Ultimate Rhoads

Not sure what you mean by 'everything that happened in London would now be history' Shaun, Randy arrived at the end of November, they were in Monmouth during December with Spencer on drums. They hadn't been to John Henry's or Shepperton to audition drummers at that point.

OK This is the contents of the post card that Randy sent to Kevin & Drew.

Kevin & Drew,
Hi, how are you guys? Have you got the new band together? Things are taking longer here, we still haven't decided on a drummer. We've played with a million, but none of them were right. We've played with drummers from Wings, Whitesnake, Ten Years Later, Judas Priest, and other session guys that you'd know but I didn't. All a bunch of nerds! We're doing some demos next week to test out this studio and a producer Jet wants to use. By the time we're done if we still don't have a drummer, we'll have to pay someone to do it. Bob said Cozy P. would do it for 5,000 if he's not working, but Ozzie and Jet don't want to do that. Thanks!

For now, we're using a session guy on the demo. The studio is called Bridge Farm (Ridge Farm in Scotland LOL) . It looks neat, you live there with maids and cooks.

I did something you'll appreciate. I went to the Marshall factory, and ordered my own amps, I had them beefed up and modified there, I got them in white! A stack is really cheap here! I got a stack for $500, brand new, so I bought two of them, the ones I was using were rented and it was costing more money than owning them. The material is all done practically, just a few arrangement stuff. Big zero cough! Makes me really miss the group! But, it'll pay off?

It's so cold, I can't practice, it's been about two months since I've really practiced, I play about 1 hour a day, except for writing, but hardly any lead, it's too cold. It's snowing. Jodi and I have spent a few days in London, it was fun. We're back at Suffolk now, it's by the sea on the Northeast Coast ( I think Randy needs a map). We moved from Wales about a week ago.

Well I'm out of room so I'll stop, but I'll right soon. Bye, Randy.

P.S. I miss you guys. I'll right more when there's more to say, OK?

Sky wrote:Not sure what you mean by 'everything that happened in London would now be history' Shaun, Randy arrived at the end of November, they were in Monmouth during December with Spencer on drums. They hadn't been to John Henry's or Shepperton to audition drummers at that point.

Well Pete Merton's mentioned that he met Randy or heard him play for the first time at John Henry's he's putting a not too sure timeline on that as December 1979.

GUITARIDOL5682 wrote:

Sky wrote:Not sure what you mean by 'everything that happened in London would now be history' Shaun, Randy arrived at the end of November, they were in Monmouth during December with Spencer on drums. They hadn't been to John Henry's or Shepperton to audition drummers at that point.

Well Pete Merton's mentioned that he met Randy or heard him play for the first time at John Henry's he's putting a not too sure timeline on that as December 1979.

Yeah, Pete's got the timeline wrong, Randy settled that one with his postcard to Frank.

Troy did you see the details about the post card that Randy sent to Kevin & Drew ?. He is saying they used a session guy for the demo. He is at Ridge / Bridge farm, he mentions that he's been to london for a few days with Jodi. So i imagine this is her second visit since Christmas 1979. They've been away from Wales for a week and are back in Suffolk by the sea.. obviously not on the North East coast, South East coast. Why was Randy staying here ?. It is well out of the way and anything but handy.

Yeah it's really good to read those postcards! I know that the band had time off for Christmas and then went back to Monmouth until mid-January, then they went to Trans Am in Suffolk to continue writing and trying to find a drummer. I don't know why they moved to Suffolk I can only assume that Monmouth had another band booked in, it was a popular place in those days. They stayed in Suffolk for a couple of weeks then moved to Ezee Hire in London and that was before they went to John Henry's or Shepperton so they rehearsed and auditioned drummers in a lot of places!
I think that Jodi must've just stayed on for a couple of months after Christmas, she was still in the UK at the end of Feb. I think she'd gone home by the time that they went to Clearwell Castle though.
I always thought that Dixie Lee played drums on the demo because they were rehearsing with him at Ozzy's place just before they recorded it but I could be wrong.

Cool info on the postcard!

Yes, Bob mentions on his site that Dixie Lee played on the four song demo.

http://www.bobdaisley.com/content/blizz ... holy-grail

This is a bloody good topic for a change!!! Kind of takes you back there. Somewhere long ago... Would be great to find new bootlegs from 1980-tour

stealaway wrote:This is a bloody good topic for a change!!! Kind of takes you back there. Somewhere long ago... Would be great to find new bootlegs from 1980-tour

One day we will get the Southampton show, we almost got it for the 30th releases and that anticipation almost killed me!

Really enjoyed reading these posts, great topic! More please.... ;o)

Although many have heard it, this early interview further demonstrates that BOO was originally a band and not an Ozzy solo project with backup musicians. Oz sounds enjoyably coherent here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... KxV5ec00do

If memory serves, the story of Bob Daisley meeting Randy at the train station was printed in the Guitar Player Nov ‘82 edition. There are interviews with multiple people sharing their memories of Randy. I no longer have the magazine, but perhaps someone else could verify that encounter.

[quote="stress2stress2"]Although many have heard it, this early interview further demonstrates that BOO was originally a band and not an Ozzy solo project with backup musicians. Oz sounds enjoyably coherent here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... KxV5ec00do[/quote]

Randy told me the band name was “The Blizzard of Oz.” They only realized the switcheroo when they saw the album art for the first time.

frank wrote:

stress2stress2 wrote:Although many have heard it, this early interview further demonstrates that BOO was originally a band and not an Ozzy solo project with backup musicians. Oz sounds enjoyably coherent here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... KxV5ec00do

Randy told me the band name was “The Blizzard of Oz.” They only realized the switcheroo when they saw the album art for the first time.

This is just one example of what was around at the time, The Blizzard of Ozz was a band...

And then there's this, Melody Maker Oct 1980 #6 in the album charts...