From: cmrtcv@elroy.uh.edu (92F09797)
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.metallica
Subject: Metalli-history Part 6
Date: 16 Dec 1992 22:43 CST
Organization: University of Houston
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: elroy.uh.edu
Keywords: Festivals!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

   METALLICA played a couple of festivals in the summer of 1985.  In England,
it was the infamous Castle Donnington Festival(August), where METALLICA found 
themselves caught in a "poser sandwich", playing between Ratt and Bon Jovi.
They proved to be quite an antidote to all the strutting and pouting that was
taking place elsewhere on the bill.  The contrast between them and every other
act on the bill could not have been more stark.  METALLICA came on-stage in
their beat-up scuzzy jeans, their tangled hair and unmade-faces.  On-stage they
looked like the heavies.  Hetfield standing center-stage cradling his guitar,
to his left, Kirk , one knee raised, all hair and hands..stage left belonged to
Cliff Burton.  His bass slung low, eyes like slits and mouth concentrated, 
right arm windmilling at every given oppurtunity, the charisma Cliff exuded 
on-stage was palpable - it could be felt, like a punch in the chest.  He 
commanded a lot of your attention..and in the back, little Lars, rattling away
at his drums....during the set James firmly proclaimed "If you came here to see
spandex, eye-makeup, and the words 'ooh baby' in every other song, this ain't
the fuckin' band!"  Amidst a shower of urine-filled plastic bottles ( a 
Donnington tradition), METALLICA plowed through a set that had the UK -
previously one of their less successful markets- clutching the band to their
chests like a care package.
      Shortly afterwards, on August 31st, the band was once again on home turf,
playing Oakland's 'Day on the Green Festival' to 90,000 raging hometown freaks
and new converts.  This was the icing on the cake of a landmark year, with
METALLICA bringing their garage-band roots to coliseum-sized crowds.
  1986 was the biggest year ever for the Metalliskids, as _MASTER OF PUPPETS_
screamed into existence across the globe.  This third record, again self-
produced at Sweet Silence in Copenhagen with Flemming Rasmussen at the engi-
neering helm, was the band's ultimate coupling of rage and refinement.  There
was the crushing reckless abandon of "Battery" and "Damage Inc.", lyrical 
lessons in ultimate anarchy and chaos, and the more subtle violence of 
"Welcome Home(Sanitarium)", which examined a more personal inner destruction
which bred suicide and insanity.  Such lyrical themes and audio progressions
came a long way from the 'loaded-gun-right-at-your-face" tactics of _Kill 'Em
All_,full of three-dimensional mood and dead-on images.
   Such enlightening material was brought to its full dimension as the band
performed it live during the support slot for Ozzy Osbourne that spring, and it
won the band armies of coliseum-level fans on what METALLICA coined the 'Damage,
Inc. Tour.'  Aside from the huge toll in neck injuries prompted by the tour's
'headbanging en masse', METALLICA managed to do some additional damage- to 
themselves.  In late July, with half a dozen U.S. dates left on the itineray,
James decided to break his wrist during a skateboarding spree in Memphis,
Tennessee.  The remaining dates featured the Zorlac-riding lunatic trading in 
his instrument for a cast as longtime friend of Kirk's, guitar roadie John
Marshall, filled in on rhythm guitar.
    With an arena-level tour and a gold record soon tucked under their belts,
METALLICA seemed incapable of doing anything wrong by the time the fall of '86
had come around.  Sadly, fate dealt the band a particularly ugly and untimely 
hand during the succeeding European tour.  En route to Copenhagen, Denmark,
from Stockholm, Sweden, on September 27th, the group's tour bus hydroplaned
across some icy road-water and came down on its side.  Tragically, it turned
out that Cliff was sandwiched in between the vehicle and the pavement, dying
instantly after being thrown from his bunk, through a bus window, and towards
the grisly fate.  The metal scene was in thorough shock and despair for months
following, as were the accident survivors: to James, Kirk, and Lars ( who broke
a toe during the ordeal), the simple loss of a dear friend was the most 
miserable toll of all.
    With a minimum of melodramatic fanfare over the accident, METALLICA 
eventually made the decision to carry on.  "Whiplash" had proclaimed that :
"we'll never stop, we'll never quit, 'cause we're METALLICA", and the band
was primed to see such words through.  Auditioning nearly everyone under the
obscure-metal sun in the weeks that followed, Jason Newsted was selected as the
new Metalli-bassist: he'd previously been the ringleader of Flotsam & Jetsam, a
Phoenix, Arizona-based indie-metal band who'd turned a few heads with a well-
recieved debut album(_Doomsday for the Deciever_ on Metal Blade Records) and 
sporadic local gigging.
  METALLICA's recruiting methods went farther than the traditional formula
auditioning, however.  Not only did the band want a competent musician - they
also wanted a drinking buddy who could keep up with them chuh for chug.  After
an extensive bar binge at San Fran's Tommy's Joint, the three veteran metal
militants had a meeting in the establishment's rest room, among the urinals,
and reached a final verdict: Jason was in.
   A surprise opening slot during Metal Church's gig at LA's Country Club on
November 8th saw METALLICA debuting the newfound Metallibassist faster than
he could sling a guitar-strap across his shoulder.  The sold-out throng of
crazed club inhabitants coupled epidemic thrashing with the most genial the
most genial welcome Newsted could have hoped for, and the 'new era' METALLICA 
went down a storm.  The band then made a hasty run for the land of the rising
sun, Japan, on November 15th.  After conquering the Far East, the group 
proceeded to play a mini-U.S. splurge of dates in December across the East
Coast and Canada, with a tour-closing final stop in Seattle.  It's a strange
irony that Metal Church, a band that Lars had allegedly auditioned for six
years earlier, were now label mates on Elektra and show openers for this 
particular tour and the one following - in Europe.


 ....I think this is as far as I will go in the Metalli-history series....
..personally, this era was METALLICA at their peak, they had achieved success
without videos or airplay...it was a great feeling to be there and watch them
get all the recognition that they deserved, and knowing that they had gone 
against the system and succeeded.......
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.metallica