Ex-SABBATH Singer TONY MARTIN Meets TONY IOMMI For First Time In 10 Years

Former BLACK SABBATH frontman Tony Martin has posted the following message on his official web site:

"Russia!! You guys rock!!

"It was great to be back there. We had a VERY interesting journey!!!

"First show was fantastic. Thanks to the Apelsin club and all that came. Cool.

"The next few days were... interesting! We had a trip on the famous Russian train system!! You will remember I had an experience on that before with M3!!! This time was better, mostly because I knew what to expect, also because it was first-class Russian train this time… which is ever so slightly different to the M3 trip! And also because ... well... just because!

"We were on board with Rick Wakeman and SUPERMAX and NAZARETH and all of them very cool dudes.

"The other shows were even more interesting! Mostly the Russians insisted that everyone appeared with playback... For the nontechnical amongst you, that means mime!!! Which was pretty shit, 'cause we were lookin forward to doin' our thing. We did get to do one other show live but I'll come to that.

"The first show had more celebs such as Bonnie Tyler… VERY COOL lady!!! AND… Tony Iommi. Actually, we were top of the bill untill he arrived then someone complained and put him up top. That's OK! I didn't have a problem with that. But I got the piece of paper with us up there!!!!! AHA!!!! It turned out kinda funny anyways because they had spelled his name wrong and his people were quite insistant that the name Iommi wasn't spelled with a Y, because they had a ticker tape display that ran the artists name across the stage during their performance. However, they changed the running order to put him top of the bill but didn't change the display order so when he went on... IT WAS MY NAME!!!!! Oh dear! So I appeared in name! On stage with Tony Iommi! HA!

"He actually was very friendly and we got on well. It was kinda good to speak to him after so much time, and his tech, who was with us in the SABS days. Nice one, Tone. Was a pleasure.

"Also on stage was KINGDOM COME... COOL!! I haven't seen those guys since they were on with the SABBS on the 'Headless Cross' tour. Nice to meet Lenny again. Great that they are still kickin it.

"After that, Tony Iommi and KINGDOM come went elsewhere and the shows continued with the rest of the artists.

"Lots of other disorganised hours of dispair followed with playback disks gettin stuck part way through performances and wrong songs being played and hundreds of changes to everything and Russian enthusiasm gettin in the way... it made it quite chaotic!! But guess what... We came through ... Not unscathed 'cuz when we did our live set in the end they had taken all the cables away and changed everything so we fell victim to the organised chaos too. But at least we had the bottle to get up and do it without the aid of a safety net!! And we got a real good reception. So we were mildly pleased if not calm and collected!

"I would like to pay respect and many thanks to the Russian band though, ZEMLIANYA (it means Earthman)... They were great guys and very helpful with stuff. Great players... different style to what we are used to in the West but still cool guys. Thank you very much for inviting us to celebreate your 30th anniversary. Hope you get another 30 years out of it.

"All in all we were knackered by the time we returned, but satisfied that we came through and with a smile.

"I have to mention our next and last venture for this year, Rock the Boat. Dudes!!!!! We are headin Stockholm way for a mad few days on a ship with a few hundred ragna-rockin', Odin-worshipin' Vikings!!! Hope that's not an insult!!

"We are sea-bound!! Actually Just in case we go down with the ship, I would like to pay special tribute to my band. Guys .. It's been a pleasure serving with you. Couldn't have asked for a better bunch of guys to work with. All of you did real good. Can't say enough good things about you. Would like to mention Fabio Cerrone, who was the very first guitar player with the TONY MARTIN BAND. Not with us now but not forgotten. Well done, buddy. Thanks for your hard work over the past two years. Hope we hook up again somewhere down the line.

"I asked Rolf Munkes to join us for the last two ventures because we have an album out together as you know called 'Raven Ride' and we had been asked to include some of that stuff in the set. So a warm welcome to Rolf. He did real well in the Russian chaos and it's always a pleasure workin' with him, just like ever it was. The other players Joe Harford (my son),Danny Needham, Jamie Mallender, and of course mister Geoff Nicholls. Thanks. Our only tech, who has been rock-like and completely unphased by our determined efforts to treat him like a roadie, has actually become a great friend and treats us like roadies!!! Christopher (Dodgy) Seymour. Thanks, buddy, pleasure havin' you on board.

"This next year is another decision year for me because I don't have the support I was expecting from the record label and I no longer have my studio so moving forward is gonna be interesting. I AM going to move forward though and so I'll see you on the other side and build on the hard work and support you fine people have given us this past two years."