Fifty years ago today, Black Sabbath played a gig in my hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the very first time. The date was Friday, July 16th, 1971 at Place des Nations. I wish I could’ve been there, but I was three years away from being born! The four blokes from Birmingham, England—namely guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward—would go on to become the godfathers of Doom and Heavy Metal.
As you can see in the above-pictured flyer for the show, tickets were a measly two dollars! What a steal, even back in the day, to see Sabbath perform live at the peak of their game! There’s very little info on the show circulating online, but I was able to track down a few photos and while I couldn’t get my hands on the night’s setlist, I found the next best thing: the setlist for the following gig two nights later at Borough of York Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It’s very likely that the songs they played on that night and the order in which they played them was similar or identical to that of the concert in Toronto. The setlist was as follows:
- N.I.B.
- War Pigs
- Sweet Leaf
- Black Sabbath
- Iron Man
- Embryo
- Children of the Grave
- Wicked World
- Orchid
- Guitar Solo (with Wicked World reprise)
- Paranoid
Encore:
- Fairies Wear Boots
The show was part of the tour to support their upcoming third studio album, Master of Reality, which was to be released five days later, on Tuesday, July 21st, 1971. It has gone on to become one of their most beloved albums—and my personal favourite Sabbath record—with such classics as “Sweet Leaf” and “Children of the Grave”. What a career and an influence that still resonates to this day Black Sabbath has had! They will forever remain one of my top three favourite bands of all-time.
Photos and flyer courtesy of Les Archives de la Ville de Montréal © 1971.
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