Hammeron wrote
When Ozzy left Sabbath and they came back with Ronnie James Dio they should have dropped the Sabbath name. Which they did eventually when they became Heaven and Hell. But IMO the first 3 Dio albums - 'Heaven and Hell', 'The Mob Rules' and 'Dehumanizer' were thee best "Sabbath" albums of all.
My point is that even if 'the main- man leaves' the resulting material may very well blow your freakin' socks off.
OK... so group that is a going concern gets a new vocalist, still have members who wrote key songs and they proceed to record and release three albums worth of new material. Good on them.
Now contrast that with group that broke up years ago "reunites" with no original members, without the guy who wrote the songs and provided the band with their signature sound, with over half the "band" having no connection to the original act and with no plans to record.
See a difference there?
To me Sabbath were different but still vital when Ozzie left and Dio came in. Same as Pink Floyd losing Syd Barret. I gave an example of The Band.... they were in a precarious position: Live they could probably pull it off even without Robertson playing guitar, but who was going to write songs?
Thin Lizzy strikes me as being distinctly dodgy. No Lynott to sing, to front the band, to write material (their one album has been a live record of songs from the Lynott era). I'm sure the musicians are proficient and the band is well rehearsed and tight, but do you believe it's really Thin Lizzy. I don't.
And I see this new band in the same light, though I feel just a tiny bit better because they're not calling themselves "Dire Straits".
I have no problem with musicians making a living. Several guys who went on the road with Dire Straits or even played on the albums would not have made the kind of money that Knopfler made from the band. He can probably afford to never work again, they can't. However I'm entitled to ask what I'm parting with my money for, and in this case I don't see anything to attract me. it's going through the motions. OK... the Lord's Taverners are not the worst cause in the world to support (if you're in England, currently I'd rather put my money into something a little closer to home). But I could just send them a tenner in the post.
