Black Sabbath

It might be the Paisley venue is all he could book at the time. And it's close enough to Glasgow.
True, true. The venue is more than respectable mind you; it's a superb building in the heart of Paisley. Paisley has more listed buildings that anywhere in Scotland outside Edinburgh (apparently).
 
True, true. The venue is more than respectable mind you; it's a superb building in the heart of Paisley. Paisley has more listed buildings that anywhere in Scotland outside Edinburgh (apparently).
I know. I've tried to make my name & granddad's old house a listed building, but it got rejected.

I don't know the venue, but I do see what Paisley has. There is some great buildings there but some real crappy areas. I've spent many a summer there and seen both sides of the town.
 

This is the never released version of Black Sabbath's "The Eternal Idol" featuring the great Late Ray Gillen on vocals. Gillen left before the album was completed in order to join John Sykes's s Blue Murder (nothing was finally recorded and he later joined forces with Jake E. Lee in what would ultimately become "Badlands"). Tony Iommi brought in Tony Martin as a replacement and all of Gillen's vocals were rerecorded by Martin who pretty much stuck to Ray's original melodies... and the official release featured Tony Martin as lead singer, no mention was made of Ray Gillen's work on the album. In all fairness, Martin did a fine job, especially when one takes into consideration that it really was a last minute call, but his voice bore more than a resemblance to Dio's and the listener was at times under the impression of listening to a Black Sabbath album from the Dio era (only without Dio !). By comparison, the Ray Gillen "demos" sounded more original and had perhaps stronger a personality for Ray was such a unique vocalist (no disrespect to Martin who was excellent himself)... ultimately, both versions are much better than the low sale figures which plagued the album would suggest ; it actually exhibits, once again, some fantastic riffing (and lead work as well) from master Iommi. Actually, the "Tony Martin trilogy" which encompasses "The eternal idol", "Headless cross" and "Tyr" (the latter being a true gem with an incredible production) is imo criminally overlooked and/or underrated... now is the time for rediscovering the superior "Eternal idol" as it was initially recorded : R.I.P. Ray !

Track listing: 1. The shining 00:00 2. Ancient warrior 06:30 3. Hard life to love 11:24 4. Glory Ride 16:44 5. Born to lose 22:05 6. Nightmare 25:46 7. Lost forever 30:35 8. Eternal Idol 34:53
 
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Interesting stuff :)

I've always felt Martin sounded less good on Eternal Idol compared to the later albums with him, but it makes total sense if the vocal melodies weren't even written for him! It's still a pretty good album, as are (almost) all Sabbath's albums from that era.
 
I hope the Ray Gillen version gets released in America someday. I like Tony Martin version too but it was meant for Ray. Tony's singing is much better on Headless Cross and Tyr because they were meant for him but he does a great job on Eternal Idol.
 
I know. I've tried to make my name & granddad's old house a listed building, but it got rejected.

I don't know the venue, but I do see what Paisley has. There is some great buildings there but some real crappy areas. I've spent many a summer there and seen both sides of the town.

Any particular areas to avoid? I would be there for work-related reasons in early November!

Nothing to do with Black Sabbath, so sorry for the off-topic! :)
 
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