--[ T h e B a n d - History ]--






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08.11.86: Jason's first gig with Metallica, opening for Metal Church at The Country Club in Reseda. His second gig was the very next night at Jezabelle's in Anaheim.
10.08.87: The EP Garage Days Re-Revisited was released only including cover tunes to introduce Jason on vinyl to the fans. One of the tracks was left off the British version so it could qualify for the singles chart. This masterpiece is no longer available, and is now a rare collector's item.
20.08.87: The band started their European festival tour with a small secret gig at Club 100 in London. Thousands of people showed up, even though the gig wasn't advertised; however, many were denied at the door, as the club only had capacity for a few hundred!
04.12.87: Metallica's first home video, Cliff 'Em All, is released. This is Metallica's homage to their previous bass player. They didn't have any footage from the old shows, so bootleg videos taped by fans were added to the home video.
24.05.88: First show of the American "Monsters of Rock" Festival tour, with Van Halen at the Country Club in Los Angeles.
25.08.88: ...And Justice for All is released by Elektra records in September 1988.
11.09.88: First show on the Damaged Justice Tour 88-89 in Budapest, Hungry.
06.12.88: Metallica filmed their first music video, One. They always said that they wouldn’t do a music video, but they now felt that the time was right, and were given maximum artistic freedom from their label.
22.02.89: This year Metallica received a nomination in the heavy metal category for the Grammy Awards. They performed One live at the show, but the award went to Jethro Tull. Metallica didn't seem to care, though; they added a sticker to their album reading "Grammy Award LOOSERS".
20.06.89: The home video "Two Of One" is released.
xx.02.90: Metallica wins a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, for One. While on stage receiving the award, the band gives Jethro Tull a big thank you for not releasing anything this year, as they won last year.
06.10.90: Metallica enters the studio "One On One" in North Hollywood to record their next album. Time passes, and the band is not finished until June 16th of the next year. The album is recorded by Randy Staub and assistant Mike Tacci, and produced by Bob Rock together with Hetfield and Ulrich.
04.11.90: Metallica recorded the track Stone Cold Crazy for an Elektra sampler.
xx.02.91: Metallica wins its second Grammy, for Best Metal Performance for Stone Cold Crazy.
30.07.91: World premiere of the video for Enter Sandman.
01.08.91: First show on the megatour - 'Wherever I May Roam' 91-92-93 at Phoenix Theatre - Petaluma, CA.
12.08.91.: The black album Metallica saw the light of day. Some shops opened the doors at 00:01 in the morning to be the first to sell the black album.
xx.02.92: Performed Enter Sandman at Grammys, and won for Best Metal Performance.
26.02.92: World premiere for the video Nothing Else Matters.
20.04.92: Played at "Concert For Life," a tribute show to Freddy Mercury at the Wembley Stadium in London. Metallica played three songs, which were released as a single only days later. All proceeds from this gig and the sales of the single were donated to Freddy Mercury's AIDS fund. The show was also TV broadcasted to the whole world.
09.08.92: James got burned by the pyrotechnics in Montreal, Canada. The next gigs had to be cancelled because James couldn't play the guitar with his burnt hand.
25.10.92: The first time Metallica played So What? live. What obviously made it so cool was that Animal, the vocalist from the Anti-Nowhere League who wrote this song, was dragged up to sing this masterpiece at Wembley Area, London, England.
05.11.92: All four members of Diamond Head were on the guest list this day in Birmingham, England. This started Metallica thinking of the possibility of jamming with them. With two drum sets on the stage, all eight band members played Am I Evil? and Helpless together. The members of Diamond Head are close friends of Lars, for he traveled with them on tour before Metallica was formed. Both of these tracks, and the jam with Animal ten days earlier, are available on the "Metallican vid" that comes in the Metallican-box for ...And Justice For All.
Nov. 92: The two home videos, "A Year And A Half In Ihe Life Of Metallica," parts 1 & 2, were released.
21.01.93: Some people at Elektra suggested that Metallica should come to Manhattan, and transform a record store into their own Metalli-store. The guys liked the idea and opened the store to a flood of fans on this day, selling only Metallica albums and merchandise. A tape was released for this day, and was exclusively sold at this shop on the Grand Opening. The tape consists of a medley recorded in Moscow. It was James who designed the tape cover with a drawing of Scary Guy.
22.01.93: A new tour saw the light of day. The "Nowhere Else To Roam" Tour '93 began in Kalamazoo, MI.
29.11.93: The box set "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" was released containing three CD's, three videos and a book.
28.05.94: 'Shit hits the Sheds' starts with a Rehearsal Show in Buffalo, NY.
22.06.94.: Performed live at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Detroit. Glenn Danzig and Chuck Biscuts from Danzig played Last Caress with the band. Last Caress was written by Danzig when he was a member in Misfits.
03.07.94.: Performed live at the World Music Theatre in Chicago. This is Danzig's last show on the tour; Glenn Danzig sings London Dungeon, Last Caress, and Green Hell with the band. Suicidal Tendencies joins the band during So What?
21.08.94.: Performed live at the Bicentennial Park in Miami. The last show of the "Summer Shit Tour". Special guest is Rob Halford (ex-Judas Priest, now Fight) who sings Rapid Fire (an old Judas Priest song) with the band.
23.08.95: The tracks 2 x 4 and Devil's Dance are played for the first time in front of an audience at the London Astoria in England. This was a private show, and only members of the fan club were invited. According to Metallica this was the best gig they had ever played. This was also the first date on their short tour "Escape From The Studio" 95.
03.09.95: The Arctic Circle show, sponsored by Molson Breweries in Canada. 500 or so contest winners were invited to the "Coldest Show On Earth," in arctic northern Canada, a place so desolate and frigid that the only way in or out was by charter flights. The show was played in a huge, clover-shaped tent. Using four massive, fuel-burning, heating units they managed to keep the temperature warm enough for the instruments to function!
13.11.95: Metallica performed 7 Motorhead songs (dubbing their performance the "Lemmys") during Lemmy's birthday party at the famous club "Whiskey A Go-Go". This is also the club where Lars and James met Cliff Burton.
xx.12.95 - xx.02.96.: The band went into the Plant studio in Sausalito, California, where they recorded 18 of the 25 tracks due to appear on the new album. Again, Bob Rock is producing.
09.06.96: The four guys played at Slims Club, in San Francisco, for fan club members only. They did three members-only gigs in a row this month.
06-07.05.96: The video for Until It Sleeps was shot at locations around and in Los Angeles.
MAY.96: Our four guys spent time travelling around the world to promote the new album. They conducted numerous interviews, and organized huge listening parties where they would set up a truck full of speakers and play the new album, then sign some autographs for the fans. This occurred all over the world; in the States, Europe, Australia and Japan.
20.05.96: The single Until It Sleeps is released world-wide, excluding Northern America, where the fans would have to wait one more day.
26.05.96.: A huge Metallica listening party was held on the second day of the DYNAMO Festival in Eindhoven, Holland. Metallica's new album, Load, was played through the PA at the festival site for the 60,000+ audience, making this the largest listening party held, ever!! Two band members (probably Lars & Kirk) were at the festival site to present this event, to give interviews, and to promote the new album. Load was released a whole week earlier in Holland than the rest of the world, to make it possible to be sold at the festival. Therefore, Eindhoven was blessed not only with hosting the world premiere, but also with the release of the album for the first time anywhere in the world!
01.06.96: Load is released in Japan only.
03.06.96.: The album is released world-wide.
04.06.96.: The album is released in North America.
11.06.96: Metallica played live for the entire world, via the Internet. The broadcast site was Slim's, a small club in San Francisco, where the Webcast crew beamed the show across the globe, live as it happened, in spycams, music, video, pictures and descriptions.
17.06.96: MTV presented a Metallica contest that was so huge it took four tractor trailers to deliver the prizes to the homes of the four contest winners. The four band members of Metallica hung out with the grand prize winner, met the neighbors, and played some tunes. The contest final was aired July 1.
27.06.96: The American Loolapalooza festival tour starts in Kansas City with Metallica headlining the bill.
12.09.96: Another European tour begins. This time the tour starts in Ostenhalle, Germany.
23.09.96: Recorded the live video of Hero Of The Day in Barcelona, Spain. They weren't using a recording, and 5 seconds before each of the 3 times they played the song, a metronom was introducing the band to the required rythym, and the beeps of it sounded throughout the whole audio system at the stadium. Also, Kirk got 3 or 4 notes wrong on the intro during the first attempt. Moreover, Lars asked the crowd to be more energetic in each one of the new versions they played. So, by the third try, it sounded louder than hell!
13.11.96: Metallica recorded 3 live songs for the TV program "Later With Jools Holland," on the British channel BBC2. Wasting My Hate, Mama Said (James only acoustic) and King Nothing were performed completely live, with no playback.. It was broadcast on November 16th.
14.11.96: Metallica was intoduced to perform King Nothing live on stage at the MTV Europe Video Awards show. The lights went down and the band launched into the song Last Caress followed by So What? A few classic minutes of television to savour. The band was nominated earlier that evening, in the "Best Rock Video" catagory, but the award went to the Smashing Pumpkins. James later said in an interview: We needed to wake people up at the show! We felt it was a little boring, and we had been daring each other to do that for years.
18.11.96: The single Mama Said is released world wide.
18 & 19.11.96: Apocalyptica, the band who released an album containing Metallica covers performed with cellos, opened for Metallica in Helsinki, Finland.
17.01.97: King Nothing premiered on MTV on 1/17/97. It was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah about a month earlier.
26.01.97.: Lars got married to his long time girlfriend Skylar. Apparantly Lars said that thing about them breaking it off was so that they would not get mobbed by fans at the church they got married in.
27.01.97: MetallicA played "King Nothing" on the American Music Awards and won the price for best metal/hard rock album. When they went up to accept their award, Lars said, "I would like to thank this man, James Hetfield, for putting on his best suit and being my best man at my wedding last night."
22.02.97: Ted Nugent was guest star at the gig at Palace Of Auburn Hills. They weren't too happy with him for what he did. Ted basically forced his way into their show, then ruined their moment in the sun (throwing pics and sticks and thanking the crowd).
22.08.97: Metallica played 3 festivals in Europe this summer to get out of the studio for a while. First day was at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium
23.08.97: Blindman's Ball Festival, Stuttgart, Germany
24.08.97: Reading Festival, Reading, U.K.
06.10.97: To celebrate the release of their new album, Metallica wanted to play a concert - for free. The only problem was that they didn't know where! They gave the fans a few details and a 800 telephone number where they could call in to make suggestions. The free concert had to be held on Tuesday, November 11 (Veteran's Day), outdoors as this had to be a big free show for anyone wishing to make the trip. Over 120,000 Metallica fans bombarded a phone lines.
10.10.97: Photo session for the launch of the new album has already took place, and it is a stunning live session by Anton Corbijn. These live photos will be included in the packaging for the new album. There was further two photo sessions prior to the album release, which was for press use.
18.10.97: The 11th Annual Bridge School Benefit Shows at Shoreline Amphitheater, San Francisco. They played an entirely acoustic set which lasted about an hour. Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains came out and played the Lynrd Skynrd song Tuesday's Gone. They also played Lowman's Lyrics for the first time.
19.10.97: The second Annual Bridge School Benefit Show at the save venue. the sets were the same except on Saturday they did not play Low Mans Lyric, instead they played another new tune called "My Eye's". Also on the bill was Kacy Crowley, Blues Traveler's, Lou Reed, Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthew's Band, and Neil Young.
20 & 21.10.97: The band shot the "Memory remains" video in LA, actually at the Van Nuys airport. It costed $400.000.00 and featured the band it a huge box that costed over $100.000.00. The video had it's world premiere on MTV's Mattrock show the 15th of November 1997.
26.10.97: The final day for the fans to call in to teh 800 telefone number and suggest a place where Metallica could play their free show. The "winner"? Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot.
07.11.97: Neighbours of the Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot in South Philadelphia are going went court on morning to try to block the free outdoor concert by the "heavy-metal band". It wasVincent Fumo who asked his Harrisburg lawyer, Christopher Craig, to see what he could do. Craig spent all day drafting a request for an injunction that he delivered to Common Pleas.
11.11.97: Metallica's free concert, dubbed the "Million Decibel March," was helt in Philadelphia parking lot and was a great success. For the show's intro, they showed Jaymz playing the famous ESPN commercials' "Da-na-na, na-na-na" from the Sportscenter music on his guitar. Here is what the local newspapaer Philadelphia Inquirer had to say about the show: "It was part burlesque show, part rugby match, and hearing-loss loud. The band was profane on stage and charming before the show. Police pronounced the fans better behaved than a Philadelphia Eagles crowd. And neighbors who feared the worst from the self-styled Loudest Band in the World complained more about the sound from the news choppers circling overhead."
12.11.97: Memory Remains single released in America. It has been available in Europe ant the rest of the world for a few weeks
13.11.97: Lars and his bandmates played a free show at London's premier dance venue Ministry Of Sound to launch their new album 'Re-Load'. Prior to the show Lars said in a press release: "I've never heard of the Ministry Of Sound but I'm sure Metallica playing there will making it a hit!"
06.12.97: Metallica performed live on NBC's Saturday Night Live show
March 98: The world tour in support of Reload in Asia. Metallica wasn't there on their Load tour, and they did Australia as well.
23 Jun 1998: Rehearsals for the upcomming "Poor re-touring me 98". The tour started the day after in West Palm Beach, Florida, and ended in San Diego, California September the 13th.
15 Aug 1998: Lars becomes a father. Skylar Ulrich gave birth to a baby boy, Myles Ulrich, at 4:15 am in New York City. He was 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches
5 Sep 1998: George, WA (The Gorge) Someone in the crowd threw a glass bottle towards the stage and hit Jason in the head! Jason got hurt but came back and finished the show as strong as ever. "We are here to give it all we got but I don t understand why we have to watch; out for shit thrown at us during the show. I hope they find that fucker who did it" - James comments to the audience after the incident.
14 Sep 1998: Metallica went straight in to the studio the day after the last show in San Diego. They recorded the new songs on the "Garage Inc." CD
18 Oct 1998: Playboy Mansion, Los Angeles. A 45 minutes gig in front of some of the most beautiful women in the world and other celebrities. Metallica played at the Playboy party
Oct 19 1998: Photo shoot in Los Angeles Metallica spent 6 hours at the old "Ambassador Hotel" together with photographer Danny Clinch. The pictures was ment for the "Garage Inc." cover
21 Oct 1998: Metallica spent Wednesday the 21st recording the video for their version of Bob Seger's Turn The Page from the upcoming Garage Inc. album. The clip is directed by Swedish director Jonas Akerlund, who also filmed Madonna's Ray of Light video and Prodigy´s Smack my Bitch. It all took place at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles.
19 & 20 Nov 98: Metallica perform two to support the release of Garage Inc. The Aragon Ballroom -Chicago the 19th and State Theatre, Detroit, MI on the Nov 20th