Metallica. Few bands in the metal world evoke such excitement when they announce a gig, so when the ET crew learned they’d be playing at Twickenham it was no questions asked, we’re going. With tickets bought, fast forward to June 2019 and the ET crew are disembarking their train at Twickenham station and making the short walk to the George pub on Twickenham’s queen street. For this outing, the ET crew were joined by two honorary members, T and D. With a table secured, it was time for the warm up to begin. Several pints of various beverages were sunk, with the ET crew getting into discussion with some fellow Download goers from the week before.
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| Suitably Hydrated |
Soon, it was time for the pre gig feed (with hindsight we should have done this before going to the pub) so over the road to KFC it was. Two sharing buckets ordered between the 4 of us, perfect pre gig food. Unfortunately, the poor staff somehow got the orders all mixed up and the ET crew were soon provided with a bag containing not 2, but 4 sharing buckets! Settled a table with enough chicken to feed the entire Twickenham stadium twice over, the group decided to try and be charitable and give some away. Most declined (we can take a hint, no one likes four steaming metal heads offering food, their loss) but a few helped to clear the chicken pile.
Suitability fuelled up and with the beer and chicken mixing
nicely (horribly) it was time for the short walk to the stadium with the obligatory
cans from the nearest off license. Unfortunately, some bright spark at the
council didn’t seem to realise 80,000 metal fans were due to descend on Twickenham
on this Thursday night, so the road leading up to the stadium was open with
fans trying to cram onto the far too narrow pavements. This meant that the walk
took nearer half an hour as opposed to the usual 15 mins. On arrival and with
the woefully slow Twickenham security checks it was time for D and T to head up
into the stands to take their seats and for E and T to head onto the pitch.
This is where the next thing goes wrong. A horrendous queue to get pitch
wristbands and onto the pitch with a battle-axe of a Steward blaming the fans
for arriving too late. Clearly an hour before Metallica were due on is excessively
late. Once onto the pitch E and T managed to secure a decent spot on the far
side.
With the clock nearing Metallica’s stage time the ET crew
were finally looking forward to a hopefully now stress-free evening. But no. The
Twickenham stewards excelled themselves once more. It turned out they’d not
been checking wristbands and tickets correctly and had let non pitch ticket holders
on meaning the pitch was now too full. Their solution? Prevent legitimate pitch
ticket holders from entering. Not surprisingly this didn’t go down well and
soon the crowd were shoving left right and centre. Eventually this all calmed
down, but sadly this for E as a Twickenham regular for Rugby was another
classic example of Twickenham’s usual incompetent stewarding. Perhaps they
should take lessons from Wembley who seem to be able to manage larger crowds…
Anyway, onto the actual gig! With the sunsetting and things
on the pitch having finally clamed down, the anticipation was building. Then,
the intro to hardwire came over the speakers. The atmosphere moved up a notch
and then on they burst! The classics kept on coming with Ride the lightning, Sad
but true, No leaf clover and Master of puppets all featuring. The setlist,
whilst divisive for some, was right up the ET crew’s street and put the rest of
the evening’s problems well out of sight! Following an encore of Lords of
Summer, Nothing Else Matters and finally Enter Sandman, Metallica left the stage
with the ET crew pumped up and ready to continue drinking!
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| UK Metallica! |
Hoping for a speedy getaway so the drinking could continue the ET crew made their way to the exit, but Twickenham’s stewards weren’t done yet! Instead of allowing everyone out through the large tunnel the entered through, they decided to close it and send everyone up into the stands and through a tiny exit. Many angry words were had with the stewards from the crowd with the stewards taking their usual stance of blaming the fans.
Finally, out of the stadium, it was a short walk towards
Whitton and the Prince Albert pub, a pub E uses on Rugby match days. The crew
surprisingly managed to get a table and with D and T joining E and T, pints
were ordered and the evenings events. D and T encountered equally as incompetent
stewarding in the stands, but with it all being seated, it was much less
noticeable. We also learned that special beer cups had been produced of which D
and T had secured a whole load. Result!
Whilst enjoying our pints, sprits and other beverages,
someone in the pub started playing a violin! This was then joined by another
one! Turns out Thursdays in the Prince Albert is Irish music night! What a contrast
between the two!
With the clock nearing 1am and the pub closing and with no late-night
premises in the area, the ET crew decided to call it a night and a taxi was
ordered to take E and the two T’s back to the Royal Country with D biding us
farewell to catch his night bus home. With
traffic light the ET crew were soon home and munching toast in E’s kitchen.
By the ET crews’ standards, this was a fairly tame post gig
session, but the gig, minus all its issues made up for it!
E
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