‘Black Sabbath liked Workington and we liked them’

Not many music followers can say they’ve met their idol, not to mention have sung with them on a stage in entrance of 1000’s. Yet one Ozzy Osbourne superfan has.

It’s that reminiscence a Cumbrian man says will stick with him for the remainder of his life, as he marks the death of the Prince of Darkness.

For 48 years, Des Rumney has been captivated by Ozzy and his heavy steel band Black Sabbath, rocking out to 90 concert events.

And it is no shock – Mr Rumney’s house city of Workington was, in spite of everything, the birthplace of Black Sabbath.

“Ozzy was no stranger to Cumbria,” Mr Rumney, 60, mentioned. “Black Sabbath and Workington go hand-in-hand.

“People from Workington who’re into their rock music scene, all of them know concerning the Black Sabbath previous with Workington, and there is lots of people who nonetheless keep in mind it, who have been there.”

There is even a plaque to prove it, placed at the town’s Carnegie Theatre after Mr Rumney and his band fundraised to mark the Black Sabbath Cumbrian connection.

The people of Workington watched history being made on 26 August 1969, when a band called Earth played at Banklands Youth Club.

Formed in Birmingham, Earth featured Tony Iommi on guitar, Bill Ward on drums, Geezer Butler on bass and Ozzy Osbourne on vocals.

The band were touring across Cumbria, also playing in Silloth, Carlisle, Low Hesket and Wigton.

And after a successful tour in Germany, the band had decided to change their name to Black Sabbath, announcing it to the excited crowd that had packed out Banklands.

When Ozzy and Butler wrote the lyrics for a track known as Black Sabbath, impressed by the horror movie of the identical title, it pushed the band in a darker musical direction.

This genre did not sit well with everyone in Cumbria in the weeks running up to their famous name change at the Workington gig.

Music promoter Andy Park had booked Earth across 20 venues, but can remember one particular night at Low Hesket Village Hall, in Carlisle, for all the wrong reasons.

He advised BBC Radio Cumbria: “They died an absolute loss of life and all I can keep in mind is the caretaker stored coming into the corridor in search of me and he got here throughout to me and his phrases have been so easy – ‘it is a dance, make them dance’.

“So he expected me to get 150 people up on the dance floor.”

Mr Park mentioned the group on the village corridor have been extra used to nation dances.

“I cringe at that it even now,” he added.

But it was a special story at different venues throughout Carlisle and Workington.

Mr Rumney mentioned the band final performed within the city at Workington Technical College on 13 February 1970, the day the self-titled debut album Black Sabbath was launched.

“Ozzy himself came back to Cumbria on numerous occasions, the last time I can remember him being around this area was in 1980 at the Matador,” he mentioned.

One evening at that Workington lodge, he claimed, Ozzy advised the owner “if you don’t keep the bar open, I’m going to buy the pub”.

“He was a larger-than-life character,” Mr Rumney added.

“He wasn’t one of these stuck-up rock stars…he was about being with the fans, he was just a normal, working-class bloke.”

Ozzy’s eagerness to attach along with his followers was confirmed to Mr Rumney over the various instances he noticed him carry out as a solo artist.

“Ozzy was always welcoming people coming on stage at his gigs and having a party,” he mentioned.

“The best time was when I got up on stage at Donington, that was something special.”

After being fired from Black Sabbath, Ozzy performed Donington’s Monsters of Rock festival in Leicestershire a number of instances, in 1984, 1986 and in 1996.

It was through the 1984 efficiency Mr Rumney bought his second of fame.

“I managed to get onto the stage and I can remember looking out over the crowd, Ozzy with his arm around us just looking out over the crowd…it was just a fantastic moment in my life.

“There has been a few embarrassing instances when I’ve been on stage when he gave us a microphone and I sung proper out of tune for Bark on the Moon.”

Mr Rumney, who plays in a band called Zero, said Black Sabbath had been a “large half” of his life since he was 12.

He and his bandmates paid tribute to the momentous day Earth became Black Sabbath with a blue plaque in Workington in 2022.

The unofficial blue plaque, which Mr Rumney and his bandmates fundraised for, sits on the walls of Carnegie Theatre, as the Banklands Youth Club site now houses a school.

“I wished the plaque so individuals recognise that such an enormous band liked this space.

“They loved Workington and we loved them.”