Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath Play 1970 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade

It was apparently a sunny day when Sodom first met Gomorrah. Here's actual footage of Ozzy Osbourne and "his new band Black Sabbath" playing atop the back of a heavily decorated flatbed truck at a 1970 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, courtesy of Warner Brothers. The unfortunately sound-less footage was shot on super-8 by gay historians Henri Leleu and Paul Bentley (aka Luscious Lorei). There's a bit of a mix up as to what festival this actually is (and exactly when?) The YouTube link notes this as the famed outdoor leather-romp Folsom Street Fair, even though that particular festival didn't begin until the 80's. There is an "official" listing of the first gay pride street parade ever in SF, which was in 1970 and called a "Gay-In," which this may be. The first real pride parade in SF was in 1972 (also, I'm no super-Sabbath expert, but where does this fall in the chronology of the band?) Nevertheless, the camera doesn't lie... Ozzy and proud pals are shown in all their record company-sponsored glory, playing amongst mustached spandex dancers and outer space drag queens on roller skates - fists raised high. (found on Metafilter)

Comments

[Jerry Hess]

I can only make out Tony Iommi in this video.

[DanO]

Black sabbath are not the band playing on the float in this footage.

i did see them. if you blink, you'll miss it but it looks like they are sitting on a decorated flatbed and there is a white dog that Ozzy is petting. i think thats Geezer and Ozzy sitting there. its a little bast the 3/4 mark.

a strange parade to be going down desolated streets...

[DanO]

wait - its Tony Iommi and Ozzy.
but lemme tell you, that guy in the backwards leotard on top of the flower adorned volswagon beetle looks a LOT like Geezer Butler. lol.

[bartelby]

It looked like it was some sort of Church of Satan tie in.
This would be a great thing to show to the people who were shocked when Rob Halford came out of the closet.

[WAB]

The first Gay-In ocurred on June 27, 1970, and was not along the Embarcadero on the east side of San Francisco as shown in the film. Sabbath was either in Germany or Belgium at the time, and did not begin its first visit to America until October of that year for the Paranoid album.

The group first visited San Francisco to play the Fillmore West opening with Sugarloaf for the James Gang in November 1970, so it is likely the film dates from that time.

Ozzy had a different take on the purpose of the parade in a Sabbath interview from Rolling Stone:

Iommi: We first came to the U.S. to promote Paranoid.

Osbourne: It's every British band's dream to play the States. When we got there finally, we fucked as many groupies as we could. In San Francisco, they even had a Black Sabbath parade! Coming from Birmingham, England, where the fuckin' sun never shines, it was magic to us.

[WAB]

On second thought, despite Ozzy's reference to the parade in connection with the first tour, one of the car banner's makes reference to " '71 ". If that's the case, Sabbath returned to SF in October 1971 to play Winterland with Edgar Winter's White Trash.

[scott beadle]

That's definitely not Black Sabbath performing on the Black Sabbath truck, and I couldn't identify any Sabbath members in the film. Too bad! I wonder what the real story is? Is the bald dude at the helm of the larger Black Sabbath float Anton LeVey? Or another impersonator?

[Guest]

I agree, it's hard to say any Black Sabbath members appeared in the film though there were some lookalikes. My best guess would be the foursome in the front of the WB float at 5:00 mark (although the guy at the 7:00 mark does resemble Tony Iommi a little and definitely has a lot of showbiz style.)