Ok, you thought my last one was long - this one is even longer!!!! 
Part two of my Metallica tour started pretty much the same was as the first part did, with a train ride down to Birmingham to meet up with Andy. Met up at the train station and went back to his to hang out until it was time to pick Kat up from the rehearsal show at the NEC. It was pretty much the exact same night as before the Nottingham show a month ago. Wasn't as far to travel for this show which was good. Got to the NEC, parked up and headed into find everyone. Walked past the queue of people and Lee spotted us and ran up to say hi. We were having a meet up in the Wetherspoons inside so we all sat down to have a drink. Then started wondering where everyone was as people were getting texts saying that they were in the pub but were nowhere to be seen! Eventually we found out there was another Wetherspoons right at the other end of the complex. So when we eventually find the right pub and Rattle and a couple of other people were there. Pretty much everyone who was meeting up with us went to the wrong pub first!! We had a great time hanging out together. Just before she had to go, Kat came over to me and Barry at one point and whispered in our ears "I just saw Tony Iommi backstage!" which had me thinking they had to do a Sabbath cover that night!! The right pub was shutting earlier so we had to make the 10 mile journey back to the wrong pub anyway! That journey was eased by the set of Nuts magazine stickers that someone found so Pete got the "I'm a virgin" sticker, Andy was the "Official boob inspector" and Gav got the "Slaphead" and "I Love Boobs" ones!! Someone was rushing past us on the moving floor and as she ran past Pete stuck the "100% nuts!" one on her back which cracked me up completely for a good couple of minutes!! When we were back at the wrong pub, I was waiting in a line to get a drink and Scuzz was playing on the big tv above the bar. The guy in front of me turned and asked me if I knew who it was and I told him it was Five Finger Death Punch. Then he asked me if this was my first Metallica show - the look on his face when I told him that it was my 20th show was a picture!!! Hahaha!! I pointed to our little group outside the pub and told him that if he wanted to meet some veterans, to come back with me once I'd got my drink. I think they were rather amazed at how "dedicated" we were!!! He wouldn't believe that Pete was in his late 30's, saying that he thought he was about 27! I think that made Pete's night!!!
After we knew The Sword had finished, we made our way into the arena and pretty much just walked up to the barrier in time for the mighty Machine Head!!!!!!!!!!!! Metallica should not have awesome support bands cos my voice and neck was buggered even before Metallica hit the stage!!! Once again, I'd managed to get myself a great view of the man, the master - Mr Dave McClain! Watching him play drums is a joy - he makes it look so effortless! The crowd for MH were excellent - really loud!! Imperium and Halo being the usual highlights of their set for me - I roared every word! We were having great banter in the break between MH and Metallica with some very "interesting" topics coming up!! The things we do to amuse ourselves! Haha!! When Heavy Metal Thunder started, the crowd started cheering really loud. I was suprised that most knew what that signified. I still miss A Long Way To The Top cos that just built up the excitement so well. The Ecstasy Of Gold is always a goosebump moment, nothing will beat that song as an intro. The boys run out onstage into That Was Just Your Life followed by The End Of The Line. What I love so much about Metallica shows is that you never know what you what you're going to get next. After that it was Creeping Death straight into Ride The Lightning and both sounded immense! Time for my usual torrent of abuse again as One started. I am never gonna live that one down!!
After Broken, Beat & Scarred, James was saying that they were eventually going to play every song from Death Magnetic and then the guys ripped into My Apocalypse for the first time ever! It was heavy as fuck and I loved every second of it live!! Sanitarium was a nice surprise back in the set and I always love to hear Blackened live! We'd noticed at the start of the gig that the godfather of heavy metal, Mr Iommi was sitting on a flight case in the guitar pit. Everyone was chanting "Tony! Tony! Tony!" at sporadic points throughout the show and he would turn round and smile at us and give us the thumbs up or the horns. Apparently some footballer called Andy Townsend was there too and some people started chanting "Townsend! Townsend!" too!! Haha!! James was talking about heroes who came from Birmingham and then they started playing the first ever concert performance of Hole In The Sky!!!!!!!!!!!! The only other time that was played was after they inducted Black Sabbath into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame. It was superb!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian Tatler some of the other guys from Diamond Head was also there and were honoured by a performance of The Prince. One of my favourite covers so I loved hearing it live again! Seek & Destroy closed once again with beach ball madness which is so much fun to watch. Kirk threw out some picks where we were and Muffin and two other blokes were having a big fight behind me for them. I just looked down at my feet and was like oh there's a pick and casually bent down and picked up and then oh look there's another one and into the pocket whilst these guys were having a huge fight behind me!! Haha!! After the gig we went back to Andy's to try and get some sleep before having to head up to Glasgow.
Birmingham Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Creeping Death
Ride The Lightning
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Hole In the Sky
The Prince
Seek & Destroy
Beach ball madness during Seek
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...allica 2009/?action=view¤t=SDC16747.flv
There always has to be one point in any Metallica tour where we have to get up at stupid o'clock and the morning of the Glasgow show was this one. We were flying up at about 9am so were at the airport quite early. Got up to Glasgow and dumped our stuff at the hostel before setting off for the Solid Rock Cafe. It's a bit wrong when someone in a bar in Glasgow of all places tells you that you're starting early when ordering a pint!!! Haha!!! Fair enough, it was about 11am but there you go!! It was quite quiet in there to start with but got busier and busier as the day went on. We just hung out and had some lunch and were soon joined by Garry and Ruth. As I shook hands with Garry, he said to me "Were you at a Maiden Scotland gig at the Catwalk??" to which I replied that I was and he said that he remembered me down the front singing every word!! He thought I was a relation of the band!!! I was completely gobsmacked that he remembered me cos that gig must have been well over a year ago. Kat had to shoot off to deal with the meet and greet stuff so we were left in the pub. Some drunk guy was standing at the back air guitaring and singing along to all the Metallica songs that were blasting out - he was having the time of his life!!! My voice was gone and I was deaf even before we'd left the pub! We'd been talking about various Metallica stuff throughout the day and one of the topics was songs you'd like to hear live. I'd said that the two songs that I would die to hear live but am never going to hear are Trapped Under Ice and The Outlaw Torn.
Eventually we decide we better head to the venue. Saw David standing outside and ran up to give him a hug, scaring the shit out of him in the process cos he didn't see me amongst all the other people. We all hung out for a bit before heading in. We walked in just as Machine Head's intro was starting, promptly lost everyone and so me and Andy thought sod it and tanked it into the pit. They were on fire!!!!!!!! The crowd were very into them. I knew the Glasgow crowd wouldn't let me down!! Managed to have another little fangirl moment when Robb Flynn sang the first verse of Davidian at our mic (why the fuck couldn't he have done that in Manchester when I was on the goddamn barrier!!). I was absolutely knackered after their set! We didn't have to wait long for the boys to come on. Even from the first note, the crowd went mental and there was loads of pushing and shoving but they were very into the new songs which delighted me. After Life and Line, James does his usual "We've found out what goes really good with the new stuff - the old stuff!" speech and then into Bells. The place just EXPLODED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never seen a reaction like that to any song at any of the Metallica gigs I've been to. Me and Andy were jumping about like nutters!!! It was followed by a rare gem - Of Wolf And Man which also got a great response. My Apocalypse got its second live airing and sounded even better than Birmingham. I loved it when they started playing Turn The Page again. One of my all time favourite covers and I didn't think I would be lucky enough to hear it once, let alone twice!!! Me and Andy got very excited when the intro to All Nightmare Long started cos we absolutely love that song and much prefer that one to Judas Kiss (even tho I love that one too).
Fight Fire With Fire was another song that got a fantastic reaction and sounded heavy as fuck! During Nothing Else Matters I got a text from Kat saying "Look who I'm standing with!" as she was watching the show from the sound tower. I couldn't really see at first but then all I saw was tattooed arms and a big blonde head and thought thought no way, Adam Duce?!? I texted her back and she said yes it was and that all the Machine Head guys were watching the show with her. Jealous?? Me?! Never!!!! I always love it when it's encore time cos you really have no clue of what's coming next!! They came on jamming to The Small Hours which sounded great and Kirk looked like he was really enjoying it. They only played a minute of so of it and then we were suprised with Die, Die My Darling which I'd not heard since Donington 2006 and it sounded so much better without a wasted Pepper Keenan going "DIE DIE DIE!!" all throughout the song!! Haha!! Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for what was coming up next tho. James was asking the crowd "Do you feel special tonight Glasgow??" and they started playing TRAPPED UNDER ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as that first riff started, my jaw just hit the floor!!!!!! Once I had gotten over the shock, I was going mental, jumping about, headbanging and screaming it like a fucking loon!!!!!!! I just could not believe what I was hearing especially since that song had only been played live four times previously. Seek closed again and everyone was going nuts for the beach balls. After the show, I spotted Al in the crowd and went up to him to him and screamed (or should that be croaked!!!) "TRAPPED UNDER FUCKING ICE!!!!!!!!!" and he just gave me a hug saying "Did you enjoy that then??" Haha!! I knew a million and one people going to this gig and lost them all at one point!!! My brother and sister were at the gig and I didn't see them at all!! After losing another couple of people I just texted them all saying, "I'm outside, come and find me!" cos I wasn't running here, there and everywhere to try and find everyone. Met my cousins Abby and Heidi after the show and they were so excited about being there cos they didn't even have tickets until the Tuesday when I'd managed to find them some extra ones. Then I gave them the picks I'd got in Birmingham and they were just so made up about that! And I think I've convinced them to come to the Las Vegas show in December! Hell yeah! We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back to the hostel, or the pub should I say. We all had great craic afterwards. Me and Garry really hit it off, especially about Maiden, so everytime they were mentioned Andy was like "Oh great, off they go again!!" We all stayed up till about 4am talking until we passed out only to be rudely awakened by the fire alarm going off at about 9am - which had me and Kat wandering down Jamaica Street in our pyjamas!!
Glasgow Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Of Wolf & Man
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
Turn The Page
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Die, Die My Darling
Trapped Under Ice
Seek & Destroy
Our flight wasn't until mid afternoon so went and got some food before heading to the airport. Andy headed back to Birmingham and me and Kat were heading back to London. Met Ade at the airport and went back to their place. We were all just chilling out and planning on having a quiet night in preparation for the mad day ahead of us. That plan went completely out of the window when Alan (Machine Head's tour manager) phoned Kat asking if she would help him be extra security tonight cos James and Lars were going to see Discharge at the Camden Underworld. It was only through me and Ade insisting that she decided to go. Claire and Stu arrived after they'd left and we just sat talking until Ade got back from dropping her off. We watched Machine Head's Elegies dvd and were getting updates from Kat as the night went on. We had a much later night than planned so were all knackered the next day. Set off about 11am or so to head into London. After every set of traffic lights being against us, we eventually made it to the Intrepid Fox which is the best pub in the world! It was quite quiet when we got there and the whole day was spent hanging out with the most awesome people in the world!! I had so much fun seeing everyone again. We headed over to the O2 about half 4 ish and met up with everyone again in the Slug and Lettuce for some much needed grub before the show.
Once again, we waited until The Sword had finished before heading into the arena. Walked up to the front in time for Machine Head and once again they were in danger of blowing Metallica off the stage (well, almost!). I couldn't believe it when Robb walked up to the mic and said "This is a song we've never played live before - off the album The Blackening, this is SLANDEROUS!". It was killer!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love that song!! After that, I saw Robb had his red BC Rich and knew what was coming next. He asked if anyone here liked a band called Iron Maiden and of course everyone roared they did. Then they started playing Hallowed Be Thy Name and Pete said to me as the song started, "Oh well, there goes my neck!" Hahaha! We did go quite mental for that one, arms round each other jumping and singing every word. They do such a fantastic version of that!! As much as I loved hearing Slanderous, I did miss Beautiful Mourning in the set. You can't have it all tho. After Machine Head I went to the toilet and then got roped into helping do some recruiting for the UK Torn, speaking to various random people in MetClub shirts.
Finally the magic moment arrives again and it was great to have all of us together rocking out. We were all headbanging and singing to every word. I was wondering what the song would be after Life and Line tonight and was not disappointed as we got Harvester Of Sorrow!!!!! I always love that one live. Straight after that Lars started playing the drum at the start of Justice and I thought he was just jamming on it but then everyone joined in and it sounded SO cool how it seamlessly went from one song to the other. During My Apocalypse I was rocking out, enjoying the song when I got tapped on the shoulder and Dave took a photo of me and Muffin. It wasn't until everyone started pissing themselves laughing that I realised that I'd just been "muffined", argh!!!!!!!!!! (seriously, you don't want to know!!) After that I could not stop laughing for the rest of the song. It was so funny!!! The highlight of the entire tour (and possibly my life!) came next. The guys kicked into a song that I never thought I would ever hear in my wildest dreams - The Outlaw Torn!!!!!!! I turned and looked at Pete and Kat in disbelief, then just burst into tears. They both gave me a hug and Kat said to me "This is a dream come true for you isn't it??" and all I could do was nod cos I was so in shock. It was everything I'd hoped for and more - I just completely lost myself in the song, savouring every single note. Nothing was ever going to top that one but the rest of the set was damn good with Judas and Fight Fire in there again. For the encores, I was expecting a Motorhead cover and we got one in the shape of Overkil!!!. Much kudos to Lars during that song cos he double bassed it the whole way through and totally nailed it!!! Aftter that James did his "Did you say Kill 'Em All?" speech and I was expecting something like Whiplash, Jump In The Fire or Motorbreath. It was like all my Christmasses and birthdays had come at once when they started Hit The Lights!!!!!!!!!!! Another song that I had been absolutely dying to hear for years!! I went so mad during that song and think I gave myself brain damage!!! Haha!!! Seek was just as insane as the other shows and it was so funny seeing people trying to carry out these HUGE beach balls twice the size of them!
London Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
...And Justice for All
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
The Outlaw Torn
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Overkill
Hit The Lights
Seek & Destroy
We decided to hang around after the show so we could let the traffic die down a bit. Met up with Garry who'd unfortunately had seats and me and him just couldn't stop talking about how awesome Outlaw was - as it's our favourite Metallica song. After a while, a few of us decided to go into the Indigo club for a drink and we watched a bit of the Guitar Hero Metallica thing they were doing on the stage. I finally got to meet the infamous Alan as well. When we finally left, the traffic was much quieter and we headed home. I was so tired that I passed out right away. The next day Claire and Stu gave me a lift to the airport and I met up with Garry again who was also flying home that afternoon (on a different flight sadly) and we talked about how awesome the show was again. Finally got home about the back of 8pm, as much as I love going on tour, I love coming home just as much, especially since I was so tired! The tour was definately the best one so far, the shows have been amazing, incredible setlists and most importantly, I've been getting to hang out with some of the best friends I have even known. Roll on Las Vegas baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pics of me and my friends and some of the shows - http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v114/Metallicat180/Metallica 2009/
Part two of my Metallica tour started pretty much the same was as the first part did, with a train ride down to Birmingham to meet up with Andy. Met up at the train station and went back to his to hang out until it was time to pick Kat up from the rehearsal show at the NEC. It was pretty much the exact same night as before the Nottingham show a month ago. Wasn't as far to travel for this show which was good. Got to the NEC, parked up and headed into find everyone. Walked past the queue of people and Lee spotted us and ran up to say hi. We were having a meet up in the Wetherspoons inside so we all sat down to have a drink. Then started wondering where everyone was as people were getting texts saying that they were in the pub but were nowhere to be seen! Eventually we found out there was another Wetherspoons right at the other end of the complex. So when we eventually find the right pub and Rattle and a couple of other people were there. Pretty much everyone who was meeting up with us went to the wrong pub first!! We had a great time hanging out together. Just before she had to go, Kat came over to me and Barry at one point and whispered in our ears "I just saw Tony Iommi backstage!" which had me thinking they had to do a Sabbath cover that night!! The right pub was shutting earlier so we had to make the 10 mile journey back to the wrong pub anyway! That journey was eased by the set of Nuts magazine stickers that someone found so Pete got the "I'm a virgin" sticker, Andy was the "Official boob inspector" and Gav got the "Slaphead" and "I Love Boobs" ones!! Someone was rushing past us on the moving floor and as she ran past Pete stuck the "100% nuts!" one on her back which cracked me up completely for a good couple of minutes!! When we were back at the wrong pub, I was waiting in a line to get a drink and Scuzz was playing on the big tv above the bar. The guy in front of me turned and asked me if I knew who it was and I told him it was Five Finger Death Punch. Then he asked me if this was my first Metallica show - the look on his face when I told him that it was my 20th show was a picture!!! Hahaha!! I pointed to our little group outside the pub and told him that if he wanted to meet some veterans, to come back with me once I'd got my drink. I think they were rather amazed at how "dedicated" we were!!! He wouldn't believe that Pete was in his late 30's, saying that he thought he was about 27! I think that made Pete's night!!!
After we knew The Sword had finished, we made our way into the arena and pretty much just walked up to the barrier in time for the mighty Machine Head!!!!!!!!!!!! Metallica should not have awesome support bands cos my voice and neck was buggered even before Metallica hit the stage!!! Once again, I'd managed to get myself a great view of the man, the master - Mr Dave McClain! Watching him play drums is a joy - he makes it look so effortless! The crowd for MH were excellent - really loud!! Imperium and Halo being the usual highlights of their set for me - I roared every word! We were having great banter in the break between MH and Metallica with some very "interesting" topics coming up!! The things we do to amuse ourselves! Haha!! When Heavy Metal Thunder started, the crowd started cheering really loud. I was suprised that most knew what that signified. I still miss A Long Way To The Top cos that just built up the excitement so well. The Ecstasy Of Gold is always a goosebump moment, nothing will beat that song as an intro. The boys run out onstage into That Was Just Your Life followed by The End Of The Line. What I love so much about Metallica shows is that you never know what you what you're going to get next. After that it was Creeping Death straight into Ride The Lightning and both sounded immense! Time for my usual torrent of abuse again as One started. I am never gonna live that one down!!
After Broken, Beat & Scarred, James was saying that they were eventually going to play every song from Death Magnetic and then the guys ripped into My Apocalypse for the first time ever! It was heavy as fuck and I loved every second of it live!! Sanitarium was a nice surprise back in the set and I always love to hear Blackened live! We'd noticed at the start of the gig that the godfather of heavy metal, Mr Iommi was sitting on a flight case in the guitar pit. Everyone was chanting "Tony! Tony! Tony!" at sporadic points throughout the show and he would turn round and smile at us and give us the thumbs up or the horns. Apparently some footballer called Andy Townsend was there too and some people started chanting "Townsend! Townsend!" too!! Haha!! James was talking about heroes who came from Birmingham and then they started playing the first ever concert performance of Hole In The Sky!!!!!!!!!!!! The only other time that was played was after they inducted Black Sabbath into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame. It was superb!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian Tatler some of the other guys from Diamond Head was also there and were honoured by a performance of The Prince. One of my favourite covers so I loved hearing it live again! Seek & Destroy closed once again with beach ball madness which is so much fun to watch. Kirk threw out some picks where we were and Muffin and two other blokes were having a big fight behind me for them. I just looked down at my feet and was like oh there's a pick and casually bent down and picked up and then oh look there's another one and into the pocket whilst these guys were having a huge fight behind me!! Haha!! After the gig we went back to Andy's to try and get some sleep before having to head up to Glasgow.
Birmingham Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Creeping Death
Ride The Lightning
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Hole In the Sky
The Prince
Seek & Destroy
Beach ball madness during Seek
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...allica 2009/?action=view¤t=SDC16747.flv
There always has to be one point in any Metallica tour where we have to get up at stupid o'clock and the morning of the Glasgow show was this one. We were flying up at about 9am so were at the airport quite early. Got up to Glasgow and dumped our stuff at the hostel before setting off for the Solid Rock Cafe. It's a bit wrong when someone in a bar in Glasgow of all places tells you that you're starting early when ordering a pint!!! Haha!!! Fair enough, it was about 11am but there you go!! It was quite quiet in there to start with but got busier and busier as the day went on. We just hung out and had some lunch and were soon joined by Garry and Ruth. As I shook hands with Garry, he said to me "Were you at a Maiden Scotland gig at the Catwalk??" to which I replied that I was and he said that he remembered me down the front singing every word!! He thought I was a relation of the band!!! I was completely gobsmacked that he remembered me cos that gig must have been well over a year ago. Kat had to shoot off to deal with the meet and greet stuff so we were left in the pub. Some drunk guy was standing at the back air guitaring and singing along to all the Metallica songs that were blasting out - he was having the time of his life!!! My voice was gone and I was deaf even before we'd left the pub! We'd been talking about various Metallica stuff throughout the day and one of the topics was songs you'd like to hear live. I'd said that the two songs that I would die to hear live but am never going to hear are Trapped Under Ice and The Outlaw Torn.
Eventually we decide we better head to the venue. Saw David standing outside and ran up to give him a hug, scaring the shit out of him in the process cos he didn't see me amongst all the other people. We all hung out for a bit before heading in. We walked in just as Machine Head's intro was starting, promptly lost everyone and so me and Andy thought sod it and tanked it into the pit. They were on fire!!!!!!!! The crowd were very into them. I knew the Glasgow crowd wouldn't let me down!! Managed to have another little fangirl moment when Robb Flynn sang the first verse of Davidian at our mic (why the fuck couldn't he have done that in Manchester when I was on the goddamn barrier!!). I was absolutely knackered after their set! We didn't have to wait long for the boys to come on. Even from the first note, the crowd went mental and there was loads of pushing and shoving but they were very into the new songs which delighted me. After Life and Line, James does his usual "We've found out what goes really good with the new stuff - the old stuff!" speech and then into Bells. The place just EXPLODED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never seen a reaction like that to any song at any of the Metallica gigs I've been to. Me and Andy were jumping about like nutters!!! It was followed by a rare gem - Of Wolf And Man which also got a great response. My Apocalypse got its second live airing and sounded even better than Birmingham. I loved it when they started playing Turn The Page again. One of my all time favourite covers and I didn't think I would be lucky enough to hear it once, let alone twice!!! Me and Andy got very excited when the intro to All Nightmare Long started cos we absolutely love that song and much prefer that one to Judas Kiss (even tho I love that one too).
Fight Fire With Fire was another song that got a fantastic reaction and sounded heavy as fuck! During Nothing Else Matters I got a text from Kat saying "Look who I'm standing with!" as she was watching the show from the sound tower. I couldn't really see at first but then all I saw was tattooed arms and a big blonde head and thought thought no way, Adam Duce?!? I texted her back and she said yes it was and that all the Machine Head guys were watching the show with her. Jealous?? Me?! Never!!!! I always love it when it's encore time cos you really have no clue of what's coming next!! They came on jamming to The Small Hours which sounded great and Kirk looked like he was really enjoying it. They only played a minute of so of it and then we were suprised with Die, Die My Darling which I'd not heard since Donington 2006 and it sounded so much better without a wasted Pepper Keenan going "DIE DIE DIE!!" all throughout the song!! Haha!! Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for what was coming up next tho. James was asking the crowd "Do you feel special tonight Glasgow??" and they started playing TRAPPED UNDER ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as that first riff started, my jaw just hit the floor!!!!!! Once I had gotten over the shock, I was going mental, jumping about, headbanging and screaming it like a fucking loon!!!!!!! I just could not believe what I was hearing especially since that song had only been played live four times previously. Seek closed again and everyone was going nuts for the beach balls. After the show, I spotted Al in the crowd and went up to him to him and screamed (or should that be croaked!!!) "TRAPPED UNDER FUCKING ICE!!!!!!!!!" and he just gave me a hug saying "Did you enjoy that then??" Haha!! I knew a million and one people going to this gig and lost them all at one point!!! My brother and sister were at the gig and I didn't see them at all!! After losing another couple of people I just texted them all saying, "I'm outside, come and find me!" cos I wasn't running here, there and everywhere to try and find everyone. Met my cousins Abby and Heidi after the show and they were so excited about being there cos they didn't even have tickets until the Tuesday when I'd managed to find them some extra ones. Then I gave them the picks I'd got in Birmingham and they were just so made up about that! And I think I've convinced them to come to the Las Vegas show in December! Hell yeah! We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back to the hostel, or the pub should I say. We all had great craic afterwards. Me and Garry really hit it off, especially about Maiden, so everytime they were mentioned Andy was like "Oh great, off they go again!!" We all stayed up till about 4am talking until we passed out only to be rudely awakened by the fire alarm going off at about 9am - which had me and Kat wandering down Jamaica Street in our pyjamas!!
Glasgow Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Of Wolf & Man
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
Turn The Page
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Die, Die My Darling
Trapped Under Ice
Seek & Destroy
Our flight wasn't until mid afternoon so went and got some food before heading to the airport. Andy headed back to Birmingham and me and Kat were heading back to London. Met Ade at the airport and went back to their place. We were all just chilling out and planning on having a quiet night in preparation for the mad day ahead of us. That plan went completely out of the window when Alan (Machine Head's tour manager) phoned Kat asking if she would help him be extra security tonight cos James and Lars were going to see Discharge at the Camden Underworld. It was only through me and Ade insisting that she decided to go. Claire and Stu arrived after they'd left and we just sat talking until Ade got back from dropping her off. We watched Machine Head's Elegies dvd and were getting updates from Kat as the night went on. We had a much later night than planned so were all knackered the next day. Set off about 11am or so to head into London. After every set of traffic lights being against us, we eventually made it to the Intrepid Fox which is the best pub in the world! It was quite quiet when we got there and the whole day was spent hanging out with the most awesome people in the world!! I had so much fun seeing everyone again. We headed over to the O2 about half 4 ish and met up with everyone again in the Slug and Lettuce for some much needed grub before the show.
Once again, we waited until The Sword had finished before heading into the arena. Walked up to the front in time for Machine Head and once again they were in danger of blowing Metallica off the stage (well, almost!). I couldn't believe it when Robb walked up to the mic and said "This is a song we've never played live before - off the album The Blackening, this is SLANDEROUS!". It was killer!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love that song!! After that, I saw Robb had his red BC Rich and knew what was coming next. He asked if anyone here liked a band called Iron Maiden and of course everyone roared they did. Then they started playing Hallowed Be Thy Name and Pete said to me as the song started, "Oh well, there goes my neck!" Hahaha! We did go quite mental for that one, arms round each other jumping and singing every word. They do such a fantastic version of that!! As much as I loved hearing Slanderous, I did miss Beautiful Mourning in the set. You can't have it all tho. After Machine Head I went to the toilet and then got roped into helping do some recruiting for the UK Torn, speaking to various random people in MetClub shirts.
Finally the magic moment arrives again and it was great to have all of us together rocking out. We were all headbanging and singing to every word. I was wondering what the song would be after Life and Line tonight and was not disappointed as we got Harvester Of Sorrow!!!!! I always love that one live. Straight after that Lars started playing the drum at the start of Justice and I thought he was just jamming on it but then everyone joined in and it sounded SO cool how it seamlessly went from one song to the other. During My Apocalypse I was rocking out, enjoying the song when I got tapped on the shoulder and Dave took a photo of me and Muffin. It wasn't until everyone started pissing themselves laughing that I realised that I'd just been "muffined", argh!!!!!!!!!! (seriously, you don't want to know!!) After that I could not stop laughing for the rest of the song. It was so funny!!! The highlight of the entire tour (and possibly my life!) came next. The guys kicked into a song that I never thought I would ever hear in my wildest dreams - The Outlaw Torn!!!!!!! I turned and looked at Pete and Kat in disbelief, then just burst into tears. They both gave me a hug and Kat said to me "This is a dream come true for you isn't it??" and all I could do was nod cos I was so in shock. It was everything I'd hoped for and more - I just completely lost myself in the song, savouring every single note. Nothing was ever going to top that one but the rest of the set was damn good with Judas and Fight Fire in there again. For the encores, I was expecting a Motorhead cover and we got one in the shape of Overkil!!!. Much kudos to Lars during that song cos he double bassed it the whole way through and totally nailed it!!! Aftter that James did his "Did you say Kill 'Em All?" speech and I was expecting something like Whiplash, Jump In The Fire or Motorbreath. It was like all my Christmasses and birthdays had come at once when they started Hit The Lights!!!!!!!!!!! Another song that I had been absolutely dying to hear for years!! I went so mad during that song and think I gave myself brain damage!!! Haha!!! Seek was just as insane as the other shows and it was so funny seeing people trying to carry out these HUGE beach balls twice the size of them!
London Setlist
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
...And Justice for All
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
The Outlaw Torn
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Overkill
Hit The Lights
Seek & Destroy
We decided to hang around after the show so we could let the traffic die down a bit. Met up with Garry who'd unfortunately had seats and me and him just couldn't stop talking about how awesome Outlaw was - as it's our favourite Metallica song. After a while, a few of us decided to go into the Indigo club for a drink and we watched a bit of the Guitar Hero Metallica thing they were doing on the stage. I finally got to meet the infamous Alan as well. When we finally left, the traffic was much quieter and we headed home. I was so tired that I passed out right away. The next day Claire and Stu gave me a lift to the airport and I met up with Garry again who was also flying home that afternoon (on a different flight sadly) and we talked about how awesome the show was again. Finally got home about the back of 8pm, as much as I love going on tour, I love coming home just as much, especially since I was so tired! The tour was definately the best one so far, the shows have been amazing, incredible setlists and most importantly, I've been getting to hang out with some of the best friends I have even known. Roll on Las Vegas baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pics of me and my friends and some of the shows - http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v114/Metallicat180/Metallica 2009/
