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Meet and Greet
After the cancellation
of the meet and greet at Donington (Due to obvious reasons, rehearsing new
drummers etc) I thought my dream would never be realised, however,
Metallica’s most awesome fan club gave us people an opportunity to meet
the band if we were going to another show on the tour, luckily I was, to
Gay Paree, which brings us up to speed.
With a sexual and meaty
amount of Metallicaworld in tow with me, Steve, Ed, Cads and Hector
arrived at the venue having spent a day in the heart of Paris. After a few
stressful moments thinking I wouldn’t make the Meet and Greet in time,
my fears were squashed when we arrived at the Met Club stand to be greeted
by none other than our friend Matthijs. After a substantial wait it was
time for our names to be checked off on the list, after slight confusion
as to why my name wasn’t on there all became clear when I explained that
I was a Donington meet and greet winner (or as Lars later joked, A
Download reject!!!). Once we all had our meet and greet passes (not as
sticky as I’d like really, although to be fair I still would have been
worried about it flying off if it had been sewed on!!) we made our to the
backstage area where we stood in a corridor in a row. At this point I was
so excited yet very nervous, I was shaking quite a bit which is weird for
someone like me as usual I’ll stay calm in such situations.
After a short wait, Rob
was the first to come out, he was a great guy, I welcomed him to the
Metallica family, which he seemed grateful for, although to be fair I
think a few thousand people make him feel pretty damn welcome every gig
they play!! We had a chat about the Donington show and other stuff and
posed for a few photos. He signed the stuff I wanted signed and he moved
on down the line. I was still shaking, it is very difficult to maintain
calmness when you’re looking into your idols’ eyes and shaking their
hands, it is quite surreal. The next person down the line was James, for
this I was now very scared, I’ve admired James greatly over the years
and now was my time to actually meet him. He was, again, a really, really
nice guy, good fun and really friendly, to be 100% honest, I can’t
remember the specifics of the conversation, in a way it all felt like a
bit of a dream, but we chatted about the tour and Donington and the
inclusion of Rob in the band, it was absolutely amazing to meet him,
something I shall never forget. The next person I met was Kirk who was a
really, really top man, a really calm person, again we chatted about some
stuff, the tour, about how much he enjoyed playing with Joey and Dave at
Donington. It felt like I’d met Kirk before in a way, he was really open
and friendly.
After this there was a
gap of about 45 mins while we waited for Lars! We were informed he was on
his way but he kept bumping into friends!! Good ol’ Lars. When he
finally came out he was cracking jokes with people and generally having a
lot of fun. When he came to me we had a good chat and I asked him if it
was possible to play a couple of songs, my requests were No Leaf Clover
and I Disappear. To this he replied that this wouldn’t be a problem.
After signing my stuff and posing for a photo (which didn’t come out
perfect due to the fact that I was half way through explaining to the guy
taking the photo how to use my camera when the snap was taken) he
continued down the line. I found Lars the easiest to meet, not to say that
the others were at all difficult because they weren’t but something
about Lars’ enthusiasm was admirable. Another thing I should add that I
found extraordinary was that when you spoke to the band, you were the only
person in the world to them at that moment, no-one else, just you, it made
the whole experience more special and more meaningful.
The Show
This show was the
seventh time in a year that I have seen the tallica, which has been
amazing because I have been able to see them evolve and turn into a well
oiled touring machine, the set was as tight as ever, Blackened, the finest
Metallica opener, followed by a high octa-y-ne Fuel firmly kicks your ass.
The highlights of the show for me was when they played I Disappear, one of
the songs I had requested, Lars spotted me in the crowd and was singing
the lyrics towards me, and at the end of the song he came out from behind
his drum kit half way across the stage and was pointing at me with his
metal face on, fucking amazing, he did this also at the end of No Leaf
Clover, this time he was looking at me with a face that said “ha, ha,
there you go, I said we play them!!” This was absolutely amazing, my
most amazing Metallica experience, the fact that they played the songs,
the fact that Lars even spotted me in the crowd, the fact that he was
giving out the love towards me…incredible. Absolutely unbelievable, as
Steve said when he met them at Rock Am Ring, I’m not sure if I’ll ever
get the same experience from a Metallica show all rolled into one ever
again. Just as I’m thinking that they finish off their blistering set
with an unexpected by huge duo of Dyers Eve (FUCK!) and the metal singsong
that is Seek and Destroy. A massive thank you to Metallica for being
amazing people and playing a monster of set (With my requests in there!!)
and to Cads, Steve, Ed and the Hectorial for an amazing trip to Paris.
CHEERS TO
METALLICAWORLD ON TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I
shouldn’t neglect to say a big thank you to Robert Reisinger of the Fan
Club for looking after us in Paris, after we helped him count ticket stubs
from the show for Metallica’s accountant, by giving us plectrums,
set-lists etc, and also to be able to see Rob Trujillo walking down the
same corridor on his way to the after-show party, just when I thought I
would never be that close to Metallica ever again!!!! Cheers Rob Reisinger)
Olly
Smith 2004
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