From the Attic: Metallica Promo Poster circa 1986 and cancelled dates poster 1986, RIP Cliff Burton.

Cliff Burton would have been 50 years old today. Amazing how time flies. I still remember the day I found out he died, I was walking to school and a metal friend called out at me from his window with the bad news as I walked by his house.  It was a shock, my heroes seemed immortal and the news that one had fallen seemed unreal.

The following promo poster hung up in the local record store around the time of Cliff's unfortunate death and it is the holy grail of Metallica promo posters and quite hard to find. I had asked for it from two different record stores in 1986 and was rejected as someone else had asked first. In an effort to help me, my mother even asked a record store that was next to her work, but still no go. It took me over 20 years to finally get this poster in excellent condition and I must thank my friend Aaron for helping me end my search. It is a great poster, but I never understood why they did not include Kill 'em All. I suppose that Elektra did not have everything sorted out with Megaforce yet, I don't know. Anyway, I think this is a great shot of the band during what I still think was their best era, enjoy!

Also from my collection is this nice poster with the German cancelled dates for the shows Cliff never had a chance to play due to his untimely death. A nice poster, but a sad reminder of the dates that never happened.Both of these posters will go for framing soon.

I never met the "major rager on the four string motherfucker", but I did manage to meet his father which is the next best thing. Ray Burton is a very kind man and great guy. I really enjoyed talking to him about his son and I am very grateful to have had the experience. I also should thank Mike Bordin for taking the following photo.  He took the extra effort to make sure the photo turned out right which was very kind of him.  It was one of those moments where you are incredibly happy, but also too stunned by the excitement to smile.  Oh well, I was smiling inside.