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Heaven And Hell Fields of Rock, Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands June 16, 2007 After being in the privelage of seeing and photographing Graham Bonnet in March and Doogie White in April, it was last Saturday the third ex-Rainbow singer in less than three months who were playing a concert in the Netherlands. Ronnie James Dio under the monniker of Heaven and Hell was 3rd on the bill behind Slayer and Iron Maiden at Holland's Fields of Rock festival. It's nothing else than the early 80's and early 90's version of Black Sabbath ofcourse. They recorded recently 3 new songs for the compilation album Black Sabbath "The Dio Years" and decided to tour the world.  The band exist besides Ronnie of Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and Vinny Appice on drums. I spotted Scott Warren, Dio's keyboardplayer, just before the show on the side of the stage. He's the hidden touring keyboardplayer for Heaven and Hell. The band has the amps lined up behind iron gates and there's a huge backdrop of the 1980 "Heaven and Hell" album. After the E5150 intro the band kicked off with "Mob Rules". It rocked like hell straight from the start. Ronnie's voice was in great shape. Vinny kicked the hell out of his drum kit. Tony showing us he's still the riffmaster on the right (for the audience) and Geezer pumping his heavy bass sound on the left. The set continued with "Children of the Sea" and "I". The band definitely rocked and the audience loved every moment of it. Dio announced the very popular "The Sign Of The Southern Cross" and the audience even rocked more. A heavy shower came down. The whole weekend was very changeable weather conditions with rain, hail but also sunshine. And within a few minutes the sun was shining again. Vinny did his drums solo and really kicked all the shit out of his kit. Part of the kit almost felt over. Ronnie and Tony had a good laugh about it.  Ronnie introduce "Voodoo" with some funny remarks. Geezer seemed to have some problems during the show. He also looked not too pleased with the wind that blew over the stage. Tony was lookin' very serious most of the time, but played like a real axe hero. He got his solo spot before "Die Young". Ronnie was pointing his finger to a little kid who was sitting on the shoulders of his dad while singing the words "Die Young" with a smile on his face. The set ended with "Heaven and Hell" ofcourse. What else? Long but excellent version, Ronnie singing like a God while making the devil sign with his hands. The band returned for an encore with the excellent "Neon Knights". They rocked the Fields of Rock one more time and then, after almost 70 minutes which went on very fast, it was over. I think most of the audience enjoyed the show very much. The next day Ozzy Osbourne was top of the bill. It was fun to see the madman again, but he delivered a poor vocal show. It's good entertainment but musically it can't stand it the shadow of the Heaven and Hell show on Saturday. 
Setlist
Intro - E5150 Mob Rules Children Of The Sea I The Sign Of The Southern Cross Drums Solo Voodoo Die Young Heaven And Hell encore: Neon Knights |
