A memory from Neil Bennett (Benny) An old school friend.

Tommy and I used to go to lots of rock concerts when we were teenagers. The last time we saw each other, just two weeks before he passed away, we had been fondly reminiscing about one of our best gigs. At the end of Nov 1983 we went to see Ozzy Osbourne at the Hammersmith Odeon. Tommy had just turned 17, and I was 16. I confess my church going mother wasn’t very impressed we were going. This was just a year after Ozzy had famously bitten the head off a bat on stage. It was the first time the two of us travelled up by ourselves. What confused Tommy and I, was what did row AA tickets mean? To our amazement they were in the front row. It was the Bark at the Moon tour and Ozzy came on stage the song Mr Crowley. At one point he ripped his black T shirt to reveal a quite flabby body and huge tattoos. Back then he had bleached blond hair and black eye makeup. We joked later that close up he looked like an unfit middle aged man (he was only 34!). We were leaning forwards against the stage, and in one of the songs, Ozzy came over shook our hands and thrust his microphone towards us. We sang along in full voice to the packed Hammersmith Odeon. Unfortunately, I really can’t remember the song. Turning back round to our seats at the end of the concert we found someone had stolen a bag with the shirts we had come in. We weren’t too bothered – we had our Ozzy concert T shirts on. Brilliant night!