Oh how I cannot wait for this.....!

The tracklisting so far (though still to be expanded) looks like this:

Enter Sandman - Metallica
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Metallica
Fuel - Metallica
Hit The Lights - Metallica
King Nothing - Metallica
Master of Puppets - Metallica
No Leaf Clover - Metallica
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
Sad But True - Metallica
The Unforgiven - Metallica
Where I May Roam - Metallica
No Excuses - Alice in Chains
Turn The Page - Bob Seger
Hell Bent For Leather - Judas Priest
Demon Cleaner - Kyuss
Tuesdays Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Blood and Thunder - Mastodon
Armed and Ready - Michael Schenker Group
Mother of Mercy - Samhain
Black River - The Sword

For me the item of most intrigue here is No Leaf Clover, a track which thus far has only been released live from their S&M DVD. However getting to play Master of Puppets will indeed make it all worthwhile.

Running between work today, but wanted to quickly post a link to an article from the BBC.

A recent study, however, showed there is nothing special about heat loss from the head - any uncovered part of the body would lose heat.

My only comment on that is just believe me, when you have no hair wearing a hat is necessary!

You may have heard that Coldplay are being sued for plagiarism.

I have my views, but watch this and see if it helps you form yours. Thoughts in the comments please...

UPDATE : The original video with both songs back to back has been removed. I've replaced it with the Joe Satriani track.

I went to see Coldplay twice over the last few days; once on Saturday and again last night.

Originally I had bought tickets for the Saturday night of these all-seating gigs.  The seats didn't seem that great as they were in Block M, which is up the back of the SECC and slightly around the edge. I have an aversion to seating gigs, but there were no standing areas and there was little choice left.

However, on Friday - the day before the gig - a few of my colleagues were last-minute planning on going to the Tuesday night show.  They logged online and were offered 5 rows from the front, right in the middle of the stage! I couldn't pass this opportunity up for a decent view. I very nearly sold the Saturday tickets on, though in the end decided to make a night of it and head to the show anyway.

On Saturday Coldplay were stunning. The view was amazing, the show extremely impressive, and the crowd response just phenomenal.  Absolutely amazing gig with a surprisingly good setlist.

Last night we went back to absolute ring-side seats. It was fantastic to be so close - to see the action from there was great. Yet for some reason it just didn't have the same 'wow'. Don't get me wrong, the band were superb. Completely on top form, the acoustics were amazing, but it just didn't seem as explosive. I don't believe it was because I'd seen the show a few days earlier; I've seen many bands more than once on a single tour. Maybe because it was a Tuesday night and the crowd weren't up for it in the same way. I really can't put my finger on it except for maybe one thing - it pains me to say it - perhaps sitting up the back watching the show was a better place to be!!

Arrgh! OK, I've said it. Now I'll quantify. For this gig it definitely was a show, with a lot going on all around the arena, so it was a visual feast and sitting up in an elevated position gave you the benefit of being able to see everything which happened.  Plus, it must be said; the crowd were so much more into it on Saturday. The reaction from the band and the things said to the crowd on Saturday vs Tuesday supported that.

Before the "oh you're getting old..." comments flood in, I don't think it's anything to do with that. I just preferred the position at the back watching the band, the show, and the crowd interaction.

Come a gig like Metallica I'd much rather be down the front fighting my corner with the rest of the pit....

Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Speed Of Sound
Yellow
Chinese Sleep Chant
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Talk
The Hardest Part
Postcards From Far Away
Viva La Vida
Lost!
Green Eyes (acoustic)
Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic - Will singing)

Politik
Lovers In Japan
Death And All His Friends

The Scientist
Life in Technicolor II

I hate jigsaws, but even I could have a go at this one.

Interesting that someone could do that to start with, but good luck to the binman and I hope he manages to piece it all together.

I went to see the Stereophonics on Tuesday night.

If I'm honest, on the day of the gig I really wasn't that up for seeing them. Part of the problem was that last Christmas I saw them at the SECC (same venue as this gig) and they were really poor. The latest album at the time, Pull The Pin, was disappointing and the crowd just weren't in the mood for it either. As I'm sure you can imagine since this was the same venue again it didn't bode well for this gig which was to celebrate the Greatest Hits album; meaning that it would likely be a Greatest Hits tour setlist.

At 9pm a large curtain dropped and the band attacked the venue from the stage with absolute ferocity. The crowd were loving it, and really up for the show. There was very little by way of 'Glasgow's finest' and everyone was very respectful of any slow songs, not just talking through them. It really was as if everybody there was blown away by the performance, the setlist and seeing the Stereophonics going back to a standard which took them to the heights that they've enjoyed over the years. Put simply the band were stunning, the acoustics amazing and the choice of songs almost perfect.

Before the gig (and in response to a Facebook status update I posted) Adam emailed me to suggest that perhaps the reason I wasn't looking forward to the gig was that I have become like a Junkie who is always craving a bigger and bigger hit; more of the same never getting the reaction it once did. I loved this metaphor and will no doubt write a proper and full post on this subject soon.

What I will say for now is this - this Stereophonics gig gave me a hit of the type that could only come from a phonograph needle; I was 'High as the Ceiling' all night.

Vegas Two Times
More Life In A Tramps Vest
A Thousand Trees
Superman
Mr Writer
I Wouldn't Believe My Radio
My Own Worst Enemy
Have A Nice Day
Devil
I Stopped To Fill My Car Up
Maybe Tomorrow
Since I Told You It Was Over
Handbags and Gladrags
Madame Helga
Hurry Up And Wait
Pick A Part That's New
Not Up To You
Bank Holiday Monday
Bartender and the Thief
Just Looking
Local Boy In The Photograph

You're My Star
It Means Nothing

Traffic
Same Size Feet
Dakota

I enrolled in University last month to finally do a Masters Degree.

To be honest it's all quite surreal at the moment. The Masters Degree is a dissertation based subject and I am most likely going to base it on or around database technology. I'm not 100% sure on exact subject matter, but I'm quite excited and it has to said, nervous about it too.

I have 12 months in which to submit a paper, so actually not really that much time at all. I'll post updates here as time moves on.

Still, after paying all those fees up front it is nice that I get a 10% Student Discount from HMV!

Although Internet Explorer is installed on all Windows machines by default, I have to say I never ever use it; to me it is bloated and very slow.

To combat this, a few years ago I started using Firefox (at the time Version 1, or possibly even 0.8b) as it was so much faster and cleaner to use. I never thought that I would move away from it but it looks like I've found a worthy competitor.

For the past week I've been using Google Chrome (itself only in Beta currently), and the truth is I am absolutely loving it. It is way faster than Firefox 3, which is WAY faster than Internet Explorer itself. It is so nice to click on a browser, have it open almost instantly and then type in an address and have it load immediately.

There are some really nice functions in Chrome, such as in-line searching, having a thumbnail homepage for favourites, desktop shortcuts for web-applications, and incognito mode. Currently there aren't add-on downloads for it (as per Firefox), but I have to admit I found they were slowing that browser down and had started to remove them all. There are some things which I am returning to Firefox to do at the moment, but I feel that I'll be a Chrome user 100% of the time very soon.

You should give it a go and let me know what you think.

Well it looks like musicSCRAMBLE will be back among us soon...