Black Sabbath’s rare live footage surfaces – with a guest singer

The highly sought-after video of Black Sabbath‘s 1978 live performance with the incredibly temporary singer Dave Walker has surfaced on YouTube, as reported by loudersound. Walker, the current leader of the Dave Walker Band and a former vocalist for Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, and other bands, joined in late 1977. He took Ozzy Osbourne‘s place after the Prince of Darkness withdrew during tense writing sessions for the record that would eventually be called “Never Say Die.” Walker’s time with the band was brief since Ozzy changed his mind and returned in early 1978. Because of this, there aren’t many artifacts from the replacement singer’s tenure in the band. For many years, the sole known relic was audio from a performance on the UK television show “Look! Hear!”, which was extensively shared on YouTube and other media.

The earliest known footage of the “Look! Hear!” performance, however, was posted earlier this month by YouTube user Brian Schaefer. It shows Sabbath performing an early rendition of “Junior’s Eyes” from “Never Say Die!” and the opening of War Pigs. The long-lost video is available to view below. Walker began his career with the rhythm-and-blues group The Redcaps in the early 1960s. He was born in Staffordshire, England. Before departing in 1972 to join Fleetwood Mac, he joined Savoy Brown in 1971 and sang on three albums: “Street Corner Talking”, “Hellbound Train”, and “Lion’s Share”. Before leaving Fleetwood in 1973, he sang two songs on just one album, “Penguin”.

When Sabbath was formed in 1968, its members grew close to Walker. The singer told Classic Rock in 2014 that his wife “clashed” with drummer Bill Ward’s band, indicating that he sensed conflict with his new bandmates soon after joining. He added that his termination was sudden.

One day I turned up where they were rehearsing near Evesham and they were having a meeting, after which Bill told me, ‘We’re in, you’re out.’ No warning. I still don’t even know if Ozzy had agreed to come back then.