Some People Have All The Fun

From Music History Calendar

On this day in 1987...

Ozzy Osbourne performs "Jailhouse Rock" at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London, England. He says it's his "last good memory of the '80s."

Before the show, Ozzy is treated to tea. During the course of his conversation with the tea maker, it is revealed that the man is in prison because he poisoned eight people to death. Ozzy shoots tea out of his nose and nearly throws his mug against the wall.

The Scrubs, a band composed of prison guards and prisoners alike, open for Ozzy. The bass player is the perpetrator of one of the biggest mass killings in British history, having burned 37 people to death in a Soho nightclub. The guitarist is in Wormwood for beating a drug dealer to death.

The Scrubs finish and Ozzy takes the stage with guitarist Zakk Wylde and bassist Bob Daisley for the first time. Both men become regular collaborators.

The smell of weed is so heavy in the air that it reminds Ozzy of a "Jamaican wedding." There is a bar outside the door serving drinks to some of the guards. 

Ozzy looks in the crowd and sees Jeremy Bamber, who murdered his entire family and tried to pin it all on his mentally ill sister. Ozzy recognizes “the old Bambinator” from tabloid photos.

The show culminates with Ozzy and his band performing "Jailhouse Rock" with the Scrubs. During the song, the crowd storms the stage. The "invasion" is led by a man who tried to cut the head off of constable Keith Blakelock during the infamous Broadwater Farm riot.

Ozzy and his band escape unscathed. Later, in his book I Am Ozzy, Ozzy recalls the incident as his "last good memory of the eighties."

                      https://calendar.songfacts.com/july/28/18068