Ultimate Rhoads

Several years back I saw a guy advertising his 'DOAM' tour programme on Ebay, so I asked if he would mind telling me what he remembered about the Madison concert.
I really enjoyed his reply and hope you do too. (Used with permission from the source, Dave).

"Ozzy/Randy was definitely one of the best shows I seen, and Randy Rhoads was by far the best guitarist.
In Dane Co. all the shows are general admission, so we waited about 4-5 hours in the middle of a Wisconsin winter to be first in line and it paid off (we were front and center). To the right of me was a little kid, maybe 10 years old, but had long blonde hair past his shoulders. Randy seemed to take to him and spent a lot of time right in front of us. Definitely made contact with him.
The show was loud, but not so loud that you couldn't understand the lyrics like some shows that I had been to.
One thing that really sticks out about the concert was the crowd (very rowdy). There were several fights. We were right against the wall that kept us about 2 feet from the stage and there was a constant force pressing us against the wall. I had a coat on with a ping pong ball in the pocket and it got totally smashed from being pushed against this wall. I don't know how the little kid made it through the whole show. Bouncers pulled several people over the wall that either fainted or was getting hurt. Besides the crowd it was one of the best shows I ever seen."

Thanks for the story. To add a visual to this, Jay Branbury's photos that have blessed the RR Marshall poster and quite a few Magazine covers recently, were also from this show.

Cool story. Wonder where that little kid is now?

cableguyxx wrote: "Jay Branbury's photos that have blessed the RR Marshall poster and quite a few Magazine covers recently, were also from this show."

Those photos are very cool. I haven't seen many of Randy in action with the purple vest.

No Quattro wrote: "Wonder where that little kid is now?"

I would love to know. Bet that concert made a hell of an impact on him. There'd be quite a few other people out there who are now in their 30s, 40s and 50s, with great stories of seeing Randy play. Wish a few would check out sites like this and share what it was like. It'd be cool to hear from someone who just happened to sneak in a Hi-8 camera as well!!!

This is a great story and rmeinds me of the times I have seen Ozzy over the years, somethings never change and one of them is that the crowd at an Ozzy show have one hell of a time.

Great story, wish I'd seen Randy on the Diary Tour with the full stage production, looked amazing. I should have seen him on the UK Diary tour in Dec '81 but that was cancelled due to Ozzy's "acute nervous exhaustion" whatever the fuck that means, (and yet he seemed to make a miraculous recovery a few weeks later for the mammoth US Tour,) don't get me started on that, it still pisses me off even now.
Almost 30yrs later it still grieves me how tragically thing turned out for this amazing young man, such a waste, I still often ask myself why, why did it have to happen to Randy, so sad.

I agree with Trigger though about the crowd at an Ozzy show, amazing atmosphere, even today.
I've had the pleasure of seeing Ozzy many times over the years and although Ozzy's performances often varied from great to not so great, one thing has remained fairly constant, the crowd.
Even in recent years when Ozzy's performances have been maybe not as good as they once where the atmosphere within the crowd is always spot on, and even though it often gets rowdy down the front I have very rarely seen any trouble.
Thats one of the attractions of still going to see Ozzy these days, the atmosphere is always great. And even though he is often regarded as a bumbling baffoon by many these days, when he's up there on stage it is amazing to see the adulation and hero worship that the crowd give to him, and sometimes Ozzy seems to get quite emotional as if he can't believe it, amazing really from someone who's been doing this for 40+ yrs.

Gus i don't know if you've seen this thread, but it makes interesting reading....

Did any of you see Randy Live ?

http://ultimaterhoads.com/viewtopic.php ... c&start=30

Thanks Idol, I somehow missed that post...newbie error Man there's some great tales in there. Idol, you got one of his picks??? That concert you saw had incredible atmosphere.
Wyledone and Deansolo saw him twice! OMG - some are born under a lucky star.
Fozzy gets waved at, TAB hears a soundcheck, and Xanadu met him!!!
These are f'ing awesome stories.

A couple of sad ones there though. Genuine sympathies go out to Trigger and Fozzy over that December 1981 situation. I saw in Rudy Sarzo's book where Ozzy wasn't in the best of mental health at the time, but hell, when has that ever been a prerequistite for Oz taking the stage?? I think the Brits have good reason to be upset over that.

If I had a time machine I'd love to go back and do what TAB did-see the full 'Diary' production and check out the castle before show. If it was just down to the music side though, I'd probably go for what several others got: see 'Blizzard' Randy in a 2,000-3,000 concert hall with proper acoustics where you feel close to the action no matter where you are.