London, Ontario - The Embassy - June 9, 1997

Ronnie James Dio used to fill arena's on his own name for fuck sake.  I couldn't believe that he was coming to London to play at the biggest DIVE in Ontario.  His equipment BARELY fit on the stage.  It was definitely the biggest sound system I'd ever seen loaded into that bar.  So take a 10X15 stage, pile about half of it with amps and shit, and then throw 4 band members onstage and watch them try and play.  Cute.  I was actually standing right in front of the left pile of speakers so to get a shot of the drummer, Vinnie Appice, I would have had to pull some kinda miracle of modern science to get it done.  Not to mention they kept pumping out smoke onto the stage and I couldn't even SEE Vinnie for the most part.  He sat in a haze of some powdery smoke substitute leaving me wondering how the fuck he was breathing back there.  I actually had a photo pass for this show, they insisted on it, but as I was climbing out of the photo pit, some ass fuck grabbed and tore the fucker right off my shirt!!  Sorry, can't show ya!

So, Ronnie comes out, looks around and starts laughing.  I caught that on the 1st shot here.  I don't think he could believe the size of the stage his band was now falling over each other on.  Still, despite the LAME venue and pathetic stage setup, his band showed true professionalism by giving all they could with what they had.  They played all the Dio faves and a buncha new shit and then left immediately.  

I couldn't blame him.  

Ronnie James Dio Official Web Site

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