OZZY OSBOURNE's Family Buys Early BLACK SABBATH Memorabilia Days Before Auction

According to The Star, a collection of BLACK SABBATH-related memorabilia recently unearthed in London has been bought by Ozzy Osbourne's family just days before it was due to go on sale. Dating from the period 1968-1973, the collection includes a number of postcards from Ozzy to his mother in Birmingham written while on tour. Also in the collection on offer from Sheffield Auction Gallery, were publicity posters, flyers, handwritten song lyrics and photographs from EARTH, BLACK SABBATH's original name.

The items were scheduled to be auctioned on September 30. But they were withdrawn from sale, with Stephen Flintoft, specialist music valuer and auctioneer at the Sheffield auction house, revealing that every item had been bought by the Osbourne family.

"The items have been sold by private treaty, for an undisclosed sum, to the Osbourne family, ensuring that this important piece of hard rock musical history remains intact," he said.

Flintoft previously said about the collection: "Perhaps the most interesting item, among so many, is the handwritten lyrics headed by EARTH to the song 'Changing Phases', a title later changed to 'Solitude', which featured on the 1971 double platinum BLACK SABBATH album 'Master Of Reality'."

EARTH (shortened from EARTH BLUES COMPANY) was formed in 1968 after Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward got their start in such psychedelic outfits as the RARE BREED and MYTHOLOGY.

Everything changed when Butler came to the band with an idea for a song inspired by a disturbing apparition. A fan of horror films and the black magic-themed novels of Dennis Wheatley, he flirted briefly with the black arts. But when he saw what he believed to be a figure from the dark side at the foot of his bed one night, he ceased his dabblings in the goth world. With lyrics by Osbourne, the group composed a song about the visitation, titling it "Black Sabbath" (after the 1963 Boris Karloff film). It provoked a reaction in audiences unlike anything else in their repertoire, and they knew they'd stumbled onto something powerful and unique. Forced to change their name because there was already another band named EARTH, they made an obvious choice: BLACK SABBATH.

"That's when it all started to happen," Iommi told writer Mick Wall. "The name sounded mysterious, it gave people something to think about, and it gave us a direction to follow."