BLACK SABBATH Drama: The Reason Behind Bill Ward's Removal From All Images On The Bands NEW Website!

Last week, we announced that the NEW and improved BLACK SABBATH website has arrived! In case you haven't seen it yet, the NEW version of BlackSabbath.com is a lot more navigable and it makes easier for the band to interact with their fans and vice versa. It also features a bunch of updates from the band.

Following the above mentioned news, we informed you all that the band had cropped out drummer Bill Ward from all of the bands images! Well, this is the reason why:

"At the request of Bill Ward, through his attorney, so as to not give the public the wrong impression about his involvement in the current Black Sabbath lineup, we have temporarily removed Bill Ward’s images from the main pages of the Blacksabbath.com official website. In accordance with Bill Ward’s attorney’s request, we are doing so for the duration of the forthcoming shows." - BLACK SABBATH

As previously reported, this past Saturday (May 19) BLACK SABBATH performed an intimate hometown concert at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, England. The 3,800 capacity venue served as a warm-up show in anticipation of the band's appearance at the Download Festival at Donington next month. While there has been a lot of controversy around the "reunion" of BLACK SABBATH, it was great to see Tony Iommi back on stage.

BLACK SABBATH's setlist for the show was as follows:

01. Into The Void
02. Under The Sun
03. Snowblind
04. War Pigs
05. Wheels Of Confusion
06. Electric Funeral
07. Black Sabbath
08. The Wizard
09. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
10. N.I.B.
11. Fairies Wear Boots
12. Tomorrow's Dream
13. Sweet Leaf
14. Symptom Of The Universe (intro only)
15. Drum Solo
16. Iron Man
17. Dirty Women
18. Children Of The Grave

Encore:

19. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (intro only)
20. Paranoid

Fan-filmed video footage is available below.

BLACK SABBATH's first hometown performance in 13 years — and their first concert since 2005 — featured three-quarters of the legendary Heavy Metal act's original lineup — guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler. Tommy Clufetos, a member of Ozzy's solo band, is filling in for original SABBATH drummer Bill Ward, who is sitting out the group's reunion shows due to a contractual dispute with his bandmates.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you Birmingham. Best fans ever — you brought out the best in us", commented Geezer Butler. "It was a privilege playing for you tonight. Tony [Iommi, SABBATH guitarist] was a hero — you were the best medicine he has had. Proud to be a Brummie."

According to Black-Sabbath.com, last night's concert was professionally recorded and filmed.















Click here to check out the NEW BLACK SABBATH Website