I suppose a good place to start would be with a ten year old named Lars Ulrich living at the time in Copenhagen (Denmark).
The year 1973 and Lars went aking to see his first Hark rock concert, the band DEEP PURPLE. After this he was hooked and began collecting albums like Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple.
He got his first drum kit in 1976, but at the time he was becoming a very promising young tennis player, his father was a Famous Tennis Pro.
Four years later, he had to sell his kit and moved to Los angeles with his parents so he could concentrate on his Tennis skills. That did not stop him as he soon bought a new drum kit.
At this time (1980) he was addicted to the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal), some of his faves included Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang, Budgie, Angel Which etc...
He tried to find someone at this point to play a few songs but failed, but he did put a ad in a Music magazine called Recycler, to which one JAMES HETFIELD answered. James and Lars did meet up to jam but nothing became of this first meeting. Instead in the summer of 81 he went to the UK to follow Diamond Head.
On his return he secured a deal to record a track for the Metal Blade compilation 'Metal Massacre'. Due to the fact he didn't yet have a band he quickly began contacting people.
The
members he managed to find where:
Drums: Lars Ulrich
Vocals, Rhythm Guitar and Bass: James Hetfield
Then Lars managed to steel the name MetallicA from a friend (Ron Quintana) who was putting together a magazine and was also looking for a name.
The track 'Hit the Lights' was recorded for the Compilation album, also at this session the following covers where recorded 'Killing time' by Sweet Savage and 'Let it loose' by Savage.
On the original pressing of this album the bands name was mis-spelt MettallicA.
James's flat mate at the time Ron McGovney (after james had taught him to play) filled in on bass.
In april 82 they re-recorded Four tracks 'Hit the Lights', 'Mechanix', 'Jump in the Fire', 'Motorbreath'. This new version of 'Hit the Lights' appeared on the second pressing of 'Metal Massacre 1'.
On the 25 May MetallicA played a gig at Lars's high school (Backbay High School) managing to almost empty the hall.
On the 28th May they played as a five piece for the first time with Jef Warner on vocals (luckily this didn't last). The next important event was in july 82 the famous 'No life til Leather' demo was recorded. This demo was never official released but spread like wildfire. This Demo inclued the following 'Hit the lights', 'Mechanix', 'Motorbreath', 'Seek and Destroy', 'Metal Melitia', 'Jump in the Fire' and 'Phantom lord' and the lineup was.
* Drums: Lars Ulrich
*
Vocals and Rhythm Guitar: James Hetfield
*
Bass: Ron
McGovney
*
Lead Guitar: Lloyd Grant (just for the solos)
A few weeks later Lloyd Grant left to be replaced by a guy called Mike and then by Dave Mustaine.
In August 82 a band named Trauma played the Wiskey a Go-GO with a basist named Cliff Burton.
With the new guitarist Dave Mustaine on the 29 November they played at Old Waldorf, SF with support from a band named EXODUS with one Kirk Hammet on guitar, this was the first time they met.
A day later they played the last gig with Ron on Bass at Mabuhay Gardens. They soon afterwards asked Cliff Burton to join, hearing this Ron left the band...
In Feb 83 Lars, James and Dave all relocated to San Fransico which is where Cliff lived.
March 83 saw them of on the road on a journey from SF to New York to play a number of dates organised by Jonny Z of Megaforce records.
During this journey Daves drinking problems where getting a bit out of hand. So they on the morning after they played a date in Vandenburg supporting VENOM they asked Dave to leave. Meanwhile Kirk was already on his way over by plane to replace him.
They spent the rest of april playing gigs.
In May 1983 they went into the studio to record the first album 'Kill Em ALL' produced by Paul Curcio. Originally this album was to be called 'Metal Up Your Ass'.
In July 83 the album was released and MetallicA went out on the road for a two month tour with Raven for the 'Kill Em All For One' tour (the raven album at the time was 'All For One').
During October-December they spent there time writing new material for the next album 'Ride the Lightning'.
In Febuary 84 they went on tour in europe with VENOM starting in Zurich Switzerland and covered Germany, France and Belgium and finished with the Aardshock Festival in Zwolle, Holland.
During this tour the Britsh Label Music for Nations released the 'Jump in the Fire' Ep to Co-incide with the tour.
After this tour they went back on tour in europe supporting Twisted Sister.
The Album was released at the remainder of 84 and most of 85 was spent on tour, including the gig Donington 85 and the day on the Green Festival in SF US.
During this tour MFN released the 'Creaping Death' EP which included two covers namely 'Am I Evil' and 'Blitzkrieg' originals by Diamond Head and Blitkreig respectively. On the original pressing Blitzkrieg was misspelt Blitzkreig.
From September 85 to December 27 85 the band where in Copenhagen again recording the third album this time with the producer Flemming Rasmussen.
In early March 86 'Master of Puppets' was released and MetallicA where of again on yet another tour, this time supporting OZZY OZBOURNE in the US.
On June 26, James broke a wrist in the infamous Skateboarding incident. During the rest of the tour James sang with his arm in a sling and John Marshall (a MetallicA Roadie) stood in on guitar.
On September 26 James played his first gig in a while on guitar again, but later that night on the way to Copenhangen tragically Cliff Burton was killed when the bus driver hit a black ice that was on the nasty bend of the road, throwing him through the window.
Rather than giving in though the band quickly began auditioning new bass players. The one they choose was Jason Newsted whose own band Flotsom + Jetsom had recently release the album 'Doomsday For The Deceiver'.
The band soon entered the studio not to record an album but to record an EP of covers to break in JASON. The Ep was the '$5.98 EP Garage Days Re-Revisited'. They played a few dates including the Donington 87 festival.
After this, was studio time again, but Flemming wasn't available so they record 2 covers which no one produced (Breadfan, The Prince).
Once Flemming was available they started working on Album 4 at the 'One on One' Studios in LA.
Preceding the album was an Ep the 'Harvester of Sorrow' which included the two previously mentioned covers.
The album was to feature the last ever material written by Cliff Burton (To live is to Die) and was followed by the band first ever Promo Video 'One'. 'One' was released in three versions.
The band soon started of on the 'And Justice For All' tour during which a single 'Eye Of The Beholder' was released in the US and FRANCE. The tour included an full stage set which was made up of a statue of liberty which exploded and collapsed (wow...) during 'And Justice...'.
The tour was over 2 years long and during 1990 they returned to the UK to play 4 shows without any stage set.
Following November 90, MetallicA enter the studio to record the Fifth album, 'MetallicA', 'The black album' or whatever else you want to call it, this time with the producer Bob Rock.
Preceding the album was a single 'Enter Sandman' which included 'Hoolier..', a SANDMAN demo and 'Stone Cold Crazy'.
Stone Cold was previously available on a ELEKTRA 25 year compilation.
On August 12 1991 it was finally released and began to sell rediculous amounts. Leading to 5 Singles, a double Live CD + three video package a Double Video and 3 years worth of touring which was only halted on 8 August 92 in Montreal when James was burned in a pyro accident.
In 12 95 the band went into the Plant studio in Sausalito, California, where they recorded 18 tracks due to appear on the new album. Again, Bob Rock is producing.
In 25/05/96 a huge Metallica listening party was held on the second day of the DYNAMO Festival in Eindhoven, Holland. Metallica's album, Load, was played through the PA at the festival site for the 60,000+ audience, making this the largest listening party held, ever!!
Two band members (probably Lars and Kirk)were at the festival site to present this event, to give interviews, and to promote the new album. Load was released a whole week earlier in Holland than the rest of the world, to make it possible to be sold at the festival. Therefore, Eindhoven was blessed not only with hosting the world premiere, but also with the release of the album for the first time anywhere in the world!
Our four guys spent time travelling around the world to promote the new album. They conducted numerous interviews, and organized huge listening parties where they would set up a truck full of speakers and play the new album, then sign some autographs for the fans. This occurred all over the world; in the States, Europe, Australia and Japan.
The video for Until It Sleeps was shot at locations around and in Los Angeles in May 96.
In 11/06/96 Metallica played live for the entire world, via the Internet. The broadcast site was Slim's, a small club in San Francisco, where the Webcast crew beamed the show across the globe, live as it happened, in spycams, music, video, pictures and descriptions.
Then they recorded the live video of Hero Of The Day in Barcelona, Spain. They weren't using a recording, and 5 seconds before each of the 3 times they played the song, a metronom was introducing the band to the required rythym, and the beeps of it sounded throughout the whole audio system at the stadium. Also, Kirk got 3 or 4 notes wrong on the intro during the first attempt. Moreover, Lars asked the crowd to be more energetic in each one of the new versions they played. So, by the third try, it sounded louder than hell!
Metallica recorded 3 live songs for the TV program "Later With Jools Holland," on the British channel BBC2. Wasting My Hate, Mama Said (James only acoustic) and King Nothing were performed completely live, with no playback.. It was broadcast on November 16th.
On 14/11/96 Metallica was introduced to perform King Nothing live on stage at the MTV Europe Video Awards show. The lights went down and the band launched into the song Last Caress followed by So What? A few classic minutes of television to savour. The band was nominated earlier that evening, in the "Best Rock Video" catagory, but the award went to the Smashing Pumpkins. James later said in an interview: We needed to wake people up at the show! We felt it was a little boring, and we had been daring each other to do that for years.
The single Mama Said was released world wide on 18/11/96.
On 26/01/97 Lars got married to his long time girlfriend Skylar.
On 27/01/97 Metallica played "King Nothing" on the American Music Awards and won the price for best metal/hard rock album. When they went up to accept their award, Lars said, "I would like to thank this man, James Hetfield, for putting on his best suit and being my best man at my wedding last night."
MORE TO COME ...... I HOPE
NOTE: Metallica logo was originally designed by James. The name MetallicA was stolen by Lars from Ron Quintana who was at the time putting together a fanzine, MetallicA was one of the possible titles for the zine. The intro the band have used live in the begining is "Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone, from the movie "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
Ok i didn´t write this myself, so sue me...
I stole it from Gospis Metallica Site which is a great site whom you if you´re a real Metfan GOT TO visit!!!