You know if I were a religious or superstitious man I might be a little nervous.
Since I climbed Ben A’an a while back and found a Raven waiting for me on the top, or even back as far as Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan where I found one waiting on the ridge east of the summit, there has been a raven waiting for me on every top I’ve climbed. That includes the four tops of the Grey Corries.
I don’t know whether this always happens and I’m noticing it more, or the minions of satan are gathering to take me kicking and screaming out my fantasy world of rainbow colours and into reality, I just don’t know.
But, it there’s one at the next top I visit, it’ll either be fast off its mark or it’ll be assisting me in a pirate impression on the way back to the motor when I zip-tie its feet onto my rucksack shoulder strap. I show them.
Talking of the motor, its MOT test is on Thursday. I paid £450 for it a year ago and it’s been hammered at work and play all year. Hmm, d’you think something of a fail-able nature might be worn out… ?
Anyway, I have a couple of things that I have to get off my chest before age or the ravens take me.
- Paulo Nutini is actually Alex Harvey.
- Muse are actually Uriah Heep (with David Byron).
I am now officially an old man.
Nae, ravens *are* on every top, no need to get paranoid. Thing is: you reach most tops at sunset, where most folk go home and the ravens come back to claim the hilltops all to themselves. That’s why you see them on every top. Or maybe it’s your aftershave…
…or lack of it :o)
Quantum mechanics at work,or the other one- harbinger of death,possibly just coincidence or what andy said …
Aye… maybe. I think they might be getting bigger too…
I’ve also noticed the single Raven whilst out on my own, arriving with me, peak to peak. Took the missus and no sightings, I rekon the single ones are female, so watch yourself PTC*,they can lead you astray. Or perhaps it was just that the Raven wants to try company out, but only company where peace and quite are the norm, no words needed.
Or Schrodingers Raven, will the experiment be ruined as we all begin looking…
A raven as a soul mate? I wonder if that says more about me or the Raven!
Schrodingers Raven? Nah, these buggers would be simultaneously alive and undead…
I reckon you’re just noticing the Raven more now. They are a bit creepy though!
My wee chariot had it’s service and MOT today. However I got the MOT free and 10% off the service as they say i’m now a GOLD CARD customer. Which will likely mean nothing more than ‘something major is about to go wrong with your car, you’ve had it 3 years and we think you should exchange it for a brand spanking new one’! I hope not cos i ain’t.
Now I do like the Paolo Nutini and I just bought the Muse album over Christmas. I do think there’s a bit of a dramatic Queen sound to them too?, which is probably not a good thing. They’re alright though, i quite like the album – well the first 6 songs at least.
So… who is Alex Harvey? or indeed Uriah Heep!? Are they off of the 1970’s :o)
Who is Alex Harvey??!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0fT9BHpImI&feature=related
Aye, both those albums are often on around these parts here at the moment, I call them “The Stripey One” and “The Time Tunnel”.
Good point about Queen too. Also off the 70s :o)
Here’s Muse…
Paulo, the early years…
Good call Matt!
Not seen any when I have been out !???? YET
Aye, yours is giving mine a rest and standing in for it as it was getting overworked.
Ok, Yes! Paolo Nutini sounds like Alex Harvey. And Muse sounds a wee bit like Uriah Heep! kinda. Deffo off of the 1970’s though, check them outfits out.
“But, it there’s one at the next top I visit, it’ll either be fast off its mark or it’ll be assisting me in a pirate impression on the way back to the motor when I zip-tie its feet onto my rucksack shoulder strap. I show them.”
Brilliant!!
God that gave me a good laugh, and I needed it!
Many Thanks Mr Petesy.
You’re welcome Will :o)
Here’s more “Muse”. Stick with it for a couple of minutes and you’ll hear The Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon, Biffy Clyro…
Ah yes i can hear Kings of Leon and Biffy Clyro in there. Kaiser Chiefs, mmmmm a wee bit maybe.
Kings of Leon: Only by the Night – a GREAT album!
Now with all this talk of music you’ve just reminded me i’ve not put any musical posts on the blog for a while. I think i’ll have a review post of my favs from the past year. There are some of the usual suspects but also some weird and wonderful tunes of the year in there… Florence & The Machine – Dog Days, Valdimirs Blues – Max Richter, One Day Like This – Elbow, and of course Paolo Nutini – Candy plus many more…
Music really is one of the great joys of life. And it’s an artform that doesn’t actually exist, you can’t see it, touch it, taste it, you can only listen to it pass you by, but if you stop it to try and listen closer it disappears.
Magic :o)
A joy indeed!… and with that friends, I bid you all good night. Trying to get an early night, for a change.
:o)
Night night!
Sounds like the Black Mountain would be right up your street, gets analoguetastic at the 2:50 mark:
and riffy goodness:
Bah, embed failed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgJ5g1UrQ0g
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USljjTN5vH4
Aye, that’s my kind of thing right enough :o)
Making me feel my age all this muso stuff :-)
Taking my 14 yr old daughter for her first ‘real’ gig in march-Stereophonics, will be a blast but she reckons she wants to get to the front Aaargh..
Ooh, I haven’t been donw the front for a while. Death From Above 1979 at King Tuts in Glasgow in fact. It was rough in there…
You’ll have a blast I’m sure :o)
Adi – I’m glad I managed to introduce both my kids to the delights of being ‘at the front’. My lad age 13 and my daughte age 14… she still loves it at the front but my lad is just a watcher now!
I retired from the front myself this winter – the last twelve months had resulted in a lost wallet, a broken rib, a broken nose and then a stolen wallet… at 44 years of age, I’ve decided that I should be a little better behaved.
Highlights from the years of moshing since Rainbow in ’81 would be Slipknot at Reading and the biggest circle pit I ever helped start, the bottle fight at Knebworth in ’86… blimey there’s too many.
Happy New Year everyone…
Last gig I was down the front at, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Corn Exchange, the motionless oldies outnumbered the solitary drunk pogoing guy. There was a lot of harumphing and tutting :)
Mrchewy, as that the Knebworth with Deep Purple, Scorpions and Blackfoot?
80’s festivals were magic.
Vorlich was there much arm folding as well? I’ve seen that creeping in with the older audience :o)
PTC – yeh that was the one, it rained horrendously and the Angels took the women’s loos apart and burnt them to keep warm! Sackcloth and a long plank full of holes those days haha. I seem to remember Meatloaf being bottled off stage early and some fancy lasers!
Funnily enough we were talking about essential listening when we were younger and The Friday Rock Show came up tops… all the new stuff and the Reading Festival. Great days listening to gigs I was never going to get to and tapes of the show were played over and over again.
Aye, the green lasers!
Meat Loaf had a plaster cast on and fell on his arse on the stage as it was all mud and er, bottle contents. He didn’t go down at all a well.
I remember waking up at something like 6am the day after and our bus was still stuck in the carpark waiting its turn with the tractor to get towed out.
Friday Rock Shows were great, Tommy Vance ’til midnight, then Tom Russell on Radio Clyde ’til 2am.
Happy days.
I was getting sore legs from standing in the same spot too long, I’m only 31… :(
I felt a great shame, given the dynamic middle aged man on the stage was doing high kicks…
That’s true, a quiet crowd can kill a gig. Alice Cooper suffered from that at the start of his set a few weeks back, but the oldies did get into it after a while.
The lamest audience I ever saw was at an Air gig in the Barrowland, there was an awful lot of sitting on the floor and standing still with one hand on hip.
Then there was me standing in the middle shouting.
… now if you’d have been down the front ;-)
Great stories, I was at a Beat gig at Bradford uni ’81 ish and we got told off by some ‘oldies’ for jumping about in the seats,we moved politely of course to the floor. Last at the front about 5 years ago at the barrowlands for a saw doctors gig, big party atmosphere as usual from those guys, floor was bouncing well.
Mr.Chewy i’m 43 now so i’ll play it by ear on the front,her mate and her will want to stare into Kelly Jones eyes, he’s ‘lush’ I would imagine :-).
Talking about the Barras, I see Slayer are playing there next year.
That could be fun.
Best Barras gig would be a tough one for me, such a good venue.
Ok back off or on topic again since I dont recognise the musical artists youse are now talking about with much fondness…
Driving to work this morning and what do I see? or rather what do I notice?… Yes, the black Ravens! There were loads it seemed. My guess? Probably most likely there every day but I noticed them today. So (in the style of Derren Brown) I shall try this experiment…
WHITE AUDI.
:o)
Are they not all white just now?
Top of Snowdon on a gloriousy blue skied Monday… two ravens having fun with the thermals, whilst being only 6/7ft off the ground, sort of looked good against a white and blue backdrop. I was in such a good mood after a freezing nights camp, yet still being snug wrapped in PHD, that I didn’t even shoo them away.
Aye they’re pretty much all White or off-White-dirty! But. Wait and see how many you notice on the roads.
Chewy, there’s something about the morning after camp. Time runs at a different speed, I always feel devoid of stress or pressure. I love it. Damn this cold (sniff, cough)!
We shall see Ange, I’m convinced I’m wired up wrong…
I had a raven talking to me on our wander when we didn’t get up Stob Binnein on Ner Day. I suspect the poor bugger was starving but we’d already eaten our pies
Now The Friday Rock Show and Tom Russell brings back lots of memories. Another great childhood memory was of being outside the Heathery Bar on a Friday night to listen to the bands as there was no way I could fool them into thinking I was 18. When I did though I was lucky enough to get in to see Alex Harvey as well as Jack Bruce. You don’t get venues like that anymore
I have seen the pie shoes. I like them.
The last venue of those days to go was Shadows on Bath Street I think. Live jazz in the afternoon and live rock at night, then the dancin’ at The Venue.
Ah…
It still happens… you just gotta be ‘down with the kids’ haha. There’s still some good rock clubs out there and a few decent small venues about, new bands of 16/17 yr olds still need to play somewhere and their mates will always wanna go – it’s just we know that they sound poor now we’ve seen more than a pub band.
Personally I think Enter Shikari are dreadful from a technical viewpoint BUT the kids and themselves produce a wicked atmosphere at the gigs. I wouldn’t dream of missing a tour, I even got the broken nose in the moshpit at their gig… just 5 weeks after brain surgery.
I love/hate growing old…
BTW How sweaty are the Montane Lightspeeds? Just bought an orange one cheap
That’s the H2o version…
Aye, the fanboy in me is long dead. I can hear the mistakes and I can tell if the bass players is bored these day :o)
LiteSped H2O? Sweaty, a little bit if your pushing on, yes. But it’s very usuable, It’s got a nice cut too, good and long for the bike.
Have you listened to Bruce Dickinson on BBC6 music fridays 9pm-12am. The nearest i have found to the old rock show, unless anyone has heard owt else. Stumbled on it by chance and now listen or record it weekly. A good mix of old and NEW metal? & a bit of thrash, can’t go wrong really.
Aye, it’s a great show abit like the old days right enough.
Bruce is annoyingly multi-faceted!
Lol, I read ptc*’s last post before the one above it…
… and wondered why on earth he was extolling the virtues of Strictly Come Dancing! ;O)
Brucie is also multi faceted!