music

sometimes with music it comes down to just one thing: the voice. forget the instruments, forget the music, and forget the words. just listen to the voice. does it soar? does it roar?
nowhere is this truer than in the world of rock music.
tenacious d sang
“dio has rocked for a long, long time,
now it's time for him to pass the torch.
he has songs of wildebeests and angels;
he has soared on the wings of a demon. “
and they weren’t wrong. ronnie james dio may have been diminutive but he had the voice of a giant. it was a sad day in the world of metal when he died.
myself and a pal (who doesn’t like to be named, but never reads this so: hello joel) went to see dio several years back. we thought it was going to be one of those let’s promote the new lp but throw in a few favourites type gigs. the later period dio solo albums were ok, nothing special to write home about. we were just going to be in awe of the man rather than sing along to his new album.
ah but the little man fooled us all. the astoria (now sadly gone to make way for london crossrail) wasn’t packed. filled, mostly, with middle-aged rockers all ready to stamp and cheer as dio did his little finger signs to the audience. i doubt if many there could remember much of the album he was promoting. it didn’t matter. the audience was in for a treat, we just didn’t know it yet.
anticipation is always the order of the day at gigs. they rarely start when they say they are going to start. there is always some waiting. then there is a little teasing as a roadie walks out to check an instrument or two, or the sound guy begins playing the intro music too soon.
the astoria may have been a great venue for watching bands – it wasn’t a great venue for just standing around waiting.
the band came on. the audience cheered. we still didn’t know what was in store for us.
first track. ok. it warmed us up.
second track ‘sign of the southern cross’ that can’t be right, but i am not complaining. no that is not possible. fuck me ragged but it is ‘stargazer’. three songs in and already he has played two of his greatest songs. i look at joel. joel looks at me. we are both shocked.
the shocks just kept coming by the end of the night we had ‘mob rules’ ‘man on the silver mountain’ ‘long live rock n roll’ ‘gates of babylon’ ‘heaven and hell’ ‘mob rules’ ‘holy diver’ ‘neon nights’ and more. it was a veritable feast of dio.
we were both as happy as pigs in shit.
it was, without a doubt, the best gig i have been to. it remains the gig i most want to find as a bootleg.
dio what a man. what a voice.
watch out for dio throwing his finger horn shapes and saying ‘this one’.
with the ‘kill the king’ video you see dio in action with one of the great guitarists in rock: ritchie blackmore. there is a story to this song but that will wait for another day.



with ‘heaven and hell’ dio is fronting black sabbath; with dio at the helm they were a much different band to when ozzy was the front man. when i saw them play iommi’s guitar solo was so dull and went on for so long you could see great chunks of the audience sit down. the video is marred is by yet another unsuccessful audience participation section.