Earl’s Court, London, October 12, 1996. Metallica are playing Enter Sandman to 20,000 baying fans when things start to go spectacularly wrong with their enormous stage set. A roadie high in the lighting rig gets electrocuted and falls from the gantry on the end of a rope. Another catches a flare and goes up in flames, running across the stage as he burns.
Suddenly, the entire stage set begins to collapse around the band, and they’re hastily ushered off to safety. A few minutes later, they come back on and begin playing Am I Evil? through small amps, huddled close together amid the wreckage and lit by bare light bulbs. It’s a headfuck for everyone watching.
It takes a few minutes for it to become clear what is happening. This is a stunt, one that will close every show on the 125-date Poor Touring Me jaunt. With the internet still in its infancy, word of this epic prank hasn’t spread. It’s a masterclass in punking an entire audience.
Ironically, that’s what some say Metallica did with that year’s album and its follow-up, released 18 months later. Those two records were a world away from their old thrash metal sound and even more mainstream than the world-beatingbaffling and enraging a large chunk of their fanbase at the time – astate of affairs compounded by the band’s new short-hairand-eyeliner image. Twenty-five years after the release of that era remains the most contentious period of Metallica’s career.
