Remembering Cliff
This was surely a trip to remember. Three Metalli-Crazed friends from
Norway travelled to the crash-site near the Swedish town of Ljungby to
honor and respect the memory of Cliff Burton. We were there at the
exact moment where Cliff died 20 years ago!
Although we had to travel 1200kilometers to get there(one of us from
Steinkjer, two from Oslo), it was well worth both the time and the
money spent. The last remaining 110 kilometers we had to take a taxi
that cost us 1200 Swedish Kroner( almost 200 USD!) because we missed
the train by 20 seconds! But we were determined to get there no matter
what the cost in both time and money. One of us even had to struggle
with crutches because of an injury in the foot…
From the 26th to the 28th of september 2006 we camped in a small tent
in a field, and all night and morning on the 27th we sat in the ditch
where the accident happened and played Metallica-songs with our
acoustic guitars and had "a special Cliff-style-cigarette" and some
beers. Although it was cold and it had rained, we had a truly special
time there. (The second night we were given a free cottage from the
owner of the tavern Gyllene Rasten because he felt sorry for us in the
heavy rain.Thanks man!)
Photo: Morten Børøsund/hetfield9@gmail.com
There were magic moments around 6 o'clock on the morning of the 27th;
suddenly no cars on the road, a stunning silence exept for the
beautiful tones of To Live Is To Die and Orion…
Around this time we looked to the sky and discovered that one of the
stars of the Orion constellation wasn't there! Hidden behind some
clouds apparently…we could feel our neck-hairs rising and looked at
eachother.."Wow, man…" The mood was strange but it felt good to be
there and we kept on playing the old classic Metallica-tunes that
Cliff was a part of…
It has come to our knowledge that a memorial stone was placed at the
site on Saturday the 30th of September 2006. This is a wonderful idea
and we absolutely encourage it. But, due to our financial situation,
we couldn't stay until the 30th to experience this uncovering of the
memorial stone and a concert which also took place there. So we had to
go home the 28th. However, we were the only ones at the site on the
exact moment 20 years since Cliff tragically died. And this we deserve
respect and credit for, we think. We hope the 'Tallica-guys get to
know we were there. Maybe they think we did a cool thing?
Swedish television filmed us and the local newspaper made a story
about us. See the article here: http://www.kvp.se/index.jsp?a=699423
And to Metallica: We hope you will continue to kick our ass and we
will continue to listen to your music and go to your concerts, thank
you.
