Acting Like A Maniac

I saw Metallica for the first time at Milton Keynes Bowl on 5th June 1993, but this story actually starts the previous evening.

Myself and my friends Alan and Sean were travelling to the concert on yet another coach/concert/discomfort deal similar to those I've blogged about previously. We met on the Friday night at Alan's parents' house and I sensibly had a case of Labbatt's with me. A few of the cans were sunk and we went to the pub. The plan was to return to the house at 10 and get some sleep as we had to be up at 4am to catch the bus. Not surprisingly, this didn't happen.
We left the pub, hammered, at 11:30 and returned to the house with kebabs. We then began a serious assault on the beers whilst doing some "revision" for the concert. By 2, I was drained so decided to get some sleep. Out of consideration, Alan plugged two sets of headphones into an adaptor and then the stereo so as not to disturb me. You know when you listen to music with headphones? You turn it up, don't you? A lot. Guess what happened five minutes after I fell asleep? Alan turned round to grab a beer and the headphones were pulled out of the stereo, blasting me awake with what must have been 1000 decibels of Ride The Lightning. I don't remember exactly what I said at this point, but I imagine it was something tame like "oh dear".
Sensibly, I then decided to continue drinking heavily instead of sleeping. We may all have dozed off at some point, but I don't imagine anyone slept for more than half an hour. Everyone got ready (we applied deodorant under the clothes we'd been wearing the previous day) and we made our way to the bus. With the rest of the beers of course.
The bus tour is a bit of a blur to be honest, and not just because it was nearly 20 years ago. There was beer, there was whisky, and there was an incident when someone stubbed out a cigarette and got ash in their mouth while we were listening to Megadeth's Ashes In Your Mouth (not sure if that last one was true, but someone swore it happened). I've no idea how long the journey took, but it was a miracle we could even stand up when we got off the bus.
The venue was massive and there were easily 20,000 metalheads milling around. We passed the time by getting some burgers and attempting to soak up the superhuman quantities of alcohol we had consumed in the last 16 hours or so. The burger nearly came down my nose when I spied a sweet stall with a gigantic sign stating that it was owned by George Rogers Confectionery (you couldn't make it up).
When the music finally got underway, we soon realised that getting close to the stage wasn't a great idea as the crowd surged in a variety of directions at once, making it difficult not to get trampled to death. We stood along the side of the arena and watched Diamond Head. I soon realised that Metallica can play Diamond Head's songs better than Diamond Head and was a little disappointed.
Next up were The Almighty and I can't honestly say I remember anything about them, so we'll assume they were shit.
Megadeth's Dave Mustaine claimed that "the bullshit between Megadeth and Metallica is over" (it wasn't, so he was either high or just lying). Someone had clearly tampered with their sound as they seemed to be only playing at half the volume of the previous bands. It was a solid set and they even played a new song that was going to be in the film Last Action Hero (remember that box office sensation? exactly), but I was left feeling a little deflated by the band who had been my biggest heroes only a couple of years previously.
Hangovers were dangerously close to kicking in, so the beer tent beckoned. While knocking back warm, overpriced, awful-tasting beer, I saw the most drunk man I've ever seen. I know this to be true because I was perhaps the most drunk I've ever been and he looked really drunk to me.
Metallica were predictably brilliant, playing for well over two hours. Unfortunately, due to the beer tent antics and the distance to the toilets, I think I heard about four times more than I saw. It all sounded really good, though. The Four Horsemen heard from inside a portaloo is simply fantastic. Luckily, someone had got their mother to tape the concert which was broadcast live on Radio 1, so I got to listen to it all a few times sober at a later date.
The trip home on the bus was a nightmare of thirst and runny poo.
My experience at this concert served very much as a warning to not drink heavily at concerts, as I felt like death for a couple of days afterwards. Did I learn from this? No.