Metallica

The band Metallica was formed on October 15 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Starting at the very beginning on February 10 1962 Cliff Burton was born. On November 18 of the same year Kirk Hammett was born. On March 4 1963 Jason Newstead was born. On August 3 James Hetfield was born and on December 26 Lars Ulrich was born. These are the main members in the band Metallica.
It was 1977 when Jason Newstead formed his first band Diamond with Kevin Kendrick, Todd Smiedendorf and Tom Depoy in Niles, Michigan U.S.A. it was also in this year that the Newstead family relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the September of this year James Hetfield started his first year at Downey high school and befriended Ron Mcgovney who would latter become the first bassist in Metallica.
In 1978 James Hetfield joined his first band Obsession with Jim Arnold, Rich and Ron Veloz. 1979 was the year when James's mother passed away and this led to the family relocating to L.A California.
James formed a band called Phantom Lord in 1980 - 1981 with Jim Mulligan and Hugh Tanner. It was also in this year that James first got together with Lars Ulrich. This happened after replying to an advert in local paper the Recycler where Lars was advertising to find like minded musicians. This lead to the infamous falling cymbal and bad playing experiences. James felt that he couldn't play with Lars at his current skill level.
Ron Mcgovney joined Phantom Lord which renamed to Leather Charm but the band fell apart when the drummer and guitarist left. It was in this year that Lars persuaded friend Brian Slagel to include a band he could get together to have a slot on a heavy metal compilation LP that he was producing. Lars approached James with the idea of forming a band but this time with the offer of getting a song onto a record  which would become the "Metal Massacre L.P".
The band METALLICA is formed on October 15 1981.


On October 31 Jason Newstead and Tom Hamlin relocate to Phoenix Arizona from Kalamazoo, MI.
1982 was the year in which Metallica really took off by the end of the year they would have played their first headlining gig, changed their bass player, recorded four demo tapes and had their first appearance on an official record (Metal Massacre).
The first demo that Metallica produced was recorded in January of 1982 it was a one track demo of Hit the Lights Lloyd Grant overdubbed the guitar solo. In March the band recorded their second demo it was a three track demo one original song, the second version of hit the lights and 2 cover songs killing Time / Let It Loose. The band recorded this demo so that they could get the opening slot with Saxon at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in California.
It was on March 14 that Metallica played there first gig at radio city Anaheim in California. The demo that the band recorded proved to be worthwhile as they got the slot opening for Saxon and played there on March 28.

In April Metallica recorded their third demo tape untitled but later to be called "The Power Metal Demos" this demo tape was four original songs the 3rd version of Hit The Lights, The Mechanix, Jump In The Fire and Motorbreath.
Metallica's only appearance as a 5 piece happened on April 23 with Damien Phillips (aka Jeff Warner). James did not want to have to sing and play guitar so the band were looking for a vocalist. James Hetfield played his first gig on rhythm guitar on May 25 at Lars High school at Back Bay Costa Mesa California. It was at this point that Dave Mustaine joined the band he came to replace Lloyd Grant and played lead guitar, the joining with Dave Mustaine brought the band allot more equipment which they needed at that time.
It was on June 14 that the Metal Massacre LP was released it was Metallica's first appearance on an official record the first release of the LP contained a few mistakes though the bands name was miss spelt Mettallica and Lloyd grants name was misspelled as Loydd Grant. Brian Slagel did not have the money to reprint the sleeves and they had to stay as the were.
July 6 marked the start of the recording of the No Life Til Leather demo tape which contained the songs Hit The Lights (version 4), Seek And Destroy, Motorbreath (version 2), The Mechanix (version 2), Jump In The Fire (version 2), Metal Militia and Phantom Lord. This demo was funded by High Velocity Records

Metallica played their first San Francisco gig at the Keystone on September 18. On November 11 the band played at the Woodstock in Los Angeles supporting Y&T but it was on November 29 that Metallica played their first headlining show in San Francisco with Kirk Hammett's band Exodus opening for them. Ron Mcgovney played his last gig with Metallica on November 30 it was at Mabukay Gardens in San Francisco. It was only on December 10 that Metallica and Ron Mcgovney parted company though.
December 28 1982 was the day when Cliff Burton joined Metallica after persuading them to relocate to San Francisco, this was Cliff's deal for joining the band. This led to Metallica musically reaching a stage they may not have reached if Cliff had not joined the band his influence was immediately noticeable.
1983 was the year that Metallica really made an impact. They moved to San Francisco during February and played their first show on March 5 at the Stone a now legendary venue for Metallica. Kirk Hammett's band Exodus opened for them on what was to be Cliff Burtons first gig with Metallica. It was on the move from LA to SF that the band got a little bit, too personal a view into Dave Mustaines life style. It was decided as soon as they reached SF that they needed to have a new guitarist they already knew Kirk Hammett and it was decided to replace Dave with Kirk. On April 1 Kirk Hammett was asked to join the band. Dave Mustaine played his last gig with Metallica on April 9. It was only on April 11 that the band actually told Dave he was out of the band and gave him a coach ticket back home to LA.

Metallica Members

James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Rob Trujillo

Some Songs