I can see snow lying all over the high ground of Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. It’s a sight of pure joy and utter torment as I sit here (health thankfully improving).
The park is worth a visit on foot or mountain bike, it’s big and empty enough for some good days out. They had the KIMM there a few years back, so that’s an indication of its tough terrain.
We went on a ranger led geology walk a few years back and it was very interesting indeed. There was barytes mining there, the landscape is a glaciated volcanic plateau with many easily seen features, there’s even a bat cave. Most of the group came in Barbour coats and slacks and struggled quite a bit, we ended up disapppearing with the ranger and took in the tops and some of the sights and met the group back at the centre.
No snow to report from this part of the world,just rain,rain and more rain…even on the high ground.New pair of merrell chameleon thermo 6 due to arrive in the next few days if mr. postman has fitted the deepwater wading kit to his van!…will resort to sacrificing the cat to the sky gods soon if the weather doesnt dry up a bit!
Aye, the rain was really battering down last night.
I’m right at the harbour side on the Clyde and late last night a SeaKing rescue copter was struggling up towards Glasgow over the river at living room window height.
I felt very happy being indoors.
Those Merrells look like nice, I like that mid style. They look good for winter hills.
still raining with a vengeance here,got out for a few hours earlier,water is just pouring down the hills.Yeah,the merrells look ok,bought them as an alternative to my current winter boots(Raichle 60 degree).might be a tad lighter and a little more flexible methinks,should take a crampon ok though…
Off now to fill my head full of loudness,in a testament mood today!
Jeez, I saw them about 20 years ago supporting somebody? Must have been Metallica, Anthrax or Megadeth?
Oh, getting old…
I went to see Metallica at the Leeds festival a few years ago. Whilst wandering through the crowd and an pointed at a girl about 18 or 19 years old, with a Metallica T shirt on, and said “When you first saw Metallica, she wasn’t even born”. I had to rush to the nearest bar and get myself a small Sherry to help recover from the shock.
I also saw Testament supporting someone at Bradford, got on the stage and did a mightily impressive stage dive, unfortunately I chose a group of 14 year olds to land on, and the speed with which they parted would have impressed Moses. After diving from about 8 feet onto the shiny Parquet, I had to lay there for a couple of mins to get my breath back.
Those were the days :)
I saw the singer from Candlemass do that. He was (is?) a great big bloke with an afro, I mean 20stone big.
He lept off the stage in the Glasgow Garage and the crowd were leaping in all directions like the spectators at an airshow trying to avoid an out of control Russian Mig heading for the ground.
Poor bastard hit the deck hard and was all wrong afterwards, he did back on stage eventually looking worse for wear.
I used to love Metallica, saw them at Donington in ’85 and then in ’86 with Anthraz as support a week before Cliff Burton was killed. Heartbroken I was. I don’t think they were ever the same again.
I really hope the new album with Robert Trujillo on bass and Rick Rubin producing will bring them back again.
Yeah,saw them a zillion years ago too,last time was at milton keynes bowl sometime in the early 90’s,kinda lost patience with them after that.Being a bass player myself, cliff burton is/was kind of a hero of mine,great talent.Trujillo aint my favourite ever,just cant be liking his walking like a monkeycrab thing he does.
The huge afro guy from candlemass? that’ll be ‘the messiah’ then,scary bloke.
Rick Rubin is bound to do a better job than Bob Rock did on the st.anger album,that sounded like it was recorded on a transistor radio in an empty quality street tin.
I saw them at the Donington gig in ’85 too, went to see Marillion, came back a devout Metallica fan!
I also saw the tour with Anthrax they did, one of the best gigs ever. Like you say, they were never quite the same after Cliff Burton died, lost a lot of the rawness. There were some conspiracy theories surrounding Cliff Burtons death I believe?
If you fancy hearing some of the good old gigs , have a look on the Deep Purple Hub:
http://deeppurplehub.proboards31.com/
It’s a file sharing forum with links to live recordings, look in the General Rock section. It’s not just DP, lots of other stuff as well, loads of Sabbath. Most of the bands seem to know about the site and are ok with it, those that don’t like it aren’t permitted on the forum (so no Metallica!)
I must admit to having a soft spot for Trujillo, I used to love Suicidal Tendencies.
Years back the played way down the bill on the “Clash of the Titans” tour. Megadeth and Slayer were headlining and Megadeth were all trebly, weak and unimpressive sounding after ST really ripped it up. Slayer were good though, must have been about the time of Seasons in the Abyss.
I really miss those days at times.
Nice one shuttleworth, I’ll head there right now…
I never heard a bad sound mix at a Slayer gig. I seem to recall the engineer they had on the Reign in Blood tour was the same guy that had just toured with Rush. The sound quality was like listening to a studio album, but when Lombardo got those double bass drums going….. makes nme shiver just thinking about it.
I saw them on that tour in Edinburgh, 86 or 87? Brilliant. It was a great time for metal. I went down to see Megadeth play Hammersmith around then on the single date they did for Peace Sells, they were never that good again either. Should have kept that lineup.
Oddly enough saw Rush a couple of months ago, first time I’ve thought that they were “good” and not “amazing”.
Signed into the at Purple site, waiting to be “approved”.
Did they play a lot of the newer stuff i.e last 10 years or so? I think when they have such a lot to choose from it’s hard to do a set that’ll really please everyone (including themselves) . The Hold Your Fire gig I saw at the NEC is another one of my all time favourites
P.S Talking Rush there!!
Did you go to the Anthrax one off at Hammerrsmith the ‘Night at the Madhouse’? An awesome gig!
The set was from all over, there was some unexpected song choices like A Passage to Bangkok from 2112 and Natural Science from Permanent Waves. But because they’d done the 30th anniversary tour a couple of years back they avoided most of the well know classics which was a shame.
I saw them on the Hold Your Fire in Glasgow, the big red globes in the auditorium and lasers?
Ah, big shows that’s the wat to do it. Slipknot are the only ones still really doing that I think.
Naw, missed that Anthrax one. Saw the “reformed” version recently. They’re looking fairly weatherbeaten these days.
That was the one, the early days of laser projection, along with revovling drum kits and a load of red balloons at the end!
Rammstein are good for a big show, not much talking in between songs though!
System of a Down have a very Anthraxy feel to some of their tracks, saw them at the Leeds festival, but the sound was dreadful.
My mate said the same thing when he last saw SoaD, played perfectly, but the sound was mince.
You guys have got going to go and hunt for old vinyl.
Now, where’s Nuclear Assault’s Game Over album…
Funny, I was looking at one of those vinyl to MP3 converter things earlier on! All my vinyl is in my sons bedroom, I doubt he has a clue what it is!
I miss the nice big cover artwork much more than fluff on the needle :o)
Saw Rush on the 30th anniversary tour,the mrs. is a huge fan,damn fine show they put on too.Anthrax I saw on a few tours in the late 80’s early 90’s,megadeth a few times also,the tour with pantera in 92ish was superb.Slayer are always a good bet live,never fail to impress.
As for a big stage show,Kiss did a huge one on the reunion tour(the comeback shows with the make up and shit)which was spectacular.
Have loads of old thrash and metal on vinyl,even play them occasionaly,yes,even nuclear assault.
Current favourite metallic stuff I like includes a lot of scandinavian bands,Korpiklaani are quite amusing,loads of good stuff coming out of finland at the moment.Saw a few shows in helsinki 2 years ago…memorable few days!
As far as uk bands go,Onslaught are still going,last album was great.Sabbat have recently reformed and are doing shows again…some of their LP artwork is fantastic.
Although predominantly metal,my cd collection is pretty eclectic,even stuff like christy moore,renaissance,dubliners…and even the humblebums!
The KISS reunion tour was great, I drove down to Wembley, watched the show and the drove home straight after (Glasgow). I was ruined for days after.
I didn’t know Onslaught were still going or that Sabbat were on the go again. Neither of them ever got the breaks, and their material was as strong as the US bands that got all the plaudits.
I’ll need to seek out all this news, I’ll be missing stuff.
It’s true what you say about liking different music. I still like all the old stuff, I just keep adding all sorts of other stuff to the playlist :o)