We arrived here on the 7th but in all the excitement he forgot about the gig and never mentioned it to me on Scottish soil.
On the day of the gig I happened to go onto Gumtree where someone was selling a couple of tickets and so out of curiosity I checked the Hydro website and there were still some tickets left, which I decided to go ahead and purchase, being the awesome Father that I am.
I thought it would be a good surprise for him and I wanted to replicate a surprise that I got when I was his age.
As a boy I was a big Liverpool fan….
as was my Auntie and her boyfriend at the time, David.
He asked me if I wanted to go to Liverpool with him to visit a family member and I said sure. We’d actually got right outside of Anfield before he let me know that we were there to see Liverpool play Luton Town!
It was the greatest surprise ever. This is the game that I saw, which proved to be quite eventful, even though Liverpool didn’t win I was happy that my fellow Scotsman Graeme Souness scored a goal from outside the box. Here are the highlights from the game.
So, I needed a good excuse to get my son to Glasgow without him being suspicious and so I got my Step-Dad to come into the kitchen and ask me to do a favour and go to Glasgow to pick up something for him that evening.
I then asked my son if he wanted to go and thankfully he agreed, mainly because he wanted some proper Scottish Chippy Chips.
When we arrived at the Buchanan Bus station I wasn’t sure how to get to the Hydro so I told my son to stand beside this statue as I went and asked a security man at the station.
He was very helpful and guided me to a bus stop outside of the station which went pretty close to the venue. You can see on the video his reaction when I revealed to him where he was about to go but this photo gives you an idea of his shock.
Once he finally believed that he was really about to see Slayer and the other great Heavy Metal bands on the bill he went back to acting cool again.
There were 4 bands on in total but we arrived a bit late so missed Orbituary.
The other bands were Anthrax, Lamb Of God and of course Slayer, who were on their final World tour ever before they retired from touring and perhaps altogether.
The only tickets that were available were up in the Gods but that suited me as I was able to chill out and watch Anthrax in comfort.
I am not a big Heavy Metal fan but I did enjoy them but my son was itching to get down into the Mosh Pit area as there wasn’t much atmosphere in such a big venue when you are so far from the stage especially.
I again decided to be awesome Dad dude and took my son to the ground level and tried to blag my way into the standing area which I managed with remarkable ease, no questions asked by the security lady.
From our new position, you can see our previous seats way at the top.
Next up was Lamb of God and again, I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. On record I don’t really like the Heavy Metal growling type vocals but they seemed to suit the music quite well and the band itself was pretty awesome.
The atmosphere then got really hot as Slayer were about to rock the stage and they didn’t disappoint. I wouldn’t play them in the house myself but I couldn’t help but be impressed with the full on audio assault they launched. It was obvious why they are considered Legends of the Heavy (Thrash) Metal genre.
The gig finished around 10.45 and instead of getting a taxi to the train station I told my son we were going to run even though it was a fair old distance.
On the way there we passed some interesting art, including this painting of Rabbie Burns.
We had to keep walking slow so I could catch my breath before starting to run again. As I was doing so I didn’t see a step and my foot landed half on and half off it and I tumbled to the ground in slow motion, banging my knee of the slab as I landed.
There was a couple beside me as I fell who asked if I was ok and I tried to play it cool but I did feel a bit foolish, not helped by my son pissing himself laughing behind me.
At the time of writing this blog it has been a few weeks since that happened and my knee is still agony if I kneel down and put any weight on it. I think I have at least cracked my knee cap. That’s what I get for trying to save a Fiver on a taxi, eh.
All in all though it was a good evening and it was a joy to see my sons face and I was officially a good dad….at least until the next morning anyway when everything gets reset and I have to earn his respect once again.
The Videos
The Photos
Cheers!
Donate
