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Ozzy Osbourne: Speak Of The Devil DVD

Michael R. Wetzel | Columbus, Ohio United States | 03/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This awesome DVD is a must for all Ozzy fans! Ozzy Osbourne- Speak Of The Devil is an entire concert filmed back in 1982. This is the same concert that was aired on MTV in the same year. Unfortunately, at that time, I had no VCR to tape the concert with and this concert was never released on tape or DVD until 2 months ago. This is very puzzling because this concert is really sweet. Unlike the Ozzy Osbourne CD- Speak Of The Devil (which is Ozzy's band performing all Black Sabbath songs) this DVD is Ozzy's band performing songs from his first two solo albums, Blizzard Of Ozz, and Diary Of A Madman plus 3 Black Sabbath songs. This concert was filmed just months after the horrible, tragic death of Ozzy's guitarist and great friend Randy Rhoads during the Diary Of A Madman tour. The very talented lead guitarist Brad Gillis was kind enough to join Ozzy and help him finish the tour and record Speak Of The Devil. Songs performed on the DVD include Over The Mountain, Mr. Crowley, Crazy Train, Revelation (Mother Earth), Steal Away The Night, Believer, I Don't Know, Goodbye To Romance, Flying High Again, Suicide Solution, and Black Sabbath songs Iron Man, Children Of The Grave, and Paranoid (the encore). The musicians in Ozzy's band at this time are some of the best in the business. Along with the aforementioned Brad Gillis are Rudy Sarzo on bass, Don Airey on keyboards, and the phenomenal Tommy Aldridge on drums. There is a section near the middle of the concert where Ozzy goes off stage and lets the musicians do their stuff. A sweet little instrumental jam between the 4 musicians, as well as an awesome guitar solo by Brad Gillis and an absolutely killer drum solo by the great Tommy Aldridge. One of the reasons I like this concert so much is because it is really good to see Ozzy bouncing back from the awful Randy Rhoads tragedy. He has been through so much pain over the course of his life and the death of his friend Randy could have really pushed him over the edge. But clearly in this DVD, Ozzy is having fun on stage and really getting the crowd to have fun with him, which he does so very well. If you are a big fan of Ozzy, you will want to watch this video over and over. Only a few minor criticisms of this DVD. The moments in between the songs are mostly edited out. When this concert aired on MTV, there was no editing. It was cool to see Ozzy talk to the crowd in between songs and get them all fired up and rowdy. Also, Ozzy's voice in the concert was looped for much of the songs. There are moments where his voice and his mouth movements don't match up. In one moment, it looks like on stage he has forgotten a line of lyrics and is singing something completely different from what you are hearing. (Give him a break, it happens to all singers at one time or another....lol) Also there are no shots of the crowd, practically, only from the back. Unfortunately, there are no bonus or special features on the DVD. Even with these criticisms, I still give this DVD the highest rating. It is truly a classic despite the minor flaws. To my knowledge, this is the earliest concert footage of Ozzy on his own. This concert blows away all other later live concert videos of Ozzy. As I said earlier, it is a MUST for all Ozzy fans! Hope you enjoy and treasure it as much as I do - Mike"

Great show, though not the same as the CD of same title

Bill M. | MA, USA | 10/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Be forewarned that this isn't simply a video version of the "Speak of the Devil" album. It is the same incredible band: Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, Tommy Aldrigde of countless different bands, Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot and now with Dio, Don Airey of countless other bands but now with Deep Purple. But here they perform an OZZY SOLO SET.

This "Speak of the Devil" video was originally released in Japan on VHS, but got passed around on the bootleg circuit when the original went long out of print. Here it is now on DVD. It should be noted though that this still doesn't appear to be an "official" release; it was most likely released without Ozzy's knowledge or consent. Still, it's a great snapshot of Ozzy in his prime, still forging on and giving it all for the show, all the more admirable considering that it wasn't even 6 months since Randy Rhodes had died.

Most fans are familiar with the "Speak of the Devil", live album (which Ozzy recently deleted from his catalog) also released as "Talk of the Devil" in other countries. And most fans have heard Ozzy's story about that: Ozzy was still under contract to release a live album, but felt that such a release so soon after guitarist Randy Rhodes' death would be exploitive. So the only logical choice at that point was to get a new guitarist and do some Black Sabbath covers. Material from those two shows at the Ritz got released as "Speak of the Devil".

However, the tour continued as planned. The set list you get here on the DVD is Over The Mountain / Mr. Crowley / Crazy Train / Revelation (Mother Earth) / Steal Away / Suicide Solution / Goodbye To Romance / I Don't Know / Believer / Flyin' High Again / Iron Man / Children Of The Grave / Paranoid. There's a really nice guitar solo and bass solo in the middle of the set, and an untitled instrumental jam. It's interesting to note that the shows in these days always ended with Black Sabbath songs. It would still be a few years before Ozzy built a new following of his own to the point where he could bring himself out from under Black Sabbath's shadow."

SPEAK OF THE MASTERS

Marco A. Carrion | MIAMI, USA | 10/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"LOCATION : Irvine Meadows Amphiteather
YEAR : 1982
MUSICIANS : Ozzy Osbourne, Tommy Aldridge, Brad Gillis, Rudy
Sarzo, Don Airey

SONGS : Over The Mountain
Mr. Crowley
Crazy Train
Revelation (Mother Earth)
Steal Away
Suicide Solution
Goodbye To Romance
I Don't Know
Believer
Flyin' High Again
Iron Man
Children Of The Grave
Paranoid

HIGHLITES : 1) instrumental jam between Rudy, Brad, Don and Tommy
2) Starting Goodbye to Romance a dwarf is hang out
over Tommy Aldridge set.
3) Brag Gillis solo.
4) Ozzy's voice is perfect
5) Ozzy lifted by the leg Brad as he used to do with
Randy Rhoads.
6) Stage is an Old castle with torchs and towers.

SOUND : Perfect for an 1982 record is pretty good.
VIDEO : same as above , at the end credits they stated that
the concert was recorded for TV.


This DVD is a treasure, I found it 2 weeks ago here in amazon an got it instantly.
I hope that there is any concert with Randy Rhoads,
I already got After Hours taht is damn pretty good!!
"

Absolutely INCREDIBLE show, priceless DVD. But...

R. L. Hodges | Layton, UT, United States | 05/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This concert is a jewel of a find, and true treasure for the Ozzy fan.

The band is absolutely perfect, plus it's the band we all came to love from the Tribute album - Sarzo, Aldridge, Ozzy and emergency fill-in guitarist Brad Gillis.

Ozzy: Holy cow - he sang on key back then! For those of you that have ever seen Ozzy live, you know what I'm talking about. Ozzy stopped singing and started yelling during live performances 2 decades ago, and has always been the worst live singer on the planet. When this concert took place, however, he could still sing live, and he did it very well. He was in his prime back then. Yet another reason this DVD is so valuable.

Rudy Sarzo: Without question the most animated showman on stage. You have never seen a bass player play so well while absolutely hammering a bass and performing in a manner that can only be described as gymnastic.

Tommy Aldridge: The drum solo will absolutely send you through the roof. When he starts absolutely SLAMMING those drums with his bare hands during the solo, it is simply amazing. I had always wondered what this looked like, because you hear him do it on the Tribute album. Now I know. It leaves you speechless.

Don Airey: Not much to say here, you can't even see the guy except for the back of his head. He adds the mandatory element to the band to make it sound huge, invaluable, but they stuck the poor guy up in what the band called "keyboard corner".

Brad Gillis: I, the ultimate Randy Rhoads fan from day one, like the rest of you, am about to commit blasphemy. I have to give credit where credit is due. Here it goes: Brad Gillis played Randy's material even cleaner than Randy did on Tribute, and pulled screaming guitar wizardry out of his axe that Randy never even got remotely close to. It is way too obvious to deny when you see this DVD. Ozzy chose well. Rhoads would have made that concert a treasure of Rhoads history, no doubt about it. But Gillis makes the concert utterly mindboggling. I would have much preferred Rhoads, of course, but the fact is, Gillis burned down the house on this DVD. It was by far a better show than Rhoads would have produced. I know there's those of you out there who'd like to burn me at the stake for saying that, but as a 20-year guitar veteran and "Rhoads scholar", I know what I'm talking about. Buy this DVD and see for yourself, then compare it to what you hear on Tribute. The quality of musicianship of this performance is literaly studio perfection. Rhoads never played that clean live, however - just look at all the bootleg video footage of live Ozzy/Rhoads on the internet. Randy cannot be replaced, but Gillis nailed it with HUGE guns.

SET: Songs are good mix of Blizzard and Diary, plus the same old boring token Black Sabbath crap that Ozzy always felt compelled to perform. Some things just didn't work, however. Like hanging the midget by his neck as a background prop right when they go into "Goodbye to Romance". Totally doesn't work. Thee is one very poorly executed edit which takes place right as the guitar solo starts, a break in whick part of the song is repeated for a brief second but with different lighting, possibly from a different performance. Also, during the solo parts, check out the riffs Brad Gillis is using - it's part of Randy's solo, only put to a full groove rythm with bass and drums. It's VERY cool, too. It comes off as a tribute to Randy from Gillis.

SOUND: Though it's not much by today's standards, the sound is just great and fairly good quality stereo, possibly better than what you'd expect from a recording made in 1982. Zero complaints.

VIDEO: Video quality is actually very typical of the time. Early 80s productions of any kind had somewhat of a fuzz to it, nothing like the digital clarity of today. To put it accurately, it's exactly like watching a VHS tape.

DVD itself: The package that I just recieved is all in spanish. The menus on the DVD are also in Spanish. The additional features on the DVD are all in spanish, so i can't read a thing about all the extra stuff on Ozzy. What gives? Nothing about that is in any of these reviews or Amazon's descritpions, but that's what I got. It doesn't matter as far as the DVD is concerned, really, but as my country gets overrun with Hispanic illegals who have zero regard for our laws and protest in our streets and demand free benefits at my expense, it kind of yanks my chain.

5 starts for the most fantastic performance you will ever see Ozzy give and for mindblowing rock musicianship on the part of thend."