--[ T h e B a
n d - History ]--
--[ T h e B a
n d - History ]--
page
1
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)
Ron McGovney (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.
xx.11.84
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
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.
26.06.86.
Shortly
before a gig in Adamsville, 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."
contd...