Beyond the Realms of Birth: Rob Halford 75

Judas Priest - Breaking the Law

Well there's been a departure, and it's a big one. But it's also a milestone birthday. For someone who once famously sang with the departed on a TV show, in one of the oddest musical pairings ever witnessed.

Yes, that happened. So Dolly is dead, but the man folks call The Metal God -- deities know what other deities with which to sing, that's part of being one -- lives on, celebrating his 75th today.

When we were kids, if you'd have told us the singer of everyone's favorite Metal band was a homosexual, you'd have likely caught a beating at the bike racks after school.

It turned out not to matter, and as a stereotype-shatterer on legs, he can take a teeny bit of the credit. He sure brought gay BSDM gear into the vocabulary associated with music apparel, we can all agree on that little factoid.

Of course it helps to have one of the most identifiable voices in the history of all music in your mouth, if you're gonna go evaporating homophobia by example like this.

He's taken care of his instrument too, and can still sear-pierce the atmosphere with that trademark shriek.

Did I mention that Judas Priest was the first band I ever saw live? On September 1, 1979 in the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale NY, opening for Dynasty KISS.

We all must be getting very old very fast, because the intervening 47 years went by in an instant, and Rob Halford -- the young blond guy in the Leather Daddy Of The Year gear that rode the motorcycle onstage to begin my Live Music Life -- is 75 years old today.

Anything else I would say would just be filler, so let's get to this killer show, taped 45 years ago -- probably my favorite Judas Priest bootleg, and possibly in the ever-raging 1000 Best Boots Of All Time debate too -- that puts the meat on the bone about what makes JP definitive in their field far better than words will ever do.

Judas Priest

The Palladium

New York City, NY USA

7.22.1981

01 Supergroups intro

02 Solar Angels

03 Heading Out to the Highway

04 Diamonds and Rust

05 Hell Bent for Leather

06 Breaking the Law

07 Sinner

08 Beyond the Realms of Death

09 Grinder

10 Desert Plains

11 Hot Rockin'

12 You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise

13 Victim of Changes

14 The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)

15 Living After Midnight

16 Tyrant

17 Supergroups outro

Total time: 1:19:09

Rob Halford – vocals

K.K. Downing – guitars & vocals

Glenn Tipton – guitars & vocals

Ian Hill – bass & vocals

Dave Holland – drums

Supergroups MC is Pat St. John

Supergroups In Concert "A Night On the Road" pre-broadcast LPs from the ABC Radio Network

transferred at 24/48, denoised and organized by LiQuiDz (Master Series 001), July 2022

converted to 16/44 CD Audio, slightly retracked and remastered for overall crunch by EN, August 2026
581 MB FLAC/direct link

I used the stellar 40th Anniversary LiQuiDz transfer of the pre-FM LPs for this, but I thought it was too drummy and the guitars were a little distant, so (as this is guitar-based music) I beefed it up slightly with the Audacity Legacy Limiter. Don't be mad, LiQuiDz! I think it shreds viciously now.

I'll be back in 24 with some more heavy sounds -- these are from just last month, and the crazy Canadians making them claim to be ETs, and wear bizarre masks when they do it -- but today is the day we go living after midnight, and kneel before everyone's favorite Metal God in birthday tribute.--J.