Author Archive
Ronnie Ciago’s Drum Clinic Dates
by Joe on Oct.06, 2005, under Misc Items
Bill Ward Band drummer Ronnie Ciago has some upcoming drum clinics in October and November. These follow up the successful clinics given over the last couple of months. If you’re in the area, and are a drummer, you might want to check ’em out.
October 11th @ 7PM
? Guitar Center, Covina CA
? Full Address: 1054 N. Azusa Ave, Covina CA 91722
? View Interactive Map here
? Store’s Telephone Number: 626-967-7911
? Store Website: Click here.
October 22nd @ 4PM
? Sam Ash, Westminster CA
? Full Address: 14200 Beach Blvd Westminster CA 92683
? View Interactive Map here.
? Store’s Telephone Number: 714-899-2122
? Store Website: Click here.
November 2nd @ 7PM
? Sam Ash, Torrance CA
? Full Address: 19800 Hawthorne Blvd Torrance, CA 90503-1523
? View Interactive Map here.
? Store’s Telephone Number: 310-214-0340
? Store Website: Click here.
November 9th @ 7PM
? Sam Ash, Rowland Heights, CA
? Full Address: 18031 E Gale Avenue, Rowland Heights, CA 91748
? View Interactive Map here.
? Store’s Telephone Number: 626-839-8177
? Store Website: Click here.
If you’ve attended any of Ronnie’s drum clinics and have taken pictures or would like to say a few words about the clinics, please contact Joe Siegler at siegler@billward.com. Thanks.
Bill’s 9th Audio Diary is online!
by Joe on Sep.19, 2005, under Bill Ward
Bill phoned in from home in California with the latest in his 2005 Audio Diary series (the ninth). This new edition, totaling 35:40 in length has these highlighted points:
* – Some Rock 50 Show Updates
* – Bill’s Musical Saturday Morning Childhood
* – Autographs & Email Backlog
* – Being Back Home off of tour, and how that affects his body
* – The status of Black Sabbath from his viewpoint.
* – More thoughts on the Hurricane victims in the US
There is of course a lot more than that, so make sure and download the entry and check it out!
https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary091705.m4a
(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)
You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.
You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.
Bill’s 8th Audio Diary is now online
by Joe on Sep.06, 2005, under Bill Ward
Bill phoned in from West Palm Beach Florida with the eighth in his 2005 Audio Diary series. This was recorded before Sabbath played the final gig on Ozzfest on Sunday the 4th. This new edition, totaling 29:42 in length has these highlighted points:
* – A toothache Bill is currently suffering from.
* – Remarks about the various gigs played since the last diary update
* – Continuing problems getting good vegan food on tour, and how this impacts his playing onstage.
* – Hurricane Katrina
* – Bill gives a lot of thanks to various friends and crew as the tour is winding down.
There is of course a lot more than that, so make sure and download the entry and check it out!
https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary090305.m4a
(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)
You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.
You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.
Bill Sends in another Audio Diary
by Joe on Aug.22, 2005, under Bill Ward
Bill phoned in from home in California with the latest in his 2005 Audio Diary series (the seventh). This new edition, totaling 24:50 in length has these highlighted points:
* – How it feels good to be back home
* – Feeling bad about the cancelled gigs.
* – How the cancelled gigs affect his playing, and how his age in general affects his playing.
* – Recollections of stories of a special hotel to the band in the past.
* – Some friends of his in other bands, including Velvet Revolver, Iron Maiden, & Slipknot.
* – Bill has no comment on the “bullshit rumours” regarding the Iron Maiden & Black Sabbath stuff that happened on the gig on the 20th.
* – Music he’s been listening to lately, including an album he’s really into, the new one from the Foo Fighters.
There is of course a lot more than that, so make sure and download the entry and check it out!
https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary082205.m4a
(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)
You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.
You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.
Ronnie Ciago’s September Drum Clinic
by Joe on Aug.10, 2005, under Misc Items
Bill Ward Band drummer Ronnie Ciago will be holding the latest in his drum clinic appearances in September. It will be held at Sam Ash. The date is September 3rd at 6PM.
Sam Ash is at 12651 Artesia Blvd in Cerritos, California. If you’d like to see an interactive map which can give you directions on how to get there, please click here.
Sam Ash can also be reached by telephone at 562-468-1107.
Bill Checks in with another Diary
by Joe on Jul.25, 2005, under Bill Ward
Bill phoned in from Pittsburgh with the latest in his 2005 Audio Diary series (the sixth). This new edition, totaling exactly 18:53 in length has these highlighted points:
* – Some final thoughts on the European gigs
* – Coming back to the States for Ozzfest
* – Some thoughts on the first few Ozzfest 2005 gigs.
* – Other bands on Ozzfest.
* – A few thoughts about homeless folks
* – The London Subway bombings and terrorists in general.
There is of course a lot more than that, so make sure and download the entry and check it out!
https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary072205.m4a
(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)
You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.
You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.
Tony Iommi’s new music to feature on Rock 50
by Joe on Jul.21, 2005, under Rock 50
Bill will be featuring Tony Iommi’s new album ‘Fused’ on his ‘Rock 50’ radio show which goes out on WPMD.ORG this Saturday, July 23 at 11:00 AM Pacific time. Tune in to hear Bill kick off the show with a segment featuring the tracks ‘Face Your Fear’, ‘Resolution Song’ and ‘Grace’.
Click here for more details on the Rock 50 show.
New Bill Ward Interview Online
by Joe on Jul.20, 2005, under Bill Ward
The website Sin’s Metal News (SMN) has a new interview with Bill Ward online. It’s a wide ranging interview, and was done when Bill was in Stockolm on the recent European Black Sabbath tour. Check out a few quotes from it:
Q: it’s been a pretty repetitive Sabbath set-list for the past few Ozzfest’s. Back in 2001 you lads spiced it up a bit with ‘The Wizard’ and the likes of ‘Scary Dreams’ – so, what are you envisioning your upcoming set-list to look like?
A: From a drummer’s point of view, I have to move for the first 7 songs. Everything’s up on the kit so there’s no break. So, physically for the first 7 songs, it’s a lot of work from a drummer’s point of view. When you play shows, you have to learn to adjust how much energy is required for the first bit of the set; I’m saying that because after the 7th or the 8th song, we play ‘Into the Void’ which is nice for me to just lay back on and take a bit of a break. So for me it’s pretty exciting, constantly playing up the entire time. We do a medley of different songs I’m sure everyone will recognize. We’re doing ‘Dirty Women’, which is – well, let me tell you. Tony’s been absolutely blistering on ‘Dirty Women’! Some nights the solo gets cut short, or sometimes it’s extend, but last night at the festival in Denmark, in Copenhagen, the solo was extended and he kicked ass man, the solo was incredible! It varies on the night; things may be cut 24 bars short or so, or are a bit longer, but last night was amazing. It’d be nice if we can play some new music, but we have no new music unfortunately, but you know we’ve done really well – the set’s really ‘up’, we don’t take a break, but we lay back when we do ‘Black Sabbath’ and ‘Into the Void’, and overall it’s a fantastic 90 minute show.
Q: It seems like Tony’s pretty busy, he’s been bashing out a new album, re-recording ‘Trashed’ with Ian Gillan, and he’s set to hit the road at the end of Sabbath’s touring schedule – would you ever consider heading out on the road and continuing to tour in 2005 in support of your solo material and releases?
A: Definitely. I got to get my album out first! Everyone else has something out. Mine’s still back there somewhere gathering dust! If I had some…if I was able to get out there, get backing from a record company, and just tour, I got no problem at all with doing that. I would look forward to that actually. The first thing is to finish 1 more song from the album, and then it’ll all be good to go. Get this album done and out, it’s been about 5-6 years in progress, I feel as though I’m ready to move onto the next album.
Bill talks about a lot of other subjects, including his audio diary series, the status of his long delayed solo album “Beyond Aston”, to Straws, his performance at Live Aid 20 years ago, and of course a new Black Sabbath album.
Make sure and check out the full interview here. It’s a very good read.
Fifth Audio Diary Posted
by Joe on Jul.05, 2005, under Bill Ward
Bill phoned in from Sweden with the fifth in his 2005 Audio Diary series. There was a little bit of a bad phone connection on this and it generated some technical issues so the sound quality is a little scratchy, but is still pretty good. This new edition, totaling exactly 30:00 in length has these highlighted points:
* – Difficulty trying to find Vegan food
* – Bill talks about the following gigs: Sofia, Bulgaria, Vienna, Prague, Athens, & Roskilde Denmark
* – Some thoughts on Bulgaria itself.
* – European audiences in general
* – Ticket availability and his thoughts on scalpers
* – The Pink Floyd reunion at Live 8!
There is of course a lot more than that, so make sure and download the entry and check it out!
https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary070405.m4a
(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)
You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.
You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.
Bill to be interviewed on the WRAT
by Joe on Jul.01, 2005, under Bill Ward
An interview with Bill will air on New Jersey Rock Station THE WRAT,
95.9, this Sunday, July 3 at 10:00 PM EST on “The Electric Ballroom” show. If you’re not in the NJ area, you can listen on the web at http://www.wrat.com.