Broadcast-quality audio from a 40-minute Black Sabbath live session recorded for Dutch television in 1970, long thought to have been destroyed in a fire, has surfaced on an unofficial album, The Lost 1970 Avro Sessions, per loudersound.com.
The band filmed the session for the short-lived show Doebidoe in Hilversum, the Netherlands, three months after releasing their debut album. It aired on Nederland 1, the country’s oldest TV channel.
Doebidoe was the predecessor of the long-running Top Pop and hosted live performances by acts including David Bowie, who performed Space Oddity on the programme in 1969, Deep Purple and Dutch band Golden Earring.
Black Sabbath played extended versions of songs from their debut album, including a version of The Wizard with lyrics different from the original and a rare live performance of Warning. They mimed Evil Woman for the broadcast.
Until now, the only surviving evidence of the session was a 20-second silent clip of the band performing N.I.B., which appeared on YouTube in 2013. Broadcaster AVRO had claimed the tapes were lost in a fire.
The album was released by Avertigro, a German label whose name pays tribute to the band’s record label, Vertigo, and AVRO. It is available as a limited edition of 666 copies, though the audio is also on YouTube and the Internet Archive.
Three days after the Doebidoe session, Black Sabbath appeared on German TV show Beat-Club, performing Black Sabbath, Iron Man and N.I.B., along with a soundcheck cover of Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes. The N.I.B. footage was released on Beat-Club’s YouTube channel earlier this year.
•Featured image by Chris Walter/WireImage