Cliff day and nasty surprises that await ticket collectors

Today's entry due date (26 September) was to be dedicated to Cliff Burton, who 29 years ago was killed in a bus accident after a concert in Solna, Sweden. The occasion for this was supposed to be a ticket from last Metallica concert with Cliff, who managed to "finally" get it. Ticket… which turned out to be fake. So, Cliff Rest In Peace (Thank’s God Cliff was REAL) and today's entry will be devoted to the nasty surprises that await ticket collectors in the network (I write as an example but not only my own experiences).

R.I.P. Cliff Burton

First of unlucky ticket from Solna (Sweden) September 26, 1986. At first everything looked fine. I discovered auction in the "last minute" and before bidding I saw the ticket only on my phone not on a computer screen. Description however, clearly said that the ticket is the original and the other old tickets offered by the same seller convinced me that this is an old fan selling off part of his collection. I knew less or more how the ticket looks and what I saw on the phone was enough for me to bidding. As it turned out it was a mistake but I learned about it only when I received ticket and posted scan at TMCC forum. Proud as a peacock I wrote under the photo that I became a happy owner of a real evergreen (because in fact this ticket is evergreen …. when it is original). Posts befriended collectors and pictures of their tickets quickly brought me to the ground. Judgment sounded - Buddy You bought a FAKE. It hurt but a man learns life.

Fake ticket ....

....and real evergreen (from Mike "butchamet" collection)

Below about how unpleasant surprises may lurk for you on the Web.

1) Fraud. This is a situation with which we deal in the case described above. You buy a ticket, whose description clearly introduces you into error and from the accompanying pictures cannot be said that you are dealing with a fake. In addition, the seller not answer your questions ...  but much you care on the ticket and the problem ready.

2) Concealment of relevant information #1. The ticket (Madrid, Spain 19-06-1993), which was looking for a very long time. In the end, he appeared on sale somewhere in Spain. The description and picture were OK ... I did not pay attention why the picture shows a ticket from edge to edge, no background. After opening the envelope, it turned out that the seller did not mention anything about the fact that the ticket is laminated. Of course, it was the original ticket but laminated. From my point of view as a collector ticket has no value ... maybe as a bookmark.

This is what You see at ebay

This is what You get

3) Concealment of relevant information # 2 – Ticket from Louisville, USA 25-07-1986. A similar situation as above except that we are not dealing with laminated ticket. In this situation, neither the description nor the image is not made me any suspicion. Well, it turned out that the ticket is glued to thick cardboard. I do not remember how many hours I spent holding the ticket on the steam to loosen it from the board. All for nothing. Amazingly the person (other collector) from whom a ticket does not see anything wrong with that. Remember, always ask for photo ticket on both sides, or at least ask if there is to glued to something.

This is what You think You get

Oupssss .....this is what You get

4) Wrong description – Ticket from Atlanta, USA 09-09-1986. The average Metallica fan wanting to be in possession of a souvenir from Cliff era could get caught on this "bargain". Ticket described as being from Ozzy Osbourne / Metallica Tour in 1986. However, the average fan may not know that this Tour ended August 3, 1986, and ticket for which I am writing is from September 9, 1986. In addition, it can confuse us that most of tickets from that tour no mention of Metallica.

 "Real bargain" (pics stolen from ebay)

5) Incomplete ticket. Part of the American tickets from the 80s and early 90's had a specific narrow, oblong shape (different than the typical tickets from Ticketmaster). Those were the times when the tickets did not have bar codes and at the entrance to the concert portion of the ticket was simply peeled off. Often, together with part of the ticket, which contained information about the date of the concert, venue, etc. In the case of purchase of such incomplete ticket (sometimes it is only a small part as in my case) we rely then on the description of the seller, who sometimes misses the truth . Remember when I bought at eBay Ozzy Osbourne ticket from summer 1986 US tour and seller wrote in description that this is probably the ticket from the Ozzy Osbourne “Bark at the Moon 1984 Tour” but he wasn't sure. He was sure the ticket came from the concert, which took place in Portland. It was a half of a ticket without date and venue details. At that time I used Metlist site as a main info base - info from this site was clear - Ozzy played with Metallica in Portland June 25, 1986. Later I discovered that this is Ozzy ticket from 1984 not 1986 and not related with Metallica at all . At metallica.com June show in Portland not exist and probably Metlist info was wrong.

What year and venue ?

Other incomplete tickets from my collection

6) Lot tickets. Rather frequently in my case the situation when the auction relates to a lot of tickets and the seller does not provide in the listing specific dates.  In general picture shows a large number of tickets and in addition is blurry. We only know that there are some Metallica tickets. Often, I am buying such lots hoping that among the tickets is something I'm looking for. Mostly there are tickets that already have in my collection. In the end, somewhere, these nearly 150 duplicate tickets in my collection came from.

Are there any Metallica tickets in this set ...or aren't

New shit in my collection #12

Many new tickets went to my collection recently. Today, the first part - the glory of the old days.

Very special ticket in my collection. At this gig Metallica played for the first time ever live Fade To Black. 09-02-1985 - Aragon Ballroom (Chicago)

All other tickets presented today come from the Damage Inc. Tour during which Metallica played as a support act for Ozzy Osbourne. On this tour the band was finally able to reach a wider audience. The tour lasted from April to August 1986 and was sadly the last Metallica tour in the United States with Cliff Burton. At all concerts Metallica performed the same set of songs:

Battery

Master Of Puppets

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Ride The Lightning

Welcome Home / interchangeably with Fade To Black

Seek & Destroy

Creeping Death

Am I Evil

Damage Inc.

01-04-1986 - Kemper Arena (Kansas City)

It was the second concert of the Damage Inc. Tour. Together with the ticket cameramen pass.

06-04-1986 - Mecca Arena (Milwaukee)

08-05-1986 - Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Special Events Center (Austin)

20-05-1986 - Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Phoenix)

02-08-1986 - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Columbia)

A week earlier, James broke his arm while riding a skateboard and in Columbia  he just sang. On this part of the Tour during US leg and Europe James was replaced by John Marshall from Metal Church.

New shit in my collection #11

The first ticket is from the Metallica tour with Ozzy Osbourne, from show which took place in 1986 in San Diego. The ticket is not in perfect or even good condition, and far away from full ticket but each ticket from Cliff era which I don’t have in my collection is valuable for me. 

Another ticket is one of my best …looking for that one for a long time. It comes from the concert that took place in Athens (Greece) during the summer tour Nowhere Else To Roam ‘93. It is a large, printed on hard paper and has a very interesting graphic design with two skulls. That same design can be seen on most concert posters from that Tour and on stage.  

Next interesting item is flyer from Turkish concert from Garage Inc. Tour 1999.

The last two items today are two tickets from 2014 South-American Metallica By Request.  Tour. Both from fairly exotic locations: Ecuador and Brasil. Exotic means for me: rare and hard to find. Since these two are in my collection, I’m looking for only one ticket from that tour – ticket from Chile. By the way, thanks a lot for these gems to my Chilean connection - Rodrigo. Thank You my Friend.

Ticket from Ecuador

and Brasil

Bordello bum-bum - Milan 2015

“A year without Metallica concert is a lost year” - for several years (with few exceptions) this was my motto,  I manage to accomplish. It is also the name of the group on Facebook, which brings together people do not imagining year without a Metallica concert. When the band began to announce European dates it became clear that I need to decide where I going this year. Initially I had to go to Vienna but have been back twice on the Metallica concerts, so I decided that this must be the place where I have never been – Milan, Italy. I must admit that I was worried a little hot weather especially, I did not win “on stage” contest or meet & greet with the band and that meant standing in the sun for several hours. But fuck it, this is METALLICA.

Visconti Family crest

After a quick trip through the main attractions of Milan, and compulsory ice cream, pizza and coffee showed up in the parking lot at the Forum Mediolanum when Gojira began concert.  At this point, I would like to write something about the organization of the concert.  I called it - bordello bum-bum ... I think that only Poles know and understand what I mean. In short, it can be described as total chaos. Of course, not everything was shit - service handed out bottled water and watered not only the first rows of what at + 34°C was a real blessing. 

I'm coming

Shortly before Messugah concert it turned out that I will have the opportunity to be the second time on stage. Without going into details of how it happened, I would like to THANK the entire  Polish gang with which it became possible. Piotr, Kasia, Dora, Łukasz i Adrian – MANY THANKS

Gojiraaaaaa

In Milan, unlike a year earlier in Warsaw (where I was on stage) fans standing on the stage directly behind the band along the stage and not along the sides. From the point of view of fans it was a much more attractive solution ... especially for those standing in the first row like our Polish gang. The concert itself was insane. High five with band members, talking with them were not uncommon, let me just say that my friends had even more luck. Musically, do not even bother me that the vocal was difficult to hear - setlist rewarded all. I do not remember such a good setlist for a long time. King Nothing was highlight for me ... and only regret that the band did not play the whole of my favorite Bliztkrieg.

The best place on earth

Polish Gang - You are the Best

Polish Gang. Photo credit Francesco Castaldo

Another ticket, wristbands and pick to the collection became a reality. No poster from concert this time but frankly I have not seen even one Metallica poster in Milan. Very strange. I heard that at a concert or even on the stage were several members of TMCC. I was able to meet only Alfredus while waiting to enter the scene. I just wanna say - Thank You Alfredus for restoring my faith in another man, when You tried for more than an hour to convince the staff to let backstage people who were entitled to be.  I think most people would think at this point about themselves. About Staff, they did not have even a sheet pass and behaved as if nothing understand or did not want to understand. Just bordello bum-bum.

All picks directly from Rob

Blitzkrieg 97

Today, three tickets from Metallica European concerts in 1997. They were the only concert that summer in Europe to a wider audience. It is true that the band played several gigs in small clubs during Re-Load Promo Tour but they were promotional gigs before the release of the Re-Load album. It was a real Metallica live blitzkrieg - band played three concerts in three days in a row - just a weekend getaway. Metallica adequately to the situation called this mini-tour - Blitzkrieg 97. So the summer of 1997 You could see the band at Pukkelpop Festival in Hasselt (Belgium), Blindman's Ball Festival in Stuttgart (Germany) and Reading Festival (United Kingdom). It was the first visit Metallica on each of these three festivals. The concert in Stuttgart was fully registered and video from show was a part of the Fan Can # 3. On each of these concerts the band played four songs from the Load album (King Nothing, Hero of the Day, Ain’t my Bitch, Until it Sleeps). I personally would like to make these songs again returned to the current setlist. Are these times I'll ever come back?. Besides ticket from Stuttgart on the other two tickets no mention about Metallica, which is common when it comes to festival tickets.

Damaged Justice Tour - Germany 1988

In 1988 Metallica started monstrous Damaged Justice Tour to promote …And Justice For All album. The tour started in Europe a concert in Budapest (Hungary) September 11, 1988. During the European leg of Tour Metallica played in October and November ten concerts in Germany. Concert promoter rose to the challenge and designed a beautiful series of tickets, which I call “guitar shape tickets”. In the last week I managed to be the holder of the last two tickets from this set and now the entire German ten is in my possession. "Guitar shape series" includes only seven tickets. I do not know whether the remaining three concerts in Munich, Saarbrucken and Stuttgart also were tickets in the shape of a guitar. Maybe someone has information about this?. The remaining three tickets are also very cool. This increases their value is the fact that on the tickets from Munich and Stuttgart was printed the name of the album "... And Justice For All", which was quite rare in those days. I am even willing to venture to say that these are the only two tickets with the print.

Below all ten tickets from my collection.

All "guitar shape" series

Below some concert posters from that Tour. Notice that none of them in contrast to the tickets are mine. All scans stolen from net. Owners - Please forgive me ;)

Abowe typical one show poster from German Tour. Posters of all concerts were the same. They differed only in details as the name of the city and the hall, date, etc.

Nice Tour poster but this is not a poster which can be found on the streets. Below date and venues details

Huge, mean very huge (aprox. 170x60 cm) promo poster. I think this one hung in one of the music stores somewhere in Germany

On stage with Stones

In 2005, Metallica played two unusual concerts. Why unusual?. Firstly, the band played as a support, and at that time Metallica for more than 10 years had megastar status and probably did not play a single concert as a support (the last time on the route of the Guns 'N Roses in 1992). Second, and here we come to the clue of the case – they played before the Rolling Stones. I'm not entirely sure what guided the band in decision about playing these concerts. Perhaps someone from the management thought it would be crossing the next border ... you know ....Guys, You will be on one stage with the famous Stones. Perhaps the band after ended a year earlier monster Madly in Anger with the World Tour would warm the bones - I might add that these were the only two shows that Metallica played in 2005. The fact is that the atmosphere at the concerts was not too heavy and even behind the scenes at times strange. There is also the fact that tickets for the concert cost more than twice as much as a ticket to a concert of Metallica year earlier. You had to paid mainly for the Stones on the bill.

What is important that during the first concert on November 13 for the first time ever Metallica played live Orion !!!. Second, that I just became a happy owner of both tickets. It was not easy but in the end it worked. Many Thanks Buzz.

Stones and Metallica on one stage

concert t-shirt (front)

..and back