What Is It? 
Black Sabbath recorded their first two albums in 1970... This show, in December of that year was filmed at for L'Olympia for a Belgium Television show and was subsequently broadcast in other countries. A couple of the songs performed here would turn up on at least one officially released video in the decades to come. As bootlegs go, Sabbath in Paris is fairly easy to come by. At the time of writing, all of the songs from this set were available for viewing on you tube. The material is of such quality that you should attempt to see and hear this in the best resolution possible, however.
How is it?
The sound is excellent and the image is beautifully filmed. The cameramen are all over the stage for the program and the editing is superb. Every member of the band is giving it their all here. Even viewers who are not devoted to Sabbath will probably be interested in the intensity of this show- contained in such a small venue. Its strange to see Sabbath in anything less than a stadium setting. The small stacks of amplifiers and the meager drum kit are on the verge of being inadequate for the heaviness of the band. Osbourne gets caught up in the music several times and loses himself rocking out. It could be said that this is the bulk of his appeal as a performer, really. You feel a sense of camaraderie with the guy as he's so obviously and honestly enjoying the band and the music.
I just did a tapetrader search to see what else is out there by way of sabbath footage. It looks like this is pretty much it until 74. I know there are some promo clips, and I do seem to remember watching some Sabbath documentary or another and catching a few frames from other performances. Other than Paris 70, the band can be seen doing four songs for the Beat Club TV program...I'd don't have this, but you can catch a stream of it HERE, and it is very well produced. Stream cuts off a few second into the last number, however.
The Beat Club stuff, it turns out, might be available for official purchase. In march of 09, a DVD series featuring every episode of the program was made available. The site for it is in German, and I imagine the discs are all PAL. In other Black Sabbath history news. The first three albums have been re-released with bonus discs of material. For the first two albums, the songs seem to be merely different mixes of the same takes. It looks as if the the third disc features an unreleased song and some outtake material. Haven't heard them yet, so I can't say for sure.
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