock band. They have sold millions of albums worldwide, with ardent fans across the globe. Dave Tangye and Graham Wright were in the crew during the seventies, the band's heyday, and have the stories to prove it. For the first time they cover in detail the early days of the group, including a certain gig in the Scottish borders, where they were almost beaten up by local farmers. As the Sabs rose to fame and notoriety, touring Europe, Australia and America, delighting fans and disgusting law-abiding members of the public, incidents of bad behaviour stack up alarmingly.

Full of new information, How Black Was Our Sabbath is a real Spinal Tap story, a warm, funny, poignant tribute to four mates from Birmingham who became the biggest heavy rock band in the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72837 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 236 pages

, 1 May, 2004
An entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the band whose employees knew them as 'Slack-Haddock'.

Classic Rock, May 2004
A happy and unchallenging meander through the defining years of heavy metal's greatest band. A warm and gentle read.

Front End, May 2004.
Warm and wry, there's plenty here that will get you giggling anew.

Customer Reviews

Awesome book on the early Ozzy years (and more)
This is an absolutely wonderful book written by David Tangye & Graham Wright. There's been plenty of books on Black Sabbath before. Some good. Some not so good. This one falls in the category of being EXTREMELY GOOD. The difference between this book and the others on the Ozzy history of the band is the fact that this one was written by folks who were there. A lot of these things are written by people who retell stories, regurgitating things that are already out there. Not this one. David was Ozzy's personal assistant, and Graham was Bill Ward's assistant. So these stories are told from folks who lived them. There are some other stories by other folks who were involved with Sabbath directly as well.

This book goes into some areas of the band's history that have never been talked much about before. Specifically the days when they were known as Polka Tulk, as well as Earth. There's tons of stories about life on the road, the legendary "Satanist attacks Tony Iommi on stage with a knife" story, to one their hotel room doors being painted with a bloody red Cross, to the story about the band blowing out the candles of a group of Satanists in the hallway by singing "Happy Birthday" to 'em. There's other things, like Ozzy's first wife Thelma, and the kids Oz had with her. That's something that's almost never talked about. Graham tells stories about Bill's drive over the Australian Outback in 1974 for about 500 miles to avoid flying. And a few about how some vehicles ended up in swimming pools.

What's best about this book to me is that it's an easy free flowing style. I've read many books, and some are hard reads, but this was one that I could quite easily have read in one sitting, had I had that much time available when I read it. David & Graham are to be applauded for their work on the book, both in content and in style.

The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it's not the easiest book to get in the US. There's no direct US publisher that I'm aware of, and as such, it can be a bit expensive to get it here in the States. In fact, if you're in the US, it might be cheaper to buy it from the UK site That issue aside, I feel it's well worth it due to the quality of the stories and the writing in the book. You can't go wrong reading this if you're a fan of Black Sabbath.

Joe Siegler

great book!
i stumbled upon this book online by accident as, since it is " unauthorised" ,it has had no advertising what so ever!
i must say i really enjoyed this book- it contains lots of pictures that i had never seen before which were obviously from the authors own collections. The book explains alot about sabbath's early times with ozzy indeed right up until ozzy's dismissal. Indeed ,it is very candid and a pleasure to read - I really think that any true Sabbath fan will really enjoy this book. Perhaps, If you are new to the band, a less personal " warts and all" book like this isn't the best introduction to the band.

Doesn't get much better than this...
Absolutely essential for anyone with even a passing interest in Black Sabbath or its members. An accurate and warm telling of how four youths from Birmingham changed the face of Rock and Roll...Sure, they had their ups and downs, but unlike most other books concerning this band, 'How Black Was Our Sabbath' does not dwell on the negatives, but instead shows the band as they really were...Dedicated, hard working incredibly creative and finally...human. A story such as this, with such amazing detail, could only have been told by those who were close to the band and fans of Black Sabbath surely will give a collective "Bravo" for Dave Tangye and Graham Wright dispelling the misconceptions of this innovative band so long put forward as truth by so many different publications...

Pass on the rest...If you want to know about Black Sabbath, this is the only book you will ever need...