My Top 10 Metallica Gigs

1. Milton Keynes – Nowhere Else To Roam Tour - 5/6/93

My 1st open air gig with Metallica,1st time I ever heard Of Wolf And Man followed by some true golden oldies like The The Thing That Should Not Be and Disposable Heroes. Was near the front for most of the gig.

2. Madison Square Gardens, NY, USA - S & M (Symphony & Metallica) - 23/11/99

Metallica in NY with an Orchestra and Michael Kamen conducting....nuff said. A once in a lifetime trip/gig. They only did this show 4x times, twice in San Fransisco to record the CD in April, '99. Then 2x gigs in Germany and the US to promote the CD

3. Manchester G-Mex - Wherever I May Roam Tour - 3/11/92

I was so blown away by my 1st gig,,that the day after I bought a ticket and coach package for the G-Mex. 2nd gig in the space of 3 days, 1st gig standing,,only 2 or 3 rows from the front. It was mental,,moshing and headbanging.

4. Wembley Staduim – Sick Of The Studio 07 Tour – 8/07/07
Great venue, Metallica rocked, great support from Machine Head

5. Sheffield Arena - Wherever I May Roam Tour - 1/11/92
1st Metallica gig,way back in the stands, but hey ho,,,amazing gig from the black album era, with the arrowhead stage and snakepit.

6. Milton Keynes - The Big Day Out - 7/7/99

As part of the covers CD Garage Inc tour. This was a great gig with Whiskey in the Jar and Until It Sleeps followed by Battery to close the gig. a superb venue

7. Donnington – Escape From The Studio Tour - 26/8/95
4th appearance at the home of Heavy Metal, very rare performance of The God That Failed and Holier Than Thou. I Can remember thinking how good it was to finish with Enter Sandman and started making tracks to leave and then to hear the guitar and obscenities of So What come booming out of the PA. I started headbanging with the biggest smile, playing air guitar and singing along to this great song.

8. Reading Festival – Blitzkrieg ’97 Tour – 24/8/97
Took a coach down with my sister to reading for the weekend.

9. Sheffield Arena - Pour Touring Me Tour – 16/10/96
Up in the stands again, great gig, memorable stage design and the theatrics near the end of the gig. Crewmen were falling out of the light rigging. It really did make you thing if there was danger a foot. What with Hetfields real life accident of walking in front of a pyro in 1992. Maybe this should be higher in the top.10 as I didn't forget this one. Strangely for this tour they retired Ennio Morrricone's Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and just came out jamming.

10. Leeds Festival – Summer Sanitarium Tour - 24/8/03
St.Anger rocked out and one of the best Kirk Hammett solos I have heard him play for Enter Sandman.

Spiritually I was at Woodstock ’93. BBC Radio 1 broadcast the whole festival and that included Metallica's headline set on the Saturday night. I can remember listening to it at about 3 or 4 in the morning, outside with some cold beers in the warm night air. It was great. They blew me away when opened up with Breadfan.

I would like to see Metallica in a few weeks at the Leeds Festival,,however I am on a stag do,,and quite frankly I am tired of seeing them outdoors and at festivals. I will save my money for the indoor tour in 09, hopefully they will play some gigs north of London.

Me and a few Metallica chums outside Madison Square Garden.

If it wasn't for the Metallicaworld website I wouldn't have been able to confirm dates and the setlists of my top 10.

http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/metallica_tour_dates.htm