Latest news with #BlizzardofOz
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Phil Gifford: When Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath lit up a farm in Ngaruawahia
Black Sabbath (L-R) Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne pose for a portrait on May 31, 1970 in London, England. Photo / Getty Images 'I hope we didn't freak you out,' yelled Ozzy. 'This one should help you. It's called PARANOID!' The Ngāruawāhia festival came three years after the film documentary on Woodstock was screened here. Woodstock was a turning point in first world youth culture, radically departing from older generations' attitudes to everything from drugs to nudity. I'd been despatched to Ngāruawāhia as a reporter by the newspaper in Auckland where I was writing about everything from music to sport to shipwrecks. It was quickly clear the massive influence Woodstock had on many of the music fans who headed to our first home-grown festival. After a restless night trying to sleep in a small tent, I was puzzled by what the material was in the bikini the topless woman from the tent next door was wearing. Then I realised she wasn't wearing anything. Tribute to Black Sabbath front man and legend of heavy metal music, Ozzy Osbourne, by NZ Herald cartoonist Rod Emmerson. Nudity, a la Woodstock was commonplace over the next three days. The opening act, Kiwi singer Corben Simpson, sang a couple of songs and then announced it was 'too hot'. He stripped naked to finish his set. Five months later he was in court where he was fined for 'wilfully and obscenely exposing his person'. Musically, Ngāruawāhia offered a stage to an amazing range of future giants in New Zealand music. The festival's co-promoter Barry Coburn was the manager of a gifted Auckland group calling themselves Split Ends. Sadly it was the wrong place and the wrong time for a band, which was then featuring flute and violin solos. At best the audience reception could be described as cool. Ozzy Osbourne (left) and American musician Randy Rhoads (1956-1982), on electric guitar, as they perform during the Blizzard of Oz tour, at Nassau Coliseum in 1981. Photo / Getty Images The future Split Enz weren't the only ones battling, at the very start of their careers, to win the crowd over. Dragon, with just one Hunter brother, Todd, played to a muted reception. On the other hand, there was an ecstatic reaction to the co-headline act, the British folk band Fairport Convention. Very much the yin to Black Sabbath's prototype heavy metal yang, the Fairports had the moshpit dancing to old Scottish and Irish reels and jigs. But there was no question that the big-name act was Sabbath. To get them to New Zealand required a trip to Britain for tyro promoter Coburn. In 2011, he wrote in the Herald how he had flown to Europe and saw Sabbath's manager Don Arden, at Arden's home in London. Coburn was greeted at the door of the luxury house in Wimbledon by Arden's daughter, the then-teenaged Sharon. (Who would have guessed that Sharon would later marry Ozzy and become known throughout the world with the stunning success of the reality TV show The Osbournes?) Coburn was just 22, so dealing with Arden, described by the Guardian when he died in 2007, as the 'Al Capone of British music' took some backbone. In the mid 1970s in Auckland I found myself sitting next to Arden and his Irish wife Hope at a dinner hosted for the visitors by a local record company executive. Hope, a former dancer, was a delight, rolling out anecdotes about film star Cary Grant, their next door neighbour when they were in Los Angeles. Don was exactly what I had expected, revelling in stories that basically painted him as a semi-gangster. When he heard that rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry had recently been in Auckland, he took special delight in recounting details of a show he had co-promoted in the 1960s in Germany with a former SS officer. Berry was refusing to go on stage until he had been paid. 'The German pulled out this big Luger pistol and pointed it at Berry's head. There were no more arguments.' The night made it very clear that any charm Sharon Osbourne has comes from her mother.
Chicago Tribune
13-02-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Naperville renames plow trucks with help from area school districts
Come each winter, Naperville's fleet of snowplows set off to clear roadways and salt busy routes. But the plows that make it possible, alas, are an anonymous bunch. Unsung, if you will. No longer. The city in partnership with Naperville School District 203 and Indian Prairie School District 204 is renaming some of its 24 plow trucks. Naperville's Department of Public Works has affixed signs made in-house to the vehicles boasting new names, just in time for Wednesday's snow. 'It just brings a smile to something we're very serious about, which is servicing the community and making sure that our roads are treated,' city spokeswoman Kate Schultz said. So far, six trucks have hit the streets with new nomenclature. They are: Frosty the Snowplow Scoop … I Did It Again Blizzard of Oz Chilly WATTSon Seymour Snow Kendall Plowtriots The first batch come courtesy of District 204, Schultz said. District 203 is poised to provide another six names, she said. Schultz divulged the city has already received a couple of D203 submissions: a second 'Blizzard of Oz' and 'Snowy Eagle.' Naperville's plow rebrand has been in the works since late last year. The city's public works team started discussing the idea in light of snowplow contests becoming more popular around the Chicago area in recent years, Schultz said. For the past three years, Chicago has held an annual 'You Name a Snowplow' contest. This year's winners, announced in January, included the likes of 'Bozo the Plown' and 'Bean There, Plowed That.' In 2023, Park Ridge renamed its 14 plows thanks to a local contest of its own, which produced names such as 'The Salt Shakers' and 'Sir Plows a Lot.' For Naperville, instead of a city-wide contest, public works staff thought the venture 'could be a great way to tap into the creativity of our community's kids,' Schultz said. Director of Public Works Dick Dublinski reached out to both of Naperville-area school districts and let take the lead to determine how names would be submitted. Of D204's 21 elementary schools, six from Naperville — Brookdale, Clow, Fry, May Watts, Patterson and Kendall — ultimately participated. The winning names were submitted in January. Ron Wilke, District 204's school safety, security and emergency preparedness coordinator, said he hopes students have a chance to see the plow they helped name around their school and neighborhood. And maybe it will serve as a learning experience as well, he said. 'I think what we were looking for is just our students to understand that there are people out there working for their safety, not just in the school system, but within the municipalities that go out and plow,' Wilke said. 'We have people on-site that do the driveways and the walkways that go to the school, but … there's all the other people: police, fire, emergency responders, public works that clean these streets off and make them safe so their parents can drop them off or the buses can get to the school.' Schultz assured that through this week's winter storm, the newly named plows were out hard at work, 'doing what they do best.' And when this winter draws to a close, the city will be taking the names off its fleet and giving them back to participating schools, Schultz said, leaving trucks ready to shrug off their winter caps and prepare for leaf collection come fall.
