From the Attic: Guns 'n' Roses and Metallica August 17, 1992 B.C. Place

They said it would never happen.... and they were right, it never did happen, at least not here in Vancouver.  This  rare poster was for a concert that never ended up taking place at BC Place in Vancouver, BC.  The show was cancelled after James had the unfortunate pyro incident in Montreal and was never rescheduled.  Until today I was not positive if a poster for this show was ever printed, but alas here it is.

The Show that Could Not Be

Scanning the Metal Scene in Vancouver. Rare and Unseen photos from the 80's

Recently I met an underground scene veteran from the old days and it was a lot of fun listening to her stories of the shows she attended in the early and mid 80's.  Oddly, after arranging to meet up so I could buy a few things she was selling off of her, I found out she was the sister of a friend of mine.  I also found that like her brother she possessed a wealth of information in regards to the old Vancouver live underground scene and was happy to share her memories and her own personal perspective.  In addition, and much to my delight she sent me some photos she had taken from some of the shows she attended.  After seeing the photos I knew that other people should see them, so I asked permission to share some of the photos that she had taken during the 80's.

None of these photos have been posted anywhere on the net until now and I am very pleased to show them now.  She did a great job of capturing the feeling of those times with her camera and she appears to have been a natural at securing great live shots.  Again I want to thank Rakayla for sharing these great pics!

Randy Piper (WASP)  at the New York Theatre, Vancouver B.C.

Blackie Lawless and Chris Holmes (WASP) at the New York Theatre

Blackie Lawless and Chris Holmes (WASP) at the New York Theatre

Mark Gallagher (Raven) at the New York Theatre, Vancouver, B.C.  March 22nd 1985 

John Gallagher (Raven) at the New York Theatre 1985

Mark Gallagher (Raven) at the New York Theatre 1985

A real cool shot of Helix at the New York Theatre

Yellow and Black Attack!
Michael Sweet (Stryper) "To Hell With the Devil" tour
 (ah, cough, cough move along, there is nothing to see here folks)

As she had decided to let some of her stuff go, I was able to get this nice Iron Maiden Back stage pass and an autographed Steve Harris ticket stub.  Both from Maiden's December 9th, 1984 stop in Vancouver.  

In addition, she was lucky enough to get a plectrum at the 1985 Metallica show in Vancouver which she still had all these years, realizing even back then, this was no ordinary Dunlop!

Black Album Tour: Still Roaming

Recently I got this attractive black album anniversary limited poster in the mail.  These were sold at the shows in Europe where Metallica played the entire black album and are apparently limited to 200 copies.  Mine is numbered 84 of 200.  Can't really go wrong with Pushead artwork and the attractive silver on black design.  This one is from the show in Warsaw, Poland.  Personally, I find it hard to believe that these are that limited, but until I see more evidence i'm unsure.

 

Still Roaming!

A few old ones in my collection:

A lot of the original black album tour posters and flyers were pretty boring, especially the USA ones as they were for the most part just a variation of the one below.  The first one is for the kickoff of the Black Album world tour, which I suppose the band had no idea was going to last so long!  The special tapers section was a pretty cool idea at the time and not too surprising for a band that was always pretty forgiving to sneaky recorders that lurked in the audience.  Unfortunately, this show was the premiere of the Justice medley... oh the horror, the horror of the dreaded medley.

An Evening With Metallica

This next one a pretty rare one from their stop in Istanbul, Turkey at the Inonu Stadium.  The Pushead art featured on this poster is a welcome addition and makes for an attractive souvenir.   I forget the name of the guy that traded me this poster from Turkey, but I would like to thank him again as it made a nice addition to the collection.  If by any chance you see this, cheers mate!  I hope to get you that beer in Vancouver one day that we also talked about.

Are We Still On the Road?

Clive Burr (March 8 1957 – March 12 2013)

Sad news today regarding the death of a legend.  One of the most telling things about Clive Burr is that he was never forgotten by fans, even those who were too young to ever see Maiden with him.  Unfortunately, I never got to see Clive play in person, but the albums he played on are THE Maiden albums.  Watching the "Live at the Rainbow" VHS for the first time as a kid was a life changing moment and Clive was one of my heroes.  R.I.P. Clive Burr.

It seemed fitting to spin his his most defining moment tonight

From The Attic: Metallica / Tank December 3rd, 1984 Mannheim, Germany Poster

Here is a poster that requires very few words.  It is a very rare poster from Metallica's short tour in Europe where they headlined for the first time.  This poster is from their stop in Mannheim 28 years ago today.  Tank were the opener and I can't think of many better bands to support Metallica on the Ride The Lightning tour.  If anyone out there has never heard Tank do yourself a favour and track some of their early stuff down.

Beginning to creep across the land...

This is a beautiful piece and one of the most desirable posters by collectors and fans alike.  They are very hard to find in any condition, mine is pretty good, but very fragile.  I will restore it in the future, but for now it is safely resting in a frame.

Worth noting, I should mention that a few years ago I purchased Tank's Don't Walk Away 45 on ebay a  from a seller that had it listed for a very good price with a few other 45's.  The seller turned out to be none other than Metallica's former fanclub head and Northwest Metal founder KJ Doughton.  Turned out he was selling a lot of nice and rare items so I grabbed as many as I could and he was nice enough to throw some stuff in since I bought so much.  A great guy and a pleasure to deal with.

As shown by this 7" record, Tank have one of the coolest names and logos 

in the history of metal

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, B.C. Nov 11, 2012 Review

When I arrived downtown, the night started in typical drunken Vancouver concert night fashion. Within 5 minutes of arriving downtown I bumped into an extremely intoxicated man in a Neil Young t-shirt.  He was wearing a very nice vintage Crazy Horse shirt, but he appeared to have had one too many wobbly pops on this particular evening.  He was having a hard time navigating his way through the pub (The Kingston) that we stopped at for pre concert beers, and the show was still about two hours away.  It is probably safe to assume that the guy didn't make it past security at the Arena, which would have been a shame given his cool shirt and obvious long standing fanhood.  An inexcusable rookie mistake, but perhaps he does not get out much anymore.  Oh well, looks like he had fun up to that point anyway and the night was off to a good start, "Keep on Rockin' In the Free World"  I guess.  To avoid being called a hypocrite, I must admit I missed an entire Poison Idea gig because of this kind of pre-show nonsense once, but I was only about 22 and never made that mistake again.

(photo by Lord of the Poser Holocaust)

Knowing the deafening volume levels of Crazy Horse and Neil Young, I was planning on skipping this show as I am working my way into semi retirement regarding concerts and gigs.  Years of playing in bands and concerts have damaged my hearing a bit and I would rather save what is left of them for my own jamming and messing about.  I figure I have been to over 250 shows, probably seen 500 or so bands and it is just sort of time for me to be more selective in picking artists I have not already seen in most cases.  Anyway,  I was offered a free ticket and we are talking about Neil Young with Crazy Horse, so it was a no brainer to change my plans and make an exception.  It was a bit weird watching a concert from a luxury suite high above the masses below, to say I felt detached from the action while sitting with the rich would be an understatement, but I will not complain about a free ticket and just say that it offered me an interesting new perspective.

Canadian born Neil Young is almost 70 years old (in fact it was his 67th birthday at midnight) and even after his diagnosis in 2005 of a brain auneryism is showing no signs of slowing down or turning down.  Those expecting a nice country inspired mellow set from Mr Young would be sadly disappointed, this was not a greatest hits setlist for casual fans, the first tip off to any complainers should have been the fact that it was a Crazy Horse show.  Instead, what we got was a no holds barred maelstrom of distortion and noise with a few classic songs thrown in for good measure.  The carefully controlled feedback and distortion at times served as segue between songs and was so loud that one could be forgiven for thinking they were at a Throbbing Gristle concert.

While some may feel ripped off by the lack of "hits", one woman even complained that if she "wanted to listen to jackhammers and construction tools she would have stayed home to listen to the construction site across from her house".  The truth is this was Neil Young at his best playing for himself, his bandmates and his die hard fans, but I guess you can't please everyone and especially not casual fans.    If you came to see a great performance, one could not have been disappointed by the chemistry between Crazy Horse and Neil Young as it was amazing and proved yet again that they can still rock and roll with the best of their peers and are probably the best of all of them.  In fact Neil Young and Crazy Horse are still a better live act than most if not all younger bands, displaying more energy on stage than bands half their age, not to mention the energy is genuine, un-choreographed honest emotion which is sadly something a lot of newer bands could take a lesson from.  Neil Young plays and writes songs because it is something he must do, not because he wants to sell entertainment and with Crazy Horse you get uncompromising rude rock and roll.

The night started with a redition of the Canadian national anthem and was immediately followed by a brilliant 20 minute jam of 'Love and Only Love'.  Other highlights within the two hour set were 'Powderfinger', 'Ramada Inn', a real crunchy toned 'Cinnamon Girl' and a perfect version of Mr Soul. The lack of pyro was quite refreshing after Metallica's recent Vancouver 3-D pyromania.   Instead, the music did all the talking with the stage show being little more than the giant amps and road cases which you come to expect at a Neil Young stadium show.  Other than that a minor light show and a bit of trash blowing in the makeshift wind.  An additional nice touch were the retro tube style TV screens that he uses on the left and right side of the stage.

On a final note it was absolutely stunning how few people there were at this concert holding up their smart phones and other nerd devices.  It really was incredible!  With the exception of a bit of a cell phone frenzy during 'Cinnamon Girl', the most I counted being used at once was just over 10 in the entire building being used!  I felt like I was transported back to a wonderful long lost place in the the past where people were not slaves to their telephones, rather, it was just a handy device to use when at home.

Neil Young was already one of my favourite artists, but after this show my respect and admiration for the man grew even larger.  A masterpiece of a concert experience that I only wish I would have had better seats for.  Absolutely brilliant.


The entire Setlist:

Love and Only Love

Powderfinger

Born In Ontario

Walk Like A Giant

The Needle and the Damage Done

Twisted Road

Singer Without A song

Ramada Inn

Cinnamon Girl

Fuckin' Up

Mr Soul

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)

encore

Roll another number

From the Attic: Metallica 1992 Gent, Belgium poster

Was going through some posters tonight and I happened to notice that this poster was for a show that happened exactly 20 years ago today.  This was sent to me by a German trader that told me this was his first Metallica concert.  It is a pretty cool poster from that era, as lots of the posters from that tour are pretty boring and there are also quite a few counterfeits from that era on the market as well.  Like most of the the German posters this poster from Belgium is on pretty thin paper and thus these European posters are very susceptible to creasing and general wear.  However, this one in my collection is in great condition.

It is worth noting that I am pretty sure that this was the first show to be played after the tour with Guns and Roses.  It was also the first show with James back on guitar after his pyro accident in Montreal.  Hard to believe all of this was 20 years ago... On another somewhat related October note, it is even harder to believe that it has already been two years since the Big 4 tour and box set was released.  The box was release October 2010.

"Time has taking its toll on you, the lines that crack your face"   

Flanders Expo, Gent, Belgium