Live at Last | ||||
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Live album by Black Sabbath | ||||
Released | July 1980 | |||
Recorded | Manchester Free Trade Hall, 11 March 1973 and The Rainbow, London, 16 March 1973 | |||
Genre | Heavy metal | |||
Length | 57:08 | |||
Label | NEMS | |||
Producer | Patrick Meehan | |||
Black Sabbath live albums chronology | ||||
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Live at Last is a 1980 live album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Despite its wide distribution and success (it peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart), the album was released without the permission or knowledge of the band, and is thus regarded in some quarters as an unofficial bootleg live album. The album was, however, released legally by the band's former manager Patrick Meehan who owned the rights to the recording. The album was re-released with the approval of the band on 27 September 2010.
The nature of the album's initial release as being without the band's approval is demonstrated by a notoriously embarrassing goof in the original version, which falsely credited the singer as "Ossie Osbourne".
After dismissing manager Patrick Meehan in the late 1970s, Black Sabbath became embroiled in a long legal dispute with their former management. Later, in 1980, Meehan arranged the reissue of the Black Sabbath catalogue and the release on the NEMS label of a live album of old recordings without the band's consent. The album consisted of a 1973 concert recording the band intended to use for a live album, but shelved indefinitely after being unhappy with the recording.
The release of Live at Last, combined with Ozzy Osbourne's 1982 release of Speak of the Devil live album consisting entirely of Black Sabbath songs, prompted Black Sabbath to release their first official live album, 1982's Live Evil.
Remastered versions of the original Live at Last recording have been released since the 1990s by various record labels. In the liner notes of the reissue on CD by Castle Communications of 1996, it is stated that the recordings were taken at Manchester Free Trade Hall and at the Rainbow Theatre in North London. This album was re-released by Sanctuary Records in 2002 as the first CD of Past Lives. Past Lives itself was re-released again in 2010 in a "Deluxe Edition". According to the Past Lives liner notes, the Live at Last performance was recorded on the 11 and 16 of March 1973.