Gig report - it's a long one!!!
Sick Of The Studio Tour 2007
Report
London – Wembley Stadium, 8th July 2007
The first leg of my Metallica tour started on the 7th of July this year. I travelled down to London to meet up with my friends and catch up and relax before the show the next night. We all met up in a pub called The Intrepid Fox and it was great meeting old and new faces alike. A few of them had been to see Metallica performing at Live Earth that day so they joined us quite late. A good night was had by all and I wondered if some of them would get to the show judging by the state some of them were in!! The next day we all headed off for the stadium in good spirits. It was a glorious day and the stadium looked incredible – it is HUGE!!! We made a quick stop at the t-shirt stall to buy some shirts and then headed off for lunch. During lunch we kept getting texts from Kat who was doing some work for MetClub saying stuff like “I just met Robb Flynn”, “I just met all of Metallica again” etc making us all very jealous! Hehe!! We’d waited until about 4pm to go in so we wouldn’t have to wait ages in a queue to get into the stadium. When we got in, it looked a lot smaller than it did from outside. The first band on were Mastadon but none of us were paying that much attention to them, it was just awesome hanging out with everyone and chatting. At one point Marc took a piss in a pint glass much to everyone’s horror, then he put it down on the floor and every time someone walked past it we were cringing just incase it got kicked over. Eventually it did which was greeted by an uproar from us all. A big circle had formed around it and then some poor girl walked over and decided to sit down – right where it had been spilt!! Yuk!!!! After that disgusting but highly amusing incident was Machine fucking Head!!! It was supposed to be Bullet For My Valentine but they had to pull out because the singer got tonsillitis so Machine Head were added to the bill, much to everyone’s excitement!!! They kicked ass and got an awesome response from the crowd with circle pits going from the first note to the very last. After them was HIM. Now, I’m a big HIM fan but even I know that putting them on the bill (especially after Machine Head) was an extremely stupid thing to do. They did not get a good response at all. They were getting very loudly booed and heckled after every song and I felt really sorry for them. I was standing watching them singing along to all their songs, getting the piss royally taken out of me by my mates. I didn’t care cos I was enjoying them. When they’d finished we went down the side to the pit entrance to watch from there and got a great view. They opened with Creeping Death and the place erupted!! From that, they went straight into For Whom The Bell Tolls which I’d not heard since 2003 and it kicked ass – me and Marc were in full voice, headbanging and air guitaring to that one. I always seem to get emotional at Metallica concerts and when they played The Unforgiven, I just started welling up and spent the entire song in tears! I just couldn’t stop!!! After that, they started playing the intro to …And Justice For All and I got so excited cos that’s one of my top ten Metallica songs of all time!! I was singing my heart out on that one. The crowd were so loud and so into the show – The Memory Remains was a prime example. They were singing the “Na na na” bit at the end and carried on and on and on and on!! They look on the band’s faces was brilliant!!! A song I’d wanted to hear for ages was The Four Horsemen and they played a killer version of it!!! During Rob’s bass solo, the security manager came up behind me and said, “Not such a great view here.” to which I said something like that it was the best I could do at the moment. He then took me out of the floor area, slapped a pit pass on my wrist and sent me back into the front pit!!! I ran in and got right up to second row in time for Orion!!! I was so happy to be in the pit – I had a fantastic view!! A song which really took me by surprise was No Leaf Clover, I really didn’t expect to hear that one. The highlight of the entire show (and indeed the whole tour for me) had to be Whiplash. When they started playing it, I started hugging the guy in front of me and screamed at him “I’VE BEEN WAITING FUCKING YEARS TO HEAR THIS LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. I think I scared him at little cos he shit himself when I practically jumped on top of him!! Hahaha!! The Wembley gig is definitely one of my favourite shows EVER!! The band was on top form, the setlist was incredible and the crowd were awesome!!!
Wembley Setlist
Creeping Death
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Sad But True
Disposable Heroes
The Unforgiven
...And Justice For All
The Memory Remains
The Four Horsemen
Orion
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Battery
- - - -
No Leaf Clover
Nothing Else Matters
One
Enter Sandman
- - - -
Whiplash
Seek & Destroy
Oslo – Valle Hovin Stadium, 10th July 2007
After the Wembley show, we just spent the next day chilling as we were flying out on the day of the Oslo show. As we were coming into land in Norway, I looked out of the window and it’s just all trees! After we checked into the hotel, we headed to the gig and after seeing what Wembley looked like, it was a big disappointment. It’s not so much a stadium, but more like a car park!! The day was just spent mostly hanging out with friends who’d travelled over to see the gig. We had a great time just chatting together. For each show, they’d made special shirts with a logo on the front specific to the country and the date of the show but because Oslo’s so expensive, I thought I’d just wait and get one from the internet cheaper after the tour. That plan was buggered when they sold out within a couple of hours, if that. Supporting on this show was Turbonegro and HIM again. I was very surprised with Turbonergo, they were very good. I really enjoyed them. HIM got a cold reception once again, but nowhere near as bad as Wembley. When we were waiting for Metallica, we noticed Kat up on the side with her camera waiting to film the show for MetClub once again. We were jumping up and down, shouting and trying to get her attention and eventually she saw us and filmed us for a bit on her camera!! During the show I managed to get separated from my friends so spent the show on my own once again. I wouldn’t normally mind but the crowd was so dull!! There was one guy in front of me who was singing along to a few songs, but on the whole everyone was just staring blankly at the stage. It was irritating seeing no movement whatsoever – especially during rarer stuff like Justice and Whiplash. The band themselves played great but the crowd killed the atmosphere for me.
Oslo setlist
Creeping Death
Fuel
Wherever I May Roam
Disposable Heroes
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
...And Justice For All
The Memory Remains
No Leaf Clover
Orion
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Battery
- - - -
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters
One
Enter Sandman
- - - -
Whiplash
Seek & Destroy
Stockholm – Olympic Stadium, 12th July 2007
We had a little wander around Oslo before jetting off to Stockholm so we got to see some of the city. It was very expensive so couldn’t really afford to do much. When we arrived in Stockholm, we got the train to our hotel and after a Spinal Tap moment where we couldn’t find our hotel which turned out to be right beside the station, we managed to check in and go for some food. The hotel lobby was very impressive looking - the rooms weren’t. The words prison cell spring to mind – they were tiny!! We didn’t need luxury tho – a bed, shower and toilet were all that was required! After that we went to the Hard Rock Café and stuffed ourselves stupid. Desert was so good we had to take a picture of it!! Haha!! Onto gig day now! We wandered off to the stadium in the afternoon and as we were going to join the queue, Neil spotted some other clubbers that he knew so we just slipped in beside them. This stadium was much more impressive than Oslo’s. It was built for the 1912 Olympics and looked like a Medieval castle!! When we got in, I made sure to buy one of the Stockholm event shirts asap so I could get one before they sold out. After that we headed straight into the pit. Neil and Andy wanted to go back and forth to get beer and food but the front was quite quiet so I made my way up to second row and stayed there for the whole show. After what seemed like an eternity, HIM came on. They were the only support act this time and didn’t get a good response once again. I was the only one enjoying them by the looks of things. By the time Metallica came on, it was getting much more crowded at the front. The crowd were slightly livelier but not much. Highlights from this set were Ride The Lightning, which I’d not heard since 2004 and Justice cos I clearly remember singing along with James to that one. There was an annoying woman next to me who was filming the entire gig on her phone. After a while, this started really pissing me off cos she wasn’t singing along, clapping or doing anything to show she was enjoying the concert. I hate people like that!!! It was a great gig tho – the dude in front of me fell over the barrier in the scramble to get Lars’ stick. Lars was kinda shocked by that and kept mouthing to security, “Is he ok?” but the guy was just over the moon to have got his stick!!
Stockholm Setlist
Creeping Death
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Ride The Lightning
Disposable Heroes
The Unforgiven
...And Justice For All
The Memory Remains
No Leaf Clover
Orion
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Whiplash
- - - -
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters
One
Enter Sandman
- - - -
The Four Horsemen
Seek & Destroy
Helsinki – Olympic Stadium, 15th July 2007
We had a few days off before the next show so that gave us as chance to be tourists. We had a good look round Stockholm before flying off to Helsinki. When we got to Helsinki, our hotel was right by the bus stop and five minutes walk from the venue and local rock pub – result!! We went out for dinner to an American style restaurant called Chico’s and one thing we do a lot when we’re on tour is to rate albums/songs, go through each album listing favourites etc but this time we were talking about what song’s we’d take off each album. We were talking about St Anger and Andy was talking about Invisible Kid. He was saying how he didn’t like it, then started singing the tune but just making weird noises and the waitress came up to him to ask if he was ok. It was absolutely hysterical!!! I guess it was one of those “you had to be there” moments but we were cracking up!!! Next day was the full on tourist day so we had a good nose round the city, took a harbour cruise and bought some souvenirs. I wanted a Finnish flag cos I’ve always wanted to go to Finland so I bought one of those. Then we went to the rock pub called Rock Town to meet up with the Finnish Metallica chapter. We partied into the small hours with those guys – they were awesome!!! I got cornered by one Finn who insisted on telling me his life story, but he looked like a young Duff McKagan so I didn’t mind one bit!! Hehe!! Later on, there was a cover band playing and our corner of the pub was by far the loudest. You know you’ve seen Metallica too many times when you sing all the live ad libs for every song – and we knew them all!!! On the day of the gig, it was raining which put a dampener on my mood early on. Luckily by lunchtime it had stopped and it was starting to dry up. Mark and Timo had gone to wait in the queue quite early cos they wanted pit passes. I’d hatched a plan in case I didn’t get one cos I knew they were silver and the Wembley ones were silver as well so I took my Wembley one with me just in case. Kat, Andy and Neil went to the pub before the gig but I went to find Mark and Timo in the queue. I bought a Helsinki shirt first cos I knew they’d sell out quick. The queue was massive and I never thought I was going to find them, especially since they’re quite short. After about 15 mins looking around the queue I finally managed to spot them and squeezed in beside them. An hour or so later the doors opened and it was quite a crush with people pushing and shoving but eventually we got in. None of us were concerned about getting to the front, we just wanted to stand back in the pit, get a great view and enjoy our last stop on the tour. Apocalyptica were meant to be supporting here but unfortunately they had to pull out, much to our disappointment cos they’re awesome!! So a local band called Diablo was put on the bill and they seemed to get a great response from the crowd. HIM was on the bill again and seemed to get a slightly better reception, probably because they’re from Helsinki. At least everyone was clapping politely after every song, not booing. It was nice to watch a show with my friends again, instead of on my own. Kat was doing the filming again and had texted Andy saying “Killer setlist tonight” and all throughout the week were talking about wanting to hear Breadfan and Kat had mentioned it to the band so I had convinced myself that’s what we were getting. Going from Creeping Death into The Four Horsemen was awesome!!! Ride The Lightning was played once again, much to me and Mark’s excitement. It was great standing round with each other, rocking out, singing and headbanging with each other. When they started playing Whiplash, we knew we’d get a different song before Seek & Destroy because they’ve been playing either The Four Horsemen or Whiplash before that and we’d already heard them both that night. That further convinced me of Breadfan. So when it came time for the last two songs, I was very hyped up. I was SO disappointed when they started playing Am I Evil because a. I’d hyped myself up for Breadfan and b. I don’t like that song very much at all. It was still a great show tho! Afterwards we went back to Rock Town to see the Finnish chapter and had a few drinks before saying our goodbyes.
Helsinki Setlist
Creeping Death
The Four Horsemen
Ride The Lightning
Disposable Heroes
The Unforgiven
...And Justice For All
The Memory Remains
No Leaf Clover
Orion
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Whiplash
- - - -
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters
One
Enter Sandman
- - - -
Am I Evil?
Seek & Destroy
We all had an absolute blast on this tour (affectionately dubbed the “Drank ‘Em All tour” by Andy and Neil) and one thing I know is that we’ll all be back to do it again next year!!!
“Show is through, the metal’s gone – it’s time to hit the road! Another town, another gig – again we will explode! Hotel rooms and motorways – life out here is raw but we’ll never stop, we’ll never quit cos we love Metallica!!!!”
Photos and video to follow - I have over 400 photos and 15 videos to sort out so it might take a while!!!
This time me and my equally nutty Metallica friends will be heading to London, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki!! I'm so excited!! I just hope the weather holds out for all the show, especially England cos it's been under a dark cloud since about May!! 
