Fact #81701
When:
Short story:
Black Sabbath begin the first European leg of their Born Again tour at The National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England, UK, Europe. This tour will become famed for its use of a massive full-size replica of Stonehenge on stage. Unfortunately, the replica was so huge that it could not fit onto the stages in most of the venues on the tour, and later became parodied in the film Spinal Tap.Full article:
Ian Gillan (lead singer, Black Sabbath) : We were up at Light And Sound Design [LSD] in Birmingham, and the lighting guy asked if anyone had any ideas for a stage set. Geezer Butler [bassist] suggested Stonehenge. “How do you envisage it, Geezer?” asked the lighting guy. “Life size, of course,” replied Geezer. So they built a life-size Stonehenge.
(Source : January 2011 interview with Mark Cunningham in TPi)
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : It had nothing to do with me. In fact, I was the one who thought it was really corny.
(Source : Classic Rock Revisited interview by Jeb Wright at http://classicrockrevisited.com/Interviews05/geezerbutler.htm)
David Perry (owner, Perry Scenic) : Out of the blue, Terry Lee from LSD walked into our workshop in Smethwick, laid down a cardboard model, and said, ‘how do fancy building that?’. A 35 foot high, three dimensional Stonehenge! This was where our production manager Tony Guest’s knowledge came in very useful. Back then, you could still get away with using blue Styrofoam, so we made it up with plywood panels and covered them with Styrofoam, then used blow torches to texture them. We had three of these huge icons, and if that wasn’t enough, they ordered a set of smaller versions for the front of the stage that a dwarf danced around!
(Source : January 2011 interview with Mark Cunningham in TPi)
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : We had Sharon Osbourne's dad, Don Arden, managing us. He came up with the idea of having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in meters but he meant to write it down in feet. The people who made it saw fifteen meters instead of fifteen feet. It was 45 feet high and it wouldn't fit on any stage anywhere so we just had to leave it in the storage area. It cost a fortune to make but there was not a building on earth that you could fit it into.
(Source : Classic Rock Revisited interview by Jeb Wright at http://classicrockrevisited.com/Interviews05/geezerbutler.htm)
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(Source : January 2011 interview with Mark Cunningham in TPi)
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : It had nothing to do with me. In fact, I was the one who thought it was really corny.
(Source : Classic Rock Revisited interview by Jeb Wright at http://classicrockrevisited.com/Interviews05/geezerbutler.htm)
David Perry (owner, Perry Scenic) : Out of the blue, Terry Lee from LSD walked into our workshop in Smethwick, laid down a cardboard model, and said, ‘how do fancy building that?’. A 35 foot high, three dimensional Stonehenge! This was where our production manager Tony Guest’s knowledge came in very useful. Back then, you could still get away with using blue Styrofoam, so we made it up with plywood panels and covered them with Styrofoam, then used blow torches to texture them. We had three of these huge icons, and if that wasn’t enough, they ordered a set of smaller versions for the front of the stage that a dwarf danced around!
(Source : January 2011 interview with Mark Cunningham in TPi)
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : We had Sharon Osbourne's dad, Don Arden, managing us. He came up with the idea of having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in meters but he meant to write it down in feet. The people who made it saw fifteen meters instead of fifteen feet. It was 45 feet high and it wouldn't fit on any stage anywhere so we just had to leave it in the storage area. It cost a fortune to make but there was not a building on earth that you could fit it into.
(Source : Classic Rock Revisited interview by Jeb Wright at http://classicrockrevisited.com/Interviews05/geezerbutler.htm)