From the Attic: March 27th, 1984, Metallica's first show in the UK at the Marquee + Hell on Earth tour poster

Even with the disappointing ticket sales still looming and the eventual cancellation of the UK Hell on Earth tour featuring The Rods, Exciter and Anthrax, Metallica of the days of yore were still able to squeeze one show in at the legendary Marquee and thus, play their first date on UK soil.  Here is the flyer for that show that happened 31 years ago today.  For those interested, this show is available on a number of bootlegs (both cd and LP) and there are also some great photos out there for this show.

The flyer for the show

While we are on the topic of the cancelled Hell on Earth tour dates it seems like a good time to also pull out this poster for the cancelled tour.  This Hell on Earth Tour poster is also one of the first commercially available "mall" posters of the band that could be found, thus there are a few different versions of this one.  The earliest ones seem to be the ones with the white border like mine.  I bought this poster in my local mall in either 1986 or 1987, but this particular copy is a replacement that I bought off of another collector as that one is long gone.  I do not recall if mine had a white border or not.  This is easily one of my favourite Metallica posters largely because of my own personal nostalgia associated with it, but also because it the design of this one is absolutely great.  I have wanted to frame this one for awhile, and will eventually get it done.  

A funny memory I have regarding this poster is that when we were kids one of my friends hooked up two lights that blinked in time to the music of his stereo and placed the two red bulbs in the demons eyes, it looked pretty wild to our young impressionable minds.  A fire hazard to be sure, but still pretty cool.