This isn’t goodbye, it’s a farewell tour

Fin.

Or as they say on the less high-end pictures, The End.

Those two words are emblazoned above a depiction of Planet Earth with its top crust on fire, for a poster of the 2016-2017 tour by Black Sabbath. They promise that February dates in Birmingham will be the last time you’ll see Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Rick Wakeman’s son on keyboards and a session drummer on the same stage.

Iommi’s 2012 lymphoma diagnosis has made such a claim understandable but fans may wish to reserve judgement now his cancer is in remission. Bon Jovi have toured without Richie Sambora. The Who without Keith Moon and John Entwhistle. Quo are currently on the road without Rick Parfitt, so Sabbath could well take to the stage again, even without key personnel.

Unless of course we take them at their word.

The main problem is that, like a Wayne Rooney indiscretion, or Stephen Fry insisting he has sent his last tweet, it leads to the inevitable question – when does that happen again?

The end in music is only settled by the real end as fans of David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson and others know from painful experience.

As promotion around Johnny Marr’s autobiography and the 25th anniversary of REM’s Out of Time established, the huge acts who said goodbye are forever dogged by questions about their next, not their last gig.

Any act now announcing their final tour, as Motley Crue did in 2014, should be forced to bring a doctor’s note.

Farewell tours are a tricky business.

Frank Sinatra announced his retirement concert in 1971. There would be more than another thousand shows.

In June 2002, Cher began her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. “This truly is it,” she told an interviewer. Cher was sketchier on her definition on “it” than the Prime Minister has been on Brexit. It ran until April 2005. Last month, she announced a residency in Las Vegas and Maryland, although she stopped short of calling it a “farewell residency.”

The Status Quo’s End of the Road tour took place in 1984. Just before 1986’s Quo’s Back summer tour, the In The Army Now tour, the Ain’t Complaining tour, Perfect Remedy tour, 25th Anniversary Tour, Rock ‘Til You Drop Tour, Live Alive Quo tour, Just for the Record tour, Thirsty Work tour, Don’t Stop tour, Can’t Stop tour and by my calculation to spare you the rest, 26 subsequent tours. The current engagement The Last Electric tour finishes in Liverpool two days before Christmas. Another tour is scheduled for 2017.

It’s not just rock stars who specialise in false endings.

Jennifer Saunders entitled a 1995 episode of Absolutely Fabulous “The End” before two specials, “The Last Shout I” and “The Last Shout II.” She’s since written 14 more episodes, six Specials and this year’s Absolutely Fabulous movie.

Therefore, it’s only fair that we give some credit in a year he’s been starved of recognition to Bob Dylan. His Never Ending tour, which began in 1988 and hasn’t let small matters like a Nobel Peace Prize get in its way, continues. It remains the most transparently marketed of gigs, unless Britney Spears has “Live (when microphone engineers allow) in Concert” dates planned.

The Rolling Stones are also blameless on this front. They don’t often give their tours names. This seems wise on the basis that, at their age, they’re unlikely to remember them.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer also bucked the trend. In 1974 they released “Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends”. As live albums go, it was to be their last.