HISTORY PT 1
I guess this isn't the first Metallica story you have read, but I do hope it is the best!
I've tried to include all the stories and all the facts in a day-by-day diary, but I know
the history is far from complete, so if you find anything missing, please mail me.
COPYRIGHT:
Many of you have asked if you can have this band-history on your web-page. This biography
is a part of the first book I wrote, and the copyright belongs to C.G. Publishing in
Canada.
Please don't copy anything here, but feel free to print out for personal use.
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1980
A young Lars Ulrich was addicted to the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal), and he
tried to put his own band together. At this point, his attempt failed, but he placed an
ad in a magazine called Recycler, to which one James Hetfield answered. James and Lars met
up to jam, but nothing became of this first meeting.
Summer 81
Lars went to the UK to follow Diamond Head around for 3 months on tour. On his return
he secured a deal to record a track for the Metal Blade compilation Metal Massacre.
Due to the fact that he didn't yet have a band, he quickly began contacting people.
The three members he managed to put together were:
Lars Ulrich (Drums)
James Hetfield (Vocals; Rhythm and Bass Guitars)
Lloyd grant (Lead guitar)
14.03.82.
Metallica's first show ever! At Radio City, in Anaheim, CA.
XX.04.82.
In order to get a certain live gig, Metallica needed to present some of their
material,
so they recorded a demo, later known as Power Metal . This was recorded with James, Lars,
Ron McGovney, and Dave Mustaine. There isn't an actual title for this demo, but when it
surfaced as a bootleg, the name stuck. The name comes from some early business cards of
the band that Ron printed up.
xx.04.82
They re-recorded four tracks: Hit The Lights, Mechanix, Jump In The Fire, and
Motorbreath.
This new version of Hit The Lights appeared on the second pressing of Metal Massacre 1
(also
the recent re-release).
25.05.82
Metallica played a gig at Lars’ high school, Backbay High School, managing to
almost empty
the hall.
28.05.82
They played as a five piece band for the first time with Jef Warner on vocals
(luckily he
didn't last).
14.06.82
The first print of the Metal Massacre compilation album was released, and included
Metallica's first take of Hit The Lights. The second print had another version of this
track. The album was released by Brian Slagel; this was the first release on his new
label,
Metal Blade.
06.07.82.
The demo No Life 'Til Leather was recorded. This demo was never officially
released, but
copies were made and spread like wildfire. Tracks included were:
Hit The Lights
Mechanix
Motorbreath
Seek And Destroy
Metal Militia
Jump In The Fire
Phantom Lord
Line-up was as follows:
Lars Ulrich (Drums)
James Hetfield (Vocals and Rhythm Guitar)
Dave Mustaine (Bass Guitar)
Lloyd Grant (Lead Guitar, just for the solos)
xx.08.82
Brian Slagel told the band about a great bass player (Cliff Burton) in a band
called
Trauma that played the Whiskey a Go-Go. James and Lars were not happy with Ron McGovney,
and where so amazed by Cliff's playing, that they realized that this was the new bass
player for Metallica. Cliff was not interested, but said that he would join the band
if they moved to San Francisco, for he thought L.A. was a fucked-up freak show.
18.09.82
To promote the Metal Massacre album, Brian Slagel organized a gig with the bands
the
San Francisco. This was the first time Metallica played in front of the Bay Area crowd,
and it was a crucial job for them. All of the kids joined the headbangers on stage and
went nuts. Metallica had to follow up this show with numerous gigs in the Bay Area.
29.11.82.
The guys played at "The Old Waldorf" in San Francisco, with support from
a band named
Exodus, with one Kirk Hammett on guitar; this was the first time they met him. The show
was recorded, and today is known as the Live Metal Up Your Ass demo. They intended to
record it through the mixing board, but something went wrong, so instead they set up a
boombox in front of the speaker stacks; technically, this recording is an audience
recording. Both Metal Up Your Ass and No Life 'Til Leather came with a cassette liner
that was written by Lars and contained the track listings and the band logo. This was
Dave Mustaine's first show with the band.
30.11.82
Mabuhay Gardens. The last gig with Ron on bass. They soon afterwards asked Cliff
Burton to
join; upon hearing this, Ron left.
28.12.82
First jam session with Cliff Burton.
xx.01.83
The band is invited by record shop owner Jon Zazula to do some gigs on the East
Coast. He
also tries to get them a record contract, but when this fails, he founds his own record
label,
Megaforce Records, and signs Metallica as his first band.
March 83
March of '83 saw them on a journey from SF to New York to play a number of dates
organized by
Jonny Z of Megaforce Records. During this trip Dave’s drinking problems were getting
a bit out
of hand. The morning after they played a show in Vandenburg, supporting VENOM, they asked
Dave
to leave. Meanwhile, Kirk was already on his way over by plane to replace him.
05.03.83
Cliff Burton's first gig with the band, in San Francisco, at The Stone.
16.03.83
The "Megaforce demo" was recorded. This is Cliff Burton's first recording
with the band.
There are two different stories about this recording, and I'm not sure which version is
correct, if either... Story one: the band used this recording (containing Whiplash and No
Remorse) to get a contract with Megaforce Records. Story two: the band wanted to capture a
recording with Cliff, so they did, and then took the tape to KUSF FM in San Francisco,
where it was played over the air.
19.03.83
Live at The Stone in San Francisco. This was the second gig with Cliff, and this
show was
videotaped. Parts of this show are on the "Cliff 'Em All" video issued by
Metallica.
April 83
Lars, James and Dave all re-located to San Francisco, where Cliff lived; he now
became a
full member of Metallica.
01.04.83
Metallica called Kirk Hammett and asked him if he would like to join Metallica in
New York
for an audition. Kirk thought someone played an April Fool's trick on him, and answered
"Yes,
sure". The next day they called again to supply further details, and he realized that
they
were serious.
09.04.83
Live at L'Amours in Brooklyn, New York. The last gig with Dave Mustaine.
16.04.83
Having done his audition for Metallica, Kirk was accepted into the band; on this
day he did
his first gig with them in New Jersey. Exodus, Kirk’s previous band, went on to
release some
good thrash albums in the 80's and early 90's.
May 1983
They went into the studio to record their first album, Kill 'Em All , produced by
Paul Curcio.
Originally, this album was to be called "Metal Up Your Ass", but the record
distributors
refused to release an album with such a name. The name was immediately changed to Kill 'Em
All , in reference to the record industry's distributors.
xx.07.83.
Kill 'Em All was released.
27.06.83
Metallica went on the road for a two month tour with Raven for the "Kill 'Em
All For One"
tour (the Raven album at the time was entitled All for One ). The tour ended on September
3, 1983.
October-December 83.
Metallica spent their time writing new material for the next album, Ride The
Lightning .
February 84
The quartet visited Europe for the first time. They went on a tour supporting
VENOM,
starting in Zurich, Switzerland and covering Germany, France and Belgium, then finishing
with the Aardshock Festival in Zwolle, Holland. During this tour, the British label, Music
for Nations, released the 'Jump in the Fire' EP to promote the tour.
27.06.84
Ride The Lightning is released by Megaforce records.
November 84
The "Creeping Death" EP is released, featuring the original garage days
on the B-side.
Included is one cover tune, originally recorded by Blitzkrieg, and one track by Diamond
Head. These tracks are now available on the re-release of Kill 'Em All , and garage Inc.
Garage Days Re-Revisited is the follow up to this recording.
17.08.85
Performed for the first time at the famous Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington,
England.
Metallica was squeezed in-between two poser bands, Ratt and Bon Jovi, on the bill. James
decided to tell the 70,000 kids what to expect: "If you came here to see spandex, eye
makeup, and the words 'Oh baby' in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band."
xx.09.85 - 27.12.85.
The band was in Copenhagen again, recording the third album, this time with
producer
Flemming Rasmussen.
xx.03.86
Master Of Puppets was released.
27.03.86
The tour with Ozzy Osbourne starts. This was a very important tour for Metallica,
supporting Ozzy, as their popularity was steadily rising and they were ready to hit
the bigtime. This was also their last tour as a supporting act.
26.07.86
Shortly before a gig in Evansville, Indiana, James broke his wrist in the infamous
"skateboarding incident." The show was cancelled, and during the rest of the
tour
James sang with his arm in a sling while John Marshall stood in on guitar. At that
time, John Marshall was Kirk’s guitar roadie, as well as a member of the band Metal
Church.
27.09.86
It was approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September, 1986. Metallica's two
tour
buses were making their way along a god-forsaken road that lies somewhere between the
Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Apart from these vehicles, the route
was deserted - there was no one else travelling at that unearthly hour of the morning.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, just before 6:15 a.m., one of the coaches swerved
violently to its right and started careening wildly down the wrong side of the road.
It was out of control, and a crash was inevitable.
The bus' brief, but horrific, excursion came to a halt some 60 feet further up the
tarmac. By this time, the vehicle was on its side and lying in a ditch by the side of
the road, near the small Swedish town of Ljungby.
During the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of the overturned bus'
passengers managed to scramble free of the wreckage. Those that emerged included three of
the four members of the band. In all honesty, the survivors had been extremely lucky, as
they had all somehow managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock.
Swedish police arriving on the scene of the crash immediately arrested the driver as a
matter of routine, but later released him without charges after further investigation
revealed that the cause of the crash was black ice on a nasty bend in the road.
Unfortunately, however, there had been one fatality in the accident...... what is more,
the deceased individual turned out to be one of the group. So, tragically, in the short
space of those few dreadful seconds on that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike
existence was suddenly transformed into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year old bass
player, Cliff Burton, was dead.
"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus
driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other
people. I just went, 'Don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't
know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff
wasn't alive anymore." James Hetfield -1993
29.09.86
The dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner with which they were most
familiar:
drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage. Kirk and his
guitar
tech, John Marshall, were so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night.
On this day James, Lars and Kirk returned to the United States.
28.10.86
Jason Newstead goes to an audition, in the hopes to become the new bass player. He
learned
all the songs in a couple of days, so when the three of them asked Jason what song he
would
like to play, he said "anyone you like." At the end of the audition, Metallica
had five
candidates, but invited Jason to have a drink with them at Tommy's Joint. Before leaving
the place, the three members went to the loo, and when they came back, they told Jason,
"Welcome to Metallica."